time to spare a thought for the giant

The poor giant. He has been working so hard these past few months and has been looking forward to one thing this year- and one thing only. The Abu Dhabi Formula One.

We had a break mid year after he finished this massive deal he was working on and had planned to go to the F1 somewhere in Europe. We tried and tried but still couldn't make that dream a reality, so he was looking forward to the Abu Dhabi one so very much. Only 2 days prior, he was told he had to go to Japan for work. Cool? Yes. Missing qualifying laps would be ok. The plan was to be back on Sunday morning to get the last day in, however, as usual, he found out on Thursday that he won't be back until Tuesday. The poor man was shattered. A broken giant. I was happy he saw the glass half full at the possibility of seeing the Wallabies v Kiwis in Tokyo. He was happy too, but the giant, with no help from the Japanese, couldn't make that dream a reality. He finally got a couple of hours off after working day and night and travelled an hour to the stadium to watch the game. It was the first time in a week he's seen any of Japan. An excited giant he was, and excited too because he had bought some Saudi colleagues with him that were also looking forward to seeing their first live football match. But then it all fell apart. Apparently there wasn't enough technology in all of Japan to make any of his credit or debit cards work, nor his colleagues'. They could hear the cheering in the stands but weren't allowed in. Again a shattered giant. What is for certain is that the F1 is going to be on in Abu Dhabi next year for sure, so we're buying tickets in January.

So, like the good woman I am, I went to the F1 to live the dream for my other half. I know the giant reads my blog, so I won't rub it in too much, but it was an awesome two days. It would have been so much better if he was there- just for general giant company, a history lesson on the F1, to answer any of my in-depth F1 questions, to clarify who won...It kind of happened too quickly to follow (but don't tell the giant) and finally as always to reach things up high and see what's coming from up there. On the last day, a friend of ours came in place of Brendan. An entertaining, yet jetlagged substitute he was, however, he couldn't reach things much higher than me, so wasn't that much use when I needed someone tall to take some photos over the crowds. Regardless, I was so very happy to have a partner in crime for the day.

A friend's friend drove a minibus up to Abu Dhabi which is only about 45 minutes from our part of town. We arrived as a loud and rowdy convoy of Australians and went on operation 'lock-down tent'. The beat on the street was that it was a completely 'dry' affair, but we managed to find the silver lining... or the white lined tent to be exact.

I had never been to the F1 before, and couldn't believe how loud the cars were. I alsways knew they were loud but I didn't realise it would be deafening. As I was sitting in my seat (Line J, position 103-Now you see it?) I took a look around the crowds and found it so bizarre that one talks to each other- ironically its a silent spectators sport. No cheering, no chit chat, no booing, no hissing, just silence. I was silent for a whole hour at least. A shame the giant missed it.

The venue was a little bit 'The Middle East does Homebush Stadium', except for the multi-million dollar cruisers that docked around the track and watched from their boats. It was a pretty impressive track I thought. You know, because I had so many others to compare it to. It was reasonably well organised, however the papers reported a few logistical nightmares from the pre-race concerts on Thursday when everyone couldn't find their cars. So on Friday they decided to create coloured area codes, except the bus drivers were even more confused than we all were. Our mini-bus of fun was parked in Purple 23, however we couldn't find the purple section bus and so got on the 'Lilac' one. They must mean purple. There are too many more conventional colours they could have chosen before they would use 'Lilac'. We were wrong. We found this sign after. Can someone tell me why you'd use 'lime' instead of 'green'? What about the international tourists that may only be armed with their year 7 English skills? What about red, pink? After an hour and a half or so, we finally made it to the concert area. We had some Aussies on board who were doing chin-up competitions on the bus. A bit of pre-concert entertainment.

Noce numero uno: Kings of Leon, Noce numero dos: Aerosmith. Awesome. I told my mum this morning that I went to the Aerosmith concert last night and she said "who?"(see entry 'Another call from mum' for some background on the character that is my mum) As many of you know, I am not one for live music, except of course if its a Billy Joel or a Dixie Chicks concert. However, I loved it. To be honest with you, I don't really enjoy feeling the grooves of songs I don't know the words (or can't do actions to) and moreover for a 4 foot 11 inched young lass, I don't want to do so at someone's armpit height.

On the first night Kings of Leon wasn't crowded at all. I just stood back from the small crowd anyway, with about a metre clear around me, and a vodka red bull in tow. That's your dance space, this is my dance space (RIP Patrick Swayze). Aerosmith was a little different. It was a lot more crowded as not only did it attract a young crowd, but all the old aged pensioners (OAP) were out. They didn't do any harm, but I did have chuckle at some of the OAP dance moves. I can't really talk- they had more rhythm than me, even with their rickety hips and joints. Had a great two days. Just wished the giant was there too.