full disclosure

I have constant butterflies in my tummy and I feel like peeing in my pants! TMI? :D

F1 IS BACK! It's SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS this weekend!

I don't want to get too excited lest I am completely downtrodden and disappointed come Monday morning but I'm just so happy, ecstatic, excited, elated that we are going racing again and it's Kimi's best circuit. Now, of course, I am trying to temper the expectations. So many things are coming into play with the weather being a worrying factor as much as the updates other teams have brought. I'm hoping whatever new thingamabobs are added on/attached to the E-20, it will propel Kimi to the front of the pack, allow him to stay there so he can be get his fifth win at SPA. Is this really too much to ask for?!?!?!?

Ok, muahs, off to stalk Planet F1 forum :D

retro chic

I was reading a fashion magazine published in my Homeland and came across a feature on shopping deals found online. One of the featured sites caught my attention prompting me to have a look. A look turned into a get :D

I found the dress so appealing. It's totally got a retro vibe which considering my bohemian sinsibilities, I completely fell in love with it. Also, the site had a cash rebate offer for first-timers where you get the equivalent of USD6 off of purchases USD25 and above. The dress cost roughly USD32 after forex conversion but with the cash rebate, it goes down to $28. I thought that was a good enough reason to try out the site :)

The site offers various products, not just apparel but shoes, beauty products and accessories as well. It caters for both men and women as well as kids. This e-tailer carries products by local as well as international brands. For example, my dress is from the international brand Your Runway. Honestly, never heard of 'em before this but I like this one dress enough to purchase it so that's a good start on the whole brand awareness thing. Best part is the company promises free delivery within 2 business days which is a service I find admirable. Ok, 2 business days for locally sourced items and between 5-7 days for international brands. Let's see them deliver on that promise first before further praise is lavished. And that's that.

One last, image of dress screen capped via the site. Also, if it's not clear, since the site address has my Homeland suffix, I am choosing not to reveal the address since I have a very high privacy policy. I get that having a public blog defeats/negates the whole privacy issue but I am the way I am :)

casually browsing What The Frock site when.....

I was catching up on my fave sites, going through old posts and came across one of her post entries re: Fashion Inspirations. She was talking about the colour plum and burgundy and I was looking at some of the images in this post when I came across her selection of fave burgundy pieces she found online......

That's the Cynthia Rowley bag I got off of 6pm.com! I put a square red box just for emphasis! This is likely the second time she's featured something I actually own on her site, albeit unbeknownst to her. Hehe, I was rather excited to see the bag as her pick. Kinda affirms my purchase as a good buy. I'd been second-guessing the bag after I had gotten it, thinking my sister would surely say it's very "old lady". No insult/offence meant to actual old ladies :D

I really do admire her sense of style and 99% of the time I love how she's put things together. She's given me great styling tips ever since I discovered her site way back in 2009/2010...? I forget exactly which year but I did blog about her. Anyways, image was screen capped from her blog.

this guy annoys me immensely

I mean, seriously, do you have nothing better to do than post stupid, irritating little comments like this. In the forum's official driver's thread?!?!?! It's obvious to me the prick wants to instigate a Kimi fandom meltdown and I wouldn't be surprised if some fans do take the bait. I don't get this guy, he constantly does this - bait Kimi fans with his little snarky, know-it-all comments. But anything Fernando Alonso does is beyond reproach. What an asshole!

Well, now I'm going to pray real hard that Fernando Alonso suffers a DNF at SPA so it'll shut his troll little mouth! OMG, this is getting insane, this break - it's too long and too many people with too much time on their hands are thinking too hard. Myself included. At least I'm honest enough to admit it :)

woohoo, shipment on the way!

Just got my shipping confirmation update from comGateway with my tracking number. Stuff usually arrives Monday but the projected ETA I received was 15/08 but I think they were just giving some leeway. Had my stuff shipped to my home address instead of the office cos I don't want my things to get held up. My sister's shipment is being kpt at DHL because comGateway made an error on the invoice for one of her packages listing the product value at USD2k++. I know! The customs taxed her about 250 dollars and DHL paid it without consuting her so she is trying to get comGateway to sort out their mistake. I have my Sephora, Opensky and ELF stuff in that shipment. Kinda need it since my ELF foundation is finished. Yup, that mineral foundation I got in the ELF starter kit about 3 months ago, that's gone. See, I may buy tons but I actually do finish the stuff :D So I'd really like to get my hands on my foundations in the ELF package not to mention as well the Bare Escentuals kits I got from Sephora. Sigh. I hope my shipment arrives without a hitch....

gosh, i'm suffering from F1 withdrawal....

