Jewelle Tan Personally

Of course you didn’t think that they men would attend the Singapore Motor Show and snapped only the cars right?

In fact, when I went through the collective pictures taken by all the men in all the cameras, I think they took as many car pictures as they did the car accessories a.k.a the “babes” as they liked to call these women who were paid to stand and strut around show cars.

From the pictures, I could tell that the men spent a lot of time at the Subaru stand.

Either that, or this stand really did feature a lot more models than the other stands. I counted that there were at least 8 women who strove to make Subaru cars looked even more appealing.

Remember the F1 car which I featured in the previous post - which I had managed to edit and upload without seeing the logo at the front?

Of course, it’s a Honda car and here is the classy - the classiest among all the other models there that I could see from the pictures - Honda babe.

Don’t you just wonder sometimes what kind of motivation or satisfaction does this job gives to the women when you know that men are simply ogling their body, snapping photos after photos of them not knowing where those photos will end up?

Sometimes you just have to admire how even with these in mind, the women can still offer their best smiles and some even their most alluring poses.

Do you really think that their presence is really to enhance the look of a car? I think they are more of a “side dish” because most of the time, unattractive cars do not get “hot” women like these standing over them, have you noticed?

I’m sure not all of these models were thrilled to be THE subject of the photographers’ and even standing by what is surely one of the coolest ride in the whole show is not enough to make this Lamborghini Diablo’s woman offer the expected poses and looks.

Of course when you think about the directions of those camera lenses and those eyes who were definitely not paying the slightest attention to the car you’re standing by, it can be hard be friendly…

And I wonder who enjoys these kind of adorations more : models fresh in the industry or a seasoned pro.

Because you know that the car might as well not be there and the camera will still keep clicking.

See what I mean by the women need not be standing by any cars and yet the camera will still follow them?

I sure hope these women are paid high enough to subject themselves to this kind of fulltime attention.

I still wish that these kind of Motor Shows will feature not only women models but also men models - as women buys cars too.

As for the Singapore Motor Show 2008, this is definitely my favorite “model”.

Too bad he was the cardboard type.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Perhaps one of the most unique culture in Brunei during Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the open house tradition by the Royal Family.

Every year for 3 full days, the Sultan of Brunei together with his wives, children and siblings will open their main residence, Istana Nurul Iman for everyone to come and greet the ruler and his family.

I joined the group of well wishers which numbered up to 40,000 persons per day a few years ago when a couple of my friends visited us in Brunei during Hari Raya.

However, it was my husband and a select few of his friends who rarely missed this annual pilgrimage and this year, he was able to take some decent pictures after much persuasion from me.

Because the number of visitors are unbelievably large (20,000 persons in morning sessions - imagine!), visitors with vehicle would be allocated a special parking area a little away from the Palace from where they would board a bus that will take them to the entrance.

This year, visitors were required to fill up an information form to be exchanged with a box of goodies at the end of the session.

The first thing that visitors do when they entered the Palace is to help themselves to the buffet spread. I was told that it seemed to be the norm for many of the visitors to pile their plate so high with food and then to simply leave them uneaten.

In short, greedy and wasteful.

Eating has to be done quickly as they then had to queue up towards the hall where the respective Royal Family will be waiting.

Male visitors will get to greet the male Royal Family and female visitors will greet the female Royal Family in two separate halls.

The wait can be long and this morning, the men waited for 2 hours from the time they finished their meal until the time they finally shook hands with the Sultan and his family.

Once this is over, visitors will get a goodies box filled with biscuits, chocolates, chips and drink - much to kids delight (who will also get a packet of money).

This year, the goodies were packed in a bag-like cardboard box unlike previous years when it used to be a plastic container.

From my personal experience, I find it amazing that despite having to stand for several hours shaking the hands of tens of thousands of visitors, the Queen was still able to smile and once in a while ask short questions.

Now what other country rulers do this for 3 whole days greeting a total of 100,000 visitors!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Not only did the men came back with loads of pictures of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2008 and Singapore Motor Show 2008, they also made Singapore a little bit richer with some goodies.

There were apparently many stalls that sells official merchandises and keepsake items which were thronged by all those who attended the race.

First of all, there were these Survival Kit which consists of a pair of ear plug - a must have when you are by the circuit (F1 cars are reportedly as loud as a jumbo jet taking off!) - and a poncho which fortunately was left unused.

These Kits were sold at a minimum of $2 per pack and because it’s for charity, folks were encouraged to give more.

Then there were the tee shirts.

Official team shirts cost from $45 and upwards with the Ferrari shirts being the most expensive.

However, not even the glamour of wearing an official Ferrari shirt can make lukewarm fans fork out $100+ when it’s country of production was, to put it mildly not worth the price.

So instead, the men decided to go for a relatively cheaper (a little less than $100) team shirts that was at least made in China. And their choice was the McLaren Mercedes.

Not content with that, keepsake shirts were also happily purchased to make sure that they and everyone else remember that they attended the first ever Singapore F1 Grand Prix.

