Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2013: Day 3 & 4

After a good start, last weekend got too busy for me to do an update on days three and four, and here we are again at another weekend.

In summary days three and four were fantastic. In reality it's easier to follow qualifying and the race on television, but nothing quite beats the sight of the cars, the scream of the engines, and the smell of burning rubber. We all watched at some point over the weekend, and Archie in particular enjoyed himself. It did help that I was able to download an app which had a virtual representation of the track, with dots going round it (in almost real time, maybe 5 seconds delay) representing all the drivers. This meant Archie could watch his favorite driver, Jenson Button, on the app, and look up at the right point to watch him passing us by.

Mind you, Henry was the big winner. His friend's dad is senior in one of the hotel groups here and had a number of "spare" tickets in the main grandstand overlooking the start / finish line. So Henry spent both days in there, with one of the best views on the circuit. I'm not jealous at all!!

As well as the racing I went to the Muse concert, and Jo, cousin Pete and myself went to see Depeche Mode on the final evening. Both concerts were fantastic, Muse was the better of the two in my opinion, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Depeche Mode - they teased us with newer stuff before playing some of the classic hits.

That's Muse, honest, or maybe it's Depeche Mode.

After such a hectic weekend it was hard to drag myself into work on Monday but I just about managed. It's been a busy four days, mainly spent responding to proposal requests which seem to be coming in thick and fast at the moment, often with very short timescales (makes some of deadlines I had at PwC positively relaxed). These timescales can be even more pressured when you have to send the request to a local typing office to be translated from Arabic to English so you know what you are actually bidding for, and then you have to build in time to have the proposal translated from English to Arabic before you submit it.

This weekend is shaping up to be another busy one. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Dubai for a night, Jo and the kids first visit. We have a packed programme, including:

• A trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa, which Archie has been desperate to do since he arrived in the UAE.
• A visit to the Dubai Motor Show to see some of the new supercar models.
• Watching a Car Parade round the roads of Dubai, apparently there are more than 500 cars taking part with a combined value of a ridiculous number of millions of dirhams. The procession is being led by Dubai Police who seem to have one of every super car you can imagine in their fleet.
• Attending the "Red Bull Car Park Drift Final", which apparently is lots of cars skidding round a course in a car park, making as much noise as possible, and creating as much smoke as they can from their tyres.
• Watching the fountains at Dubai Mall, which are meant to be spectacular.

Just looking at that list suggests we are becoming petrol heads doesn't it!? I think we'll have a break from cars for a while after this weekend.

The weather should be fine for all that though. It is definitely getting cooller, indeed the forecast on the radio on the way home from work predicted "a cold weekend, with the temperature unlikely to get above 29 degrees centigrade"!

I'll be back next week to let you know how it all went.

Thanks for reading.

 

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Jay Z Concert: Review

Due to popular demand (ie: Cal!), please find below Henry's review of last night's concert, as posted on Instagram.

He does seem to have had a great evening, despite Mr Z (that is his name isn't it?) arriving on stage 40 minutes late, a broken generator delaying things for a further 20 minutes, and complete traffic chaos getting home. But aren't those all required ingredients of a great concert experience!?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a more grown up concert this evening, Muse. Unfortunately I'm being abandoned by everyone else as they don't know good music when they hear it, and would rather go out and get drunk ;).

 

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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2013: Day 2

Relaxing after day two of the Grand Prix weekend. It's been another great day. We started with Friday Brunch at a hotel near the circuit. It was an Indian Restaurant where you could order whatever you wanted off the menu, and keep on ordering until you burst. We did our best to achieve this goal!

At the end of lunch Archie, Flossie and I left the others in the bar and headed off to get the bus to the Circuit, pausing only to admire the line up of cars outside the hotel.

We quickly found our seats in the North Grandstand, and were very pleased with the view we had. We can see a good proportion of the circuit, the cars are in view for about 30 seconds which is great.

We enjoyed watching the cars for half an hour or so. The ear protectors proved very useful, I'd expected it to be loud but it was incredible, apparently you could hear it from our compound. Flossie spent the time trying to work out which was Jenson Button's car, and as we were leaving announced that he had won the race. I'm not sure she really understood what was going on!

It was soon time to rotate the tickets so the others could have a go. Archie and Flossie headed off home with Jo in a taxi, and Pete, Henry and I headed back into the circuit. We managed to secure a couple of wristbands to get Henry and his friend into the Jay-Z concert this evening, and then watched the final 20 minutes of the practice session.

We left the Circuit thinking it was going to be a nightmare finding Henry's friend, Rhys, before the concert, but actually he was waiting right outside the gate with his mum. They soon disappeared looking forward to their first concert, and a night of freedom. Rhys's Mum and Dad were then kind enough to give Pete and I a lift home. All in all a great day.

Anyway, time to relax for a little while before bed. Thanks for reading as always.

 

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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2013: Day 1

We've been looking forward to this weekend since we arrived in Abu Dhabi. Archie and I because we've got tickets for the Grand Prix, Jo and Flossie because Cousin Pete has come to visit, and Henry because he is hoping to see Jay-Z in concert.

We've splashed out and got two tickets in one of the grandstands for the whole weekend, with cousin Pete having a third ticket. The race itself is late afternoon Sunday, but the tickets also give us access to practice, qualifying and a number of support races.

The tickets also gave us access to the Pit Lane Walk yesterday afternoon. I finished work early and Archie and I headed off to do the walk as soon as he finished school.

Archie in Pole Position

We really enjoyed being up close to the cars, and whilst we didn't see any of the drivers we did see lots of interesting things, and Archie asked lots of questions.

One of the best moments was when one of the teams decided to practice their pit stop technique as we passed. We watched for a few minutes, Archie was impressed with how quick they did it, but the noise was a bit of a shock to him!

After the walk, Jo and Flossie picked us up and we headed home for some trick or treating. It seems to have been a fairly big event on the compound, with one of the villas in particular being well decorated.

After trick or treating it was time to collect Cousin Pete from the airport. He didn't know we were going to do this, so it was a nice surprise for him when he walked through the meet and greet area.

After that it was back home for a bite to eat, and a relaxing few hours on the roof terrace.

Today we are going to a hotel near the circuit for brunch, and then later this afternoon some of us will go and catch some of the second practice session. We will also endeavor to get Henry and his friend wrist bands so they can go and see the after race concert this evening. Tonight it is Jay-Z, tomorrow Muse, and Sunday Depeche Mode. Access to the concerts comes free with the race tickets, we just have to ensure the right people get the wristbands you need to get in.

Thanks for reading as always.

 

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