50th!

Just honouring the day our country gained it’s independence five decades back. Enjoy the air we are breathing now peeps for it has been a good 50 years.

Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race

Last Saturday, before heading to Putrajaya for fireworks we went for the Merdeka Millennium Endurance (MME) Race at the Sepang International Circuit as part of the Merdeka festivities. We reached there around 5pm and made entrance into the Grandstand for which initially was charged 50 cents per ticket, for FREE! It is that dirt cheap (which was awesome) because it was in conjunction with the celebration of our 50th year of nationhood. I wonder if it will be 51 cents next year

The endurance race, as it reads is a 12 hour motorsport event held to test the strength, determination and most importantly the stamina of the fellow racers on track. Teams of 3 will compete according to their categories and they were all flagged off at 11am and finishing twelve hours later at 11pm. The race is classified into four different classes which are Open for modified racing cars and A, B and C for different engine capacity road cars.

Photo cropped from its original image.

Sporting the special competition number 50, Petronas who is the sponsor of the event contested their brand new BMW Z4M Coupe, also numbered 50. For the good 2 hours spent at the Grandstand, this BMW has been leading the race as you can see from the pole position below. Trailing closely behind the BMW was a Porshe 911 followed by a Honda Civic if I’m not mistaken. We saw this Skyline which I reckon had tons of nitro tanks because the driver seemed to be firing its NOS almost everytime it sees a straight track.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure of the end result of the race because we left around 7 for dinner and to be in time to catch the fireworks display. The official website hasn’t seem to be updated yet, which is really funny because the databases shown were for the previous year’s race.

Nonetheless, I find the concept of the race really fascinating – Endurance!

What goes around comes around

Yesterday night, after watching the fireworks display by the Italian Team we headed off to the Euro Fun Fair. Our intention was actually to make good use of the time we have instead of getting ourselves sandwiched in between the massive loads of cars making their respective ways out of Putrajaya.

The RM5 entrance fee is exclusively as it reads, for the entrance purposes only. There are assorted rides in the compounds of the funfair like the ferris wheel, vortex, merry-go-round, top gun etc and a range of mini games whereby if you’re lucky enough, you walk away with an oversized, hugable soft toy. I reckon that the charges are pretty expensive but you can choose a ride or two of your favourite and we decided that it has to be non other than the irresistible ferris wheel.

Clarence and Chiu Lin, joined by a girl in pink on the left who posed for the cam

Jo with giant-spongebob and me

I saw a couple of guys and girls all geared with their trusty tripods outside the compounds of the FunFair shooting the swiveling ferris wheel. I decided to join em while the three of them went to get some drinks to quench their thirst. I just love the tripod sometimes, although it’d look really silly to deploy a 3-legged piece of equipment in the middle of such a crowded scene.

Riding on a ferris wheel has always given me a good feeling, that what goes around will come back around again. Even watching it as it goes round and round, rotating as it picks up yet another ferris wheel goer in its gondola offers the pleasure that meets the eye.

MIFC

Just a short update, recently there has been a series of beautiful fireworks performances lighting up the skies of Putrajaya in an event in conjunction with Malaysia’s 50th year of nationhood. We will all be able to witness not only the art of fireworks but also the musical and cultural experiences offered by the Australians, Italians, Japanese and our very own Malaysians during this prestigious event. Malaysia International Fireworks Competition or MIFC is held in the vicinity of the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) overlooking the Seri Gemilang bridge.

Can you can imagine how it’s like for a quiet town like Putrajaya to be suddenly flocked by thousands of people wanting to camp for the perfect spot so not to miss even a glimpse of the fireworks display? The news last weekend claimed that close to a 100,000 people turned up during it’s opening ceremony and I gotto tell you it’s true cos I was there myself.

Loved the colorful combination of the fireworks, from the outstanding work of art by the Australian Team today.

If you guys have time, do come over to Putrajaya to witness it for yourself. The fireworks display on the competition nights will be put up for 20 minutes duration and extended to 30 minutes for the grand finale on Sept 2nd. Among the highlights of this competition is shown as below. According to Daniel, the Italian team is good so I’d suggest you make your way here this Saturday.

Team Malaysia                     18th Aug
Team Australia                     22th Aug
Team Italy                             25th Aug
Team Japan                           30th Aug
Global/Pyrofest Canada       2nd Sept

For further info, check out its full schedule. For those who plan to come, remember to travel earlier otherwise you will be spending splendid moments of the fireworks warming up your car seat overlooking nothing but a series of horrifying traffic congestion – and go ftw! all the way back home ^_^

Be part of the 50th Merdeka!

Need a good laugh?

Before I find some time to really update my blog, do spend a minute or two of your time watching this video. It’s hillarious, trust me especially if you haven’t had any good laugh for a long while or if you find yourself utterly depressed today that you need a good laugh. The best thing is that you need not watch the entire video, prolly just the first 1-2 minutes will do to keep you rofl.

Enjoy hyenafying yourself. Cheers;)