Can Vettel pop open the championship champagne bottle already in Singapore?

Over the past 3 years, 300 million television viewers worldwide witnessed a spectacular view of cars racing past historical landmarks and modern skyscrapers under a canopy of stars and some 1500 hundred lighting projectors illuminating the Marina Bay street circuit.

It is the worlds only Formula One night race and Singapore celebrates the three day event in full fanfare.
Come next week, this dramatic race set against the backdrop of heritage buildings, iconic modern architecture and a glowing city skyline, will once again enthral crowds with a unique combination of sights, sound and an electric atmosphere at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.Witness first-hand Formula One cars racing on public roads at exhilarating speeds of up to 300km/h. The 5.073km Street Circuit presents a riveting combination of long straights and challenging turns, a stern examination even for the finest drivers.

Singapore The City Of Firsts

Singapore, as a city of firsts, hosted the world's first F1 night race last year and is still the host city of the only F1 night race, making it one of the most exciting races in the season.
The race is complemented by the 10-day Singapore GP Season, offering lifestyle and entertainment experiences including all-night parties, art exhibitions, great Asian cuisine and retail promotions.

The F1 championship has entered its final stages where there is only 4 races left to go and things are really hotting up at the top of the Championship table.
But not only the race track will be hot. For the first time "F1 Rocks™" will fuse the world's most popular annual sporting series with the most iconic and hot music stars to create an unrivalled experience for F1 and music fans alike. "F1 ROCKS Singapore with LG" spans three days from September 24th-26th, adding to the uniquem F1 night-time grand prix weekend.

Thursday September 24th: Jacky Cheung - A Mei - Da Mouth

Friday September 25th: ZZ-Top - No Doubt - N*E*R*D


Saturday September 26th - Beyonce - Black Eyed Peas

It can't get any hotter

Since last weekend a lot of activities are already happening. Strolling along Orchard Road you already can feel the tension and excitement. Many stalls are set up with F1 merchandise items and here and there you're able to spot first fans dressed up in their favorite teams colors.

It was Chocolate last year this year it's all Bread!

Maybe you remember last year's race car made of 90kg chocolate by the Chefs of Royal Paza on Scott's.

This year it's "Asia's First and Largest Life-sized Bread Race Car!"

The Culinary Executive Chef led a team of 6 chefs, 2 artists, 2 technicians, 2 culinary staff and 5 young volunteers from Metta Welfare Association to create this unique bread race car in support of Community Chest Singapore.
These are the 22 different breads used for the car:

Hard Roll-Curry Roll-Onion Roll-Ceral Rolls- Dark Sour Rye Bread- Country Bread- Soya Bread- French Baguette- Wholemeal Baguette- Sesame Kaiser Roll- Laugen Snadwich- Focaccia Bun- Rustico Baguette- Farmer Bread- Squid Ink Focaccia Bread- Swiss Farmer Bread- Soft Bun- Chinese Bun- Milano Grain- Ciabatta Bread, Honey Milk Bread,- Potato Bread
The team spent S$15,000 and took 549 hours to assemble the life-sized race car. They used a total of 15 kg of yeast, 14 litres of water, 2 kg of salt and 10800 ml of food varnish! The completed car is made up of 1,000 loaves!
Squid Ink Focaccia Bread was used for the tyres.


BREAD TORQUE! is raising funds for Metta School under the care of Community Chest. You can participate in doing a good deed through:
1) Purchasing the scale-model chocolate race cars, made of fine edible chocolate at Gourmet Carousel at S$29.90 each. Freshly-baked cookies, Turbo Choc Chip (Inside-out chocolate chip flavour) and Hot Wheels (Walnut flavour), are also available at S$2.80 each. S$5 from each sale of the scale-model chocolate race cars and S$1 from each sale of the cookies will be contributed to Metta School.
2) Purchasing a S$5 lucky draw ticket to take part in a charity drive for Metta School. There will be a draw on Wednesday, 23 September 2009, to pick the winner for the grand prize of a one-night stay in a newly-renovated Premiere Business Suite at RP, with breakfast for two, on Singapore Grand Prix weekend (26 – 27 September 2009) and a pair of walkabout 3-day pass for Singapore Grand Prix 2009, worth S$2,300. 3) Enjoying a sumptuous dinner at Gourmet Carousel as the hotel will donate S$2 for every adult dinner cover from 22 August to 19 September 2009.