After all, that’s the point of spending on over-priced shirts with nothing extra special except those little wordings and labels right?

I wonder how much revenue did Singapore made from the sale of merchandise alone.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Unlike the men’s near perfect review of the Singapore Grand Prix, the biennial Singapore Motor Show which was held on the same weekend did not quite meet the expectation of these motor show fans.

In fact, they gave it a “LOUSY!” verdict with one thumb down.

Perhaps the ticket price which was originally priced at S$8 and was later reduced to S$6 was a early indication that only a few major auto companies would be taking part with a glaring absence of popular and much looked forward to brands such as the Toyota, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

And what I think was the car they were expecting to see : the Audi R8.

The saving grace was perhaps the appearance of a the Nissan GT-R which was a source of an interesting issue in the country a while back when second hand car dealers brought in several units at $160K+ to the chagrin of the authorised dealer - who according to my sources have yet to bring in a single “authorised” unit.

Fantasise only please!

Looks wise, I see nothing spectacular about this car except for the fact that it is selling for more than half a million (reportedly RM650K!) in Malaysia and there are folks who think nothing of spending on such ridiculous amount of money! And currently, there are supposedly 3 units in the small town of Miri (Sarawak, Malaysia).

And here are most of the cars featured at this year’s Singapore Motor Show :

This is something which my husband took at the Subaru stand and while it means nothing to me, I’m sure motor fans can appreciate the “beauty” of it.

Feel free to guess what car this came from

I’m not sure if there were really no other SUVs featured in this show or the men were really too dazzled with the sports sedan than they only managed to see this Nissan Murano.

This is not a very flattering angle of a car that is, in my opinion, too squashed looking. Perhaps when they come up with a facelift - and a taller body - I might be able to say that this is a good looking car to drive.

Of course, with the Singapore F1 GP happening at the same time, it’s expected that a model F1 car would be on display too.

I have no idea what team this is from…

And here are some more of the displays featured :

There are some cars on special displays such as this Lamborghini.

And this special Lotus Elise dubbed the “sQuba” which was a fantasy made into a reality by car designers who were inspired by the famous scene in “The Spy Who Loved Me” where James Bond drove his car underwater.

This is supposedly a submarine-car prototype that cost 1 million Euro and is not currently planned for mass production.

With this I’m sure you can guess what my next post is going to be - so stay tune for the other Singapore Motor Show attractions.

**Update : And here it is : Singapore Motor Show 2008 GIRLS!

Popularity: 21% [?]

“IT WAS EXCITING!“

Said with multiple exclamation points was the feedback that I received from my husband and his friend who attended the first F1 Singapore Grand Prix that had just ended spectacularly last weekend.

And this was their verdict for the Qualifying Night on Saturday as they missed out on the sold-out Race Night tickets.

The Qualifying Night ticket which came in a very informative box

Even the Qualifying Night ticket was already so keepsake worthy!

I could just imagine how much more exhilarating the Race Night atmosphere was when the Qualifying Night could already trigger such reactions from men who are more contented to catch the race from the comfort of the sofa. Qualifying Night is is basically the time when each car will attempt to record their fastest time which determines their grid position during the actual race.

For the 40,000 visitors who reportedly arrived in Singapore to catch this historic night time street race, I’m sure it was a trip well worth the money with unpredicted suspense such as what was perhaps the most dramatic split-second error :

Everything started smoothly for Massa, the pole-sitter quickly building a lead over title rival Lewis Hamilton. But at his first pit stop disaster struck. He was given the green light too early and left with the fuel hose still attached to his car. (Read in full)

Which not only robbed the likely winner his podium but fans could witness how the immense advances in technology and safety used in this kind of motor sports could avert even worse disaster when you have 20+ super cars racing at the speed of up to 360 km/h on narrow lanes!

Of course, the problem with watching a race where the standard speed is triple a normal car’s fastest speed is that unless you’re at certain location where the cars either stop (pit lane) or slows down, what you’ll get is blink-an-eye-and-it’s-gone kind of moment.

This was even though the spectators’ area is a mere few metres away from the circuit.

See how close you can get to the track?

So unless you have one of those super cameras, don’t dream of getting a sharp shot of a moving car.

The only shot my husband got with a speeding car

And while the cars will pass by in blurs, what you can count on is the revving engine noise which could be heard even a few kilometres away. I can vouch for the loudness as my husband recorded the sound when he was one kilometer away and it was still LOUD (F1 cars are as loud as 130 decibels or 10,000 times normal conversations or a jumbo jet taking off!).

I now wonder if the noise could penetrate the few hotels (Swissotel The Stamford, Marina Mandarin, Pan Pacific, Mandarin Oriental and Ritz Carlton) which are just besides the Marina Bay circuit because I would like to experience the excitement from the comfort of a hotel room next year.

Those of you who attended this event, how was your experience?

Popularity: 15% [?]