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moonwiseI need to do a big update because my last post was on 6/21. That's kind of sad.
Update the first: our trip to the Canadian GP.
Let's see... where to start. We went up on Thursday for our usual trip to the Bridgestone Open House pit walkthrough, which my husband adores. After three years of the same stuff, I'm getting tired of going. Last year, there were a lot of cars brought through the crowd for tech inspection, but not this year; either the rain kept the crews from assembling cars, or else they were spooked by the free-for-all last year and decided to keep the cars away from the spectators.
We stayed at a different dorm at McGill this time. It was right across from the Metro, which was very nice, and our room was huge and looked out over Sherbrooke. The location spoke for a lot, because I can't say too many other nice things about our lodgings. We ended up on a floor with a bunch of asshole guys who did stuff like switch around the signs on the washrooms (one was supposed to be for women; they weren't interested in that) and there was a lot of smoking and drinking etc. My husband is death on smoking in general and won't tolerate the least amount of smoke; I'm less sensitive, but I still don't like it where I'm supposed to be sleeping. On the last day of our stay, we found out that the wankers had been harassing staff and had security called on them a couple times, so the staff told us they wouldn't be back.
The weather was better than last year, happily. There was some rain on Thursday, but after that, it was clear and warm for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday it was quite hot, but not as crushingly hot as last year. I only got a very small sunburn on the back of one arm where I must have missed with the sunblock.
We ate well, as usual. We returned to Le Caveau, a lovely and cozy French restaurant, and all I can say is that racegoers have no taste because the place was deserted. Our waitress was very friendly, and we found out by overhearing her (it was a slow night in the kitchen) that she was an opera singer. All in all, a pleasant evening, and we're two-for-three on free glasses of port from Le Caveau.
We also had a brush with stardom when we went out to Bistro Boris, a trendy spot in Vieux Montreal. The Ferrari team frequents a nearby hotel, and after dinner, we decided to hang out and see if lightning would strike twice (last year, we saw Michelle Yeoh and Jean Todt, the director of Ferrari.) We decided we'd wait around till eight, and at five of, who should walk out but THE SCHUM himself. Everyone cheered and yelled while he got into a blue 430 and roared off. A few minutes later, his teammate Felipe Massa came out of the hotel, and he got a polite cheer and a ride away in the back of the Vodafone minivan. Ouch. Later on we found the 430 outside Cavalli, the same swanky bar where we'd seen Kimi Raikonnen the year before.
There was a good bit of fun on race day when the kiddies were running in one of the F1 bush leagues - when you put a bunch of teenagers into fast cars and let them loose, they drive all over one another and go three wide into tight corners and spin out and do all kinds of silly things. On the last lap, two of them got into a tangle, and one of them managed to get himself loose and finish the race... in reverse. The crowd whooped and applauded, and I considered myself duly entertained.
The race itself was okay. Alonso had the pole, and he took the lead and kept it for most of the race. Kimi Raikonnen tried to challenge, but he never got anywhere, and he had a bad slide late in the race that cost him a lot of time. Schumacher managed second, but he slid around too. In the Hairpin section, where we sit, we noticed that a lot of marbles (tire bits, for those not familiar) appeared to be collecting in the curve, and cars were slipping left and right. When we got down on the track, we found out that the marbles weren't rubber at all, but bits of the track that were torn off by the cars' downforce. Someone did a shitty paving job, that's for sure. We found deep grooves in the pavement while walking the track - obviously the source of the asphalt.
All in all a good time, though I didn't sleep all that well due to our room overlooking one of the main drags in Montreal. There were a large number of Woo Girls (you know, the ones who hang out of the sunroof screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!") out carousing until late, and earplugs only helped so much. We drove home Monday through torrential rains, which had happily stayed south of Montreal until then.
Will probably go again next year, schedule permitting!
Update the first: our trip to the Canadian GP.
Let's see... where to start. We went up on Thursday for our usual trip to the Bridgestone Open House pit walkthrough, which my husband adores. After three years of the same stuff, I'm getting tired of going. Last year, there were a lot of cars brought through the crowd for tech inspection, but not this year; either the rain kept the crews from assembling cars, or else they were spooked by the free-for-all last year and decided to keep the cars away from the spectators.
We stayed at a different dorm at McGill this time. It was right across from the Metro, which was very nice, and our room was huge and looked out over Sherbrooke. The location spoke for a lot, because I can't say too many other nice things about our lodgings. We ended up on a floor with a bunch of asshole guys who did stuff like switch around the signs on the washrooms (one was supposed to be for women; they weren't interested in that) and there was a lot of smoking and drinking etc. My husband is death on smoking in general and won't tolerate the least amount of smoke; I'm less sensitive, but I still don't like it where I'm supposed to be sleeping. On the last day of our stay, we found out that the wankers had been harassing staff and had security called on them a couple times, so the staff told us they wouldn't be back.
The weather was better than last year, happily. There was some rain on Thursday, but after that, it was clear and warm for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday it was quite hot, but not as crushingly hot as last year. I only got a very small sunburn on the back of one arm where I must have missed with the sunblock.
We ate well, as usual. We returned to Le Caveau, a lovely and cozy French restaurant, and all I can say is that racegoers have no taste because the place was deserted. Our waitress was very friendly, and we found out by overhearing her (it was a slow night in the kitchen) that she was an opera singer. All in all, a pleasant evening, and we're two-for-three on free glasses of port from Le Caveau.
We also had a brush with stardom when we went out to Bistro Boris, a trendy spot in Vieux Montreal. The Ferrari team frequents a nearby hotel, and after dinner, we decided to hang out and see if lightning would strike twice (last year, we saw Michelle Yeoh and Jean Todt, the director of Ferrari.) We decided we'd wait around till eight, and at five of, who should walk out but THE SCHUM himself. Everyone cheered and yelled while he got into a blue 430 and roared off. A few minutes later, his teammate Felipe Massa came out of the hotel, and he got a polite cheer and a ride away in the back of the Vodafone minivan. Ouch. Later on we found the 430 outside Cavalli, the same swanky bar where we'd seen Kimi Raikonnen the year before.
There was a good bit of fun on race day when the kiddies were running in one of the F1 bush leagues - when you put a bunch of teenagers into fast cars and let them loose, they drive all over one another and go three wide into tight corners and spin out and do all kinds of silly things. On the last lap, two of them got into a tangle, and one of them managed to get himself loose and finish the race... in reverse. The crowd whooped and applauded, and I considered myself duly entertained.
The race itself was okay. Alonso had the pole, and he took the lead and kept it for most of the race. Kimi Raikonnen tried to challenge, but he never got anywhere, and he had a bad slide late in the race that cost him a lot of time. Schumacher managed second, but he slid around too. In the Hairpin section, where we sit, we noticed that a lot of marbles (tire bits, for those not familiar) appeared to be collecting in the curve, and cars were slipping left and right. When we got down on the track, we found out that the marbles weren't rubber at all, but bits of the track that were torn off by the cars' downforce. Someone did a shitty paving job, that's for sure. We found deep grooves in the pavement while walking the track - obviously the source of the asphalt.
All in all a good time, though I didn't sleep all that well due to our room overlooking one of the main drags in Montreal. There were a large number of Woo Girls (you know, the ones who hang out of the sunroof screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!") out carousing until late, and earplugs only helped so much. We drove home Monday through torrential rains, which had happily stayed south of Montreal until then.
Will probably go again next year, schedule permitting!
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Date: 2006-07-05 06:22 pm (UTC)