Or you just go to view this amazing bread race car at "Royal Plaza On Scotts" lobby till 27 September 2009.

More photos at this Flickr photoset here.

Thousands Gather To Watch Solar Eclipse

Eclipse 2009 path in Asia

Scientists, students and nature enthusiasts gathered along the path of the sun where the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century would be visible.

Heavy cloud cover and overnight rains threatened to spoil the party at least in parts of India and Japan.

This eclipse - visible only in Asia - reached its peak in China at about 9.20am local time (2.20am GMT) .

In Singapore the eclipse was expected to only reach about 20% max. so the expectations were not very high. Besides that we had quite heavy rains since the morning therefore we mainly were able to look at dark clouds.

Check here photos from the live coverage on China's CCTV10:

Sudden pitch darkness at 9 am

Building and street lights had to be turned on
Thousands of Chinese were gathered to watch this eclipse, for most of them a once in a lifetime experience. I was very lucky to experience a total solar eclipse on August 11, 1999 - about 2pm in Austria. It was a kind of creepy feeling as suddenly the birds disappered from the sky and stopped singing. The nature seemed to have stopped breathing and suddenly it was competely dark. After a few minutes the birds were the frist ones to appear and flying again and everything was back to normal.
Big TV screens were set up for everyone to watch closely.

At its peak it was due to last for six minutes and 39 seconds in some parts of Asia which was the longest such eclipse since JUly 11, 1991, when a total eclipse lasing six minutes and 53 seconds was visible from Hawaii to South America.

Spectacular view

Japanese eclipse watchers were not lucky this time. In the shot from the live coverage spectators were seen in raincoats and to stay dry from the heavy rain.

Exorbitant Hotel Rates During F1 race !

It's a very thin ice Singapore hotels are walking at with their (way) overpriced hotel rates during the Formula One period. Of course they can argue using the demand and supply marketing rule, however hotel managers should make a quick research during the F1 races in Europe who are the majority of visitors.

And I beg to differ and not use Monaco as an example. Singapore is slowly becoming a world class city, no doubt, and to aim becoming like them is probably not bad as well, but Monte Carlo is still light years ahead in terms of being a fun city, night life and glamour.
Check it out how many celebrities do have second (3rd, 4th) homes in or around Monaco on this southern coastline of France! How many are visiting on a regular basis for summer holidays there that includes a visit -to be seen- during the race days. These guys are booking five and six star hotels and don't care about rates.

But think about it, do they come in thousands? Definitely not they are actually a minority.

So who is making the bulk of visitors, the tens of thousands needed? It's the 'ordinary' sports fan! But they do want or cannot afford these hotels, so they stay in Budget Hotels, B&B's, Pensions, etc. and in camper vans or tents around the Grand Prix cities.

This unfortunately is impossible in Singapore because there are no such facilities.

As a result many of that specific group of fans, may give Singapore a miss, maybe not in the first year since it's a new venue and the first F1 night race ever!

Therefore I fully understand the concern about soaring hotel rates by Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry) S. Iswaran.

This F1 race is not a "One Night Stand" it should become a "long term relationship" for visitors, so the first impression counts most. Don't shy them away being 'Kiasu' and rip them off at their first visit.

Please them, give them more than they expect and receive from other F1 sites. Show Singapore from it's best side ever, on and off the race track, create a memorable impression of our wonderful city state and they will return the following years and spread the positive message among their friends.

198 days to the F1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix

This year seams flying by faster than usually and I can't believe its only less than 200 days until the first night race ever will be started.

Wouldn't it be a great idea and opportunity for all overseas friends of Erich's Wuerstelstand and Singapore to combine a visit at Erich's ;-) and be part of the first night race in F1 history and the probably most spectacular Formula One Grand Prix of the year?

Today's Straits Times reports that there are still tickets available. Check out the official F1 webpage for more details.

The map below (+ pix above courtesy of ST) will give you an idea where the viewing areas will be built.

Don't wait to long to make a decision!
Race tickets and hotel rooms are selling fast!