I am feeling so bummed. The Spa race can't come fast enough. Man, there's still a ways to go considering we're not into the double digits of August.

Further compounding my mental state is the fact that work has been non-stop stress for the past 2 months - I seriously don't think my nerves can take anymore of it. I have a 2 week holiday upcoming and the way things are looking right about now, I'm most likely going to have to remain connected during my time off. My flight homeard bound is early saturday morning. I'll likely have the weekend as a reprieve but come the start of the working week, will most surely need to be attached at the hip with my Blackberry. Technology really sucks in times like this! There's just no excuse to go off the grid!

At least there's an epi of Deadliest Catch this week. One of their "behind-the-scenes" show. Along with another episode of Hillstranded - yay for some extra Hillstrand viewing time! I dunno if this means anything or nothing but I noticed Andy Hillstrand has not been wearing his wedding ring. Since sometime last year, roundabout August/September 2011 I guess. Lol, well, I actually noticed he was sans ring when I watched an ep of DC this season and I was like, "Woah, where's his wedding ring?" but didn't read much into it. Then I was looking at some DC-related forum and someone actually brought it up which rekindled my curiosity. So I actually went on a hunt to figure out what, if anything, happened there. Nothing real concrete. He had a pic up on his twitter page back in July with his wife, ring and all. Then a pic taken in August when he was on the tour in Australia showed he wasn't wearing his ring. Also, I remember reading an interview he did with some New Zealand paper when he was on tour down under and he said, what I thought then (and even now), to be a rather odd thing. Hang on, lemme try to find the article.....ooh, ok, here is the part I found weird:

Hillstrand has been married to his wife Sabrina for 27 years, though he admits that being away half of the time probably means it's closer to 13 1/2 years.

It's tough," he says of the time spent apart from his wife and two daughters.

"Anyone who tells you it's not tough is lying. A lot of the guys are divorced and remarried. It's hard to stay married when you're gone all the time. But I got a good woman, I guess."

Why would you end it with an "I guess"? At the time I read it last year, I thought it was rather an off qualifier to the sentence - didn't sound particularly convincing nor did it become a particularly flattering statement. Then when I noticed the absence of his ring, I looked up the article again and re-read tha part and seemed to read more into the "I guess" the second time around. But, I guess (hehe), I could be making mountains out of molehills. Andy Hillstrand could just simply be saying, "I guess".

Well, if I'm speculating already, I also think there's something off with Kimi and his marriage. I mean, he's a racing driver who spends 85% of his time away from home yet when he has time off, I don't see him spending it with his wife. Pictures of him holidaying with his friends are aplenty with no Jenni in sight, where is the time he spends with Jenni? She certainly doesn't follow him racing anymore. I think the last time I saw them out together publicly was in 2008 when Kimi was being honoured at some Finnish event. And he at least used to wear his ring when he wasn't racing but I don't see him with it at all now.

But it's all pure observation, not really saying anything about anything. And on that note, I'm going to stop babbling now :)

shipping is a bomb!

That's the most I've ever forked out for shipping, sheesh! And take note of the weight - 26.5KG! That's just nuts! Honestly, it was the volumetric weights that kept pushing the weightage higher. The actual weight of the items themselves were less than 2kg all around. There's a bunch of shoe boxes, right, so that's really what caused the total amount to be as high as it was. Anyways, there's nothing else to be said about it, I got the stuff, can't not have it shipped, no?

was looking at all the packages at my portland addy.....

