Wednesday, July 05, 2006
The "F" act effect
F1, Football and Fireworks...
We had a crazy weekend to last week. 2 days off for Sat and Sun, then work on Mon, then off on Tue for Jul 4th. so what did we do?
Sat and Sun:
We decided to go to Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world for the F1 race, it was a weekend trip, there were 6 of us, and we had to return back by Sunday night. I had reserved the motel sometime back to save cost as motel rates had increased 3 fold for that day. We reached Indy at around 6 PM, and headed to our motel, and were surprised to find that the motel rates were reduced by half of our price! We checked in, and then realized we are in the wrong motel. The one I had reserved was right next to it! Decided to cancel that one, but was late, and they said they'll charge my credit card still, so we decided to cancel this one, and surprisingly she agreed!! We then realized that we were not the only ones to do that mistake. Every month, atleast 1-2 cases do the same thing, so it was ok.
Later that night, we went roaming around Indianapolis downtown, had dinner at one of the Desi restaurants there, did some timepass and then we were back to the motel at around 2 AM itself as we had to wake up early the next day for the race.
The next day, woke up around 8, got ready, and we checked out of our rooms by 10 and left for the Motor Speedway, luckily the traffic was not very high till the speedway and there was delay only at the Parking lots. Reached the place, met a few of my Infy buddies, bought some Ferrari stuff and we headed inside. The security was so cool we could never imagine! Only 1 place, they asked for tickets, we said there are 6 of us and showed them a bunch of tickets, and they let us in! No checking of bags also! and thats it, inside the gate also, there was no checking, just an old security guard standing in a corner!! was wondering whether I entered a stadium which had a crowd of 130K that day (which was quite less actually compared to the capacity) or a dollar theatre.
Anyway, it was a hot day and I did not have a cap, even the chilled drinks started boiling after a while! By then, the inaugural parades got completed and the cars started the warmup lap and then the race began exactly at 1 PM, our stand was near the 1st chicanes after the start line, so we waited in bated breath, and all the cars came...and crashed! 'Dene wala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phaad ke', they say...We were hoping for 1 crash near our stand, and we got a major one with 7 cars out, I guess F1 followers would have seen that race. i was lucky enough to capture Nick Heidfeld's car flipping in the air, and that snap is given below:
We were too excited to record that video (or maybe, it might have got recorded, havent seen the video still), but after that incident, the race was pretty much standard and finally, Schumi won the race quite easily, leading to celebrations among us and most of the crowd. In between, I managed to cpature a few videos with my digicam and have uploaded them on youtube. Here they are:
If they dont work, you can try the Youtube links given below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KSONW_b34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dfPHSbsaLQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjzw3vrU8JI
After the race, we relaxed for a while, and then headed back home. We stopped at Louisville,KY in the evening and decided to have an early dinner there at some Desi restaurant again, and we found a place called Cafe 360, we cud never have identified it, but found that thanks to the guy at a gas station who recommended that. Now, it doesnt look like an Indian restaurant, infact it is a fusion of American, Mexican and Indian. So we see Samosas, Paneer Tikka, burritos, Salads all in the same menu. But the best part? Chole Batura, even better than those available in most places in India!Batura itself was mildly spiced up with jeera and something else, the chole was also good. Definetely recommended if you travelling to Louisville. Details are given in the website.
By the time we reached back home, it was around 1.30 AM, and we headed off to sleep as we had to get back to work tomorrow. Overall, we had a great trip, full time fun, good race, met up old friends, total paisa vasool!
Mon:
Boring day at work, not much work, was sitting idly at office, went back home at 6, watched a few movies, had a friend b'day, so went to his place at 12, kicked his ass and splattered some cake, and came back home. just another day...
Tue:
July the 4th, the day America got its independence. Thought we'll clean the house and gain independence from the cockroaches, but was too lazy to do that. By the time i got ready, it was 3 PM and the Italy-Germany game had started, saw the game in the recreation room in our apartment complex, along with 40 odd people, most of them rooting for Italy, including me. And what a game that was!! 1st half was great, both teams equally good, 2nd half was dominated by Germany in the attacking section and Italy in the defending section, started to lose hopes looking at the way they played in that half. But overtime changed all that with 2 fantastic attempts in the 1st 2 minutes which could have made the end score 4-0, we had our fingers crossed till the end minutes, hoping for Italy to score a goal before penalty shootout (they have a bad record in penalties) and what a goal Grosso scored!! Superb!! and before the celebrations died out in the room, Del Piero came up with another goal with a superb pass by Gilardino! The writing was made, Italy through to the Finals, the hosts out! Interestingly, Italy has entered the Finals every 12 years since 1970. They lost in 1970, won in 1982, lost in 1994, and most likely, will win in 2006. Go Italy!!
Tue Night:
We went near downtown around 9.30 to watch the fireworks display. it was very good, not the best compared to places like NY, Chicago, but still it was good. Managed to capture a few pics and 2 videos of that. See them below:
And the videos:
And the Youtube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgHprvlTcbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ba0uELb2q8
Overall, the weekend was centered around the 3 "F"s, F1, Football and Fireworks and we enjoyed all 3 of them! Now waiting for the Finals and the next long weekend...
We had a crazy weekend to last week. 2 days off for Sat and Sun, then work on Mon, then off on Tue for Jul 4th. so what did we do?
Sat and Sun:
We decided to go to Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world for the F1 race, it was a weekend trip, there were 6 of us, and we had to return back by Sunday night. I had reserved the motel sometime back to save cost as motel rates had increased 3 fold for that day. We reached Indy at around 6 PM, and headed to our motel, and were surprised to find that the motel rates were reduced by half of our price! We checked in, and then realized we are in the wrong motel. The one I had reserved was right next to it! Decided to cancel that one, but was late, and they said they'll charge my credit card still, so we decided to cancel this one, and surprisingly she agreed!! We then realized that we were not the only ones to do that mistake. Every month, atleast 1-2 cases do the same thing, so it was ok.
Later that night, we went roaming around Indianapolis downtown, had dinner at one of the Desi restaurants there, did some timepass and then we were back to the motel at around 2 AM itself as we had to wake up early the next day for the race.
The next day, woke up around 8, got ready, and we checked out of our rooms by 10 and left for the Motor Speedway, luckily the traffic was not very high till the speedway and there was delay only at the Parking lots. Reached the place, met a few of my Infy buddies, bought some Ferrari stuff and we headed inside. The security was so cool we could never imagine! Only 1 place, they asked for tickets, we said there are 6 of us and showed them a bunch of tickets, and they let us in! No checking of bags also! and thats it, inside the gate also, there was no checking, just an old security guard standing in a corner!! was wondering whether I entered a stadium which had a crowd of 130K that day (which was quite less actually compared to the capacity) or a dollar theatre.
Anyway, it was a hot day and I did not have a cap, even the chilled drinks started boiling after a while! By then, the inaugural parades got completed and the cars started the warmup lap and then the race began exactly at 1 PM, our stand was near the 1st chicanes after the start line, so we waited in bated breath, and all the cars came...and crashed! 'Dene wala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phaad ke', they say...We were hoping for 1 crash near our stand, and we got a major one with 7 cars out, I guess F1 followers would have seen that race. i was lucky enough to capture Nick Heidfeld's car flipping in the air, and that snap is given below:
We were too excited to record that video (or maybe, it might have got recorded, havent seen the video still), but after that incident, the race was pretty much standard and finally, Schumi won the race quite easily, leading to celebrations among us and most of the crowd. In between, I managed to cpature a few videos with my digicam and have uploaded them on youtube. Here they are:
If they dont work, you can try the Youtube links given below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KSONW_b34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dfPHSbsaLQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjzw3vrU8JI
After the race, we relaxed for a while, and then headed back home. We stopped at Louisville,KY in the evening and decided to have an early dinner there at some Desi restaurant again, and we found a place called Cafe 360, we cud never have identified it, but found that thanks to the guy at a gas station who recommended that. Now, it doesnt look like an Indian restaurant, infact it is a fusion of American, Mexican and Indian. So we see Samosas, Paneer Tikka, burritos, Salads all in the same menu. But the best part? Chole Batura, even better than those available in most places in India!Batura itself was mildly spiced up with jeera and something else, the chole was also good. Definetely recommended if you travelling to Louisville. Details are given in the website.
By the time we reached back home, it was around 1.30 AM, and we headed off to sleep as we had to get back to work tomorrow. Overall, we had a great trip, full time fun, good race, met up old friends, total paisa vasool!
Mon:
Boring day at work, not much work, was sitting idly at office, went back home at 6, watched a few movies, had a friend b'day, so went to his place at 12, kicked his ass and splattered some cake, and came back home. just another day...
Tue:
July the 4th, the day America got its independence. Thought we'll clean the house and gain independence from the cockroaches, but was too lazy to do that. By the time i got ready, it was 3 PM and the Italy-Germany game had started, saw the game in the recreation room in our apartment complex, along with 40 odd people, most of them rooting for Italy, including me. And what a game that was!! 1st half was great, both teams equally good, 2nd half was dominated by Germany in the attacking section and Italy in the defending section, started to lose hopes looking at the way they played in that half. But overtime changed all that with 2 fantastic attempts in the 1st 2 minutes which could have made the end score 4-0, we had our fingers crossed till the end minutes, hoping for Italy to score a goal before penalty shootout (they have a bad record in penalties) and what a goal Grosso scored!! Superb!! and before the celebrations died out in the room, Del Piero came up with another goal with a superb pass by Gilardino! The writing was made, Italy through to the Finals, the hosts out! Interestingly, Italy has entered the Finals every 12 years since 1970. They lost in 1970, won in 1982, lost in 1994, and most likely, will win in 2006. Go Italy!!
Tue Night:
We went near downtown around 9.30 to watch the fireworks display. it was very good, not the best compared to places like NY, Chicago, but still it was good. Managed to capture a few pics and 2 videos of that. See them below:
And the videos:
And the Youtube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgHprvlTcbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ba0uELb2q8
Overall, the weekend was centered around the 3 "F"s, F1, Football and Fireworks and we enjoyed all 3 of them! Now waiting for the Finals and the next long weekend...