The total weight of all items currently awaiting shipment is now at 26kg - LOL. That's more heavy than my youngest niece! I'm going to be paying roundabout USD190 for shipping fees alone. Currently am just waiting for my final package from Amazon.com - the Bare Escentuals Active Cell Renewal Night Serum. It's supposed to be delivered today and I'm hoping it will cos I don't want to have to miss the shipment date for next week. Am doing it then not only to wait for this last package but so that the charges will go on my Amex's next billing cycle and I won't have to pay it till the end of the August. On another note but still on the topic of shopping, I am giving up the Steve Madden Kwilted flats to my sis who originally wanted them. I figure she was the one who saw the flats first and had been wanting to get them for ages so I'm being generous and letting her have them - have in the sense of PAY FOR THEM, of course :D

Anyways, seeing the weightage, it has dawned on me that I'm going waaay overboard with the online shopping. I mean I also do actual brick-and-mortar shopping too so I'm just haemorraghing money right, left and center :P But I've significantly calmed down so in that sense that's a good thing.

My last purchase was actually from drugstore.com. I got another 3 months supply of NOW's L-Carnitine and my sis wanted a bottle of that as well on top of GNC's Womens Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism Time Release capsules as well as something called Diet Dots. I wanted to get a bottle of that myself, the Diet Dots, but figured I should finish of the Burn 60, which admittedly I do love but would love even more if it retailed for under 20 bucks.

And on that last shopping confession, I am off to refresh the Planet F1 forum motorsport page so I can feel further irate with other F1 fans :D

day 30 and still the inane and insane comments continue

Ok, now I'm going to rant about forumers who think Grosjean is making Kimi to look like a fool.

FACT:
Kimi has finished higher in the first 11 races 9 times compared to Grosjean's 2.

Where is the evidence of Kimi being bested by a "rookie" who was apparently completely destroyed by Alonso when he drove for 6 races back in 2009? Hmmm, Grosjean did leave F1 in less than stellar terms but he went on to compete in the GP2 series - a racing tier always said to be most similar to F1, became champion of said series last year and also took on the role of Pirelli test driver. People who are naive in thinking Grosjean is some simple rookie are being simplistic. Romain left F1, gained the experience he needed in open wheel racing in the next best thing to F1, became test driver for the manufacturer supplying tyres in F1, did some running in an F1 car as Renault's third driver in 2011 and found his way back into an F1 cockpit powered by French engine outfit, Renault, not only due to his GP2 exploits but to a lesser extent that he is French and managed by Lotus F1's team principal, Eric Boullier. Considering all these factors, I would say Romain Grosjean had the upper hand in the Lotus F1 teammate war.

Kimi Räikkönen, in comparison, has been racing trees, snowbanks, gravel, desert sand, time. Aside from 3 days last year in May whereby he dabbled in the US Nationwide and Camping Truck series, he has not been doing any open wheel racing. The last time he drove in F1, Bridgestone were the tyre manufacturer, refueling was something that occurred during pit stops - and he can definitely attest to that, Brazil GP 2009 anyone?!?!? and overtaking was done on pure pace and skill with a little boost from KERS instead of with some wing assisted drag reduction zone.

FACT:
Kimi Räikkönen has 116 points and is fifth in the drivers standings with no DNF's.
Romain Grosjean has 76 points and is eighth in the drivers standings with 4 DNF's.

Hmmmm, so where is Kimi being outqualified? During qualifying for grid positions. Romain has had the "measure " of Kimi in qualifying besting him probably 10-1 or something like that. But as the Iceman has stated, it's what happens on raceday that counts. And I believe the points standings says it all. And I will also add, during a straight fight between the two, Kimi has stamped his authority very clearly.

FACT:
I shouldn't allow myself to get too bothered by armchair F1 experts sitting and typing in front of a computer screen spewing opinions as if they are fact. As long as I believe in what I believe is true, that is all that matters. I understand opinions differ, however back it up with some hard evidence before spewing a load of garbage unto the interwebs.

FACT:
When the F1 summer hiatus begins, apparently a lot of F1 fans who love posting in forums get mushy brains and start regurgitating silly opinions. Not only re:Kimi but about other drivers as well. Sheesh, SPA, come quick!

gosh, the 31 days till SPA can't come fast enough!

Ok, am about to go on a bit of an annoyed rant here. I cannot wait for SPA to roll around because forumers are going stir crazy with their comments! And I just have to get this off my chest - why the hell does Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher have this so-called "development drivers" reputation? Apparently, these two are maestros at steering the development of an F1 car into the right direction. I mean, where is the proof of this?

I call bullshit. I don't believe there even is such a thing as development drivers! Loosely, this is what I believe a driver's role is in the evolution of an F1 car from drawing board to track -

What a driver does is test out the parts and bits and bobs developed by the factory. Based on the running, they present their feedback into how the car felt on track. That's what the driver does. The engineers and technical analyst then take that feedback back to the design department and whatnot and try to improve or redesign the part of the car the driver feels doesn't contribute to a healthy car setup balance. Then the new/redesigned parts are put on the car again and the driver proceeds to do more testing and thus relay more feedback to the engineers/technical department. Cycle repeat until car is race ready.

Considering that testing is a limited affair in F1, it becomes even harder to have so-called development drivers coming up with magical theories to better enhance a car.

And even if this so-called development ability is not a figment of many F1 fans imagination, then why the hell has Ferrari and Fernando Alonso not been winning back-to-back championships since his Ferrari arrival? Why has Schumacher been languishing in mediocrity at Mercedes since his comeback and not been setting the team alight with rad improvements on the F1 car? Why is the development sub-par? Development drivers my arse!

Gosh, I am so irritated by the comments of some of these Alonso fans who are in a tizzy over some unfounded rumour regarding Ferrari wanting Kimi back to replace Felipe Massa. Geez, your driver is not the God of F1 racing, neither is Kimi but to hell with all of you who suggest Kimi is in any way inferior to Alonso. I've talked about it before, Alonso is an opportunistic driver, he doesn't produce magical drives - he takes stock of what happens around him and uses it to his advantage. He is more of a thinker that way. But an out-and-out racing driver is Kimi - who is not only smart but his drives are phenomenal. I can't recall ever watching Fernando drive a race I would call "amazing". I've seen amazing drives from other drivers but Alonso is a bore to watch generally.

And the gall of these fans to then suggest that Kimi fans are not sane for believing Kimi is as good a driver as Fernando, if not better. We (and even if I don't post in these forums I'm going to stand in solidarity with them) are then accused of fanboy-ism when we attempt to defend Kimi against some of the outlandish claims I have seen ever uttered against him! Granted, there are some Kimi fans who are a tad on the irrational side and I don't condone them but for the rest of us who do have the ability to be objective when it comes to Kimi, I cannot stand if we are all going to be villified for our convictions!

So let's lay it out - Alonso vs Kimi, toe-to-toe. When it is pointed out that Kimi helped Ferrari to TWO constructor's championships aside from his own driver's championship in the 3 years he was at Ferrari compared to none of those from Fernando's similarly even keeled tenure, well, then we get the argument that the car was so good in 2007 and 2008 compared to the dogs Fernando had to drive in 2010 and 2011. And apparently 2012. Honestly, this year's car may not be fast for Ferrari but I strongly believe they have overstated their pessimism. Back to the cars supposedly being good during Kimi's years. They say he should have done better. Ok, fine, I'll spell it out - Kimi won the WDC and WCC in his first year with Ferrari. Alonso in 2010? NADA (thought I'd put it in Spanish, he is a Spaniard after all). Kimi went on to assist Felipe Massa in the WDC in 2008 and though the WDC was lost, he performed well, finishing 3rd behind Lewis and Massa, to make sure Ferrari won the WCC that year. 2009 came along - whatever happened in that year I will not delve into - but that F60 WAS A COMPLETE DOG! There is no ifs, buts or whats about it. It was awful and I am going to maintain that it was Ferrari's most awful car in recent years. The development on the car was stopped during the F1 summer hiatus (after Massa's head injury at the Hungaroring). While every other team were still in the development race, Ferrari, after deciding to sack Kimi for whatever reasons, stopped developing the F60, focusing instead on their 2010 car which Kimi was not apart of. All in the likelihood to prevent Kimi from taking any technical knowledge with him to another team in 2010. Nonetheless, despite having a car that was development-wise stunted, he went on to outscore everyone else bar Lewis Hamilton in the remaining races of that season - even managing a rather impossible win at Spa-Francochamps, Ferrari's only win of the year. Ferrai finished the season fourth in the constructor's championship, largely due to Kimi's stunning efforts as every subsequent teammate he had to fill in for Massa could do nothing with the F60. He brought on the points haul himself, finishing in the driver's championship in a respectable 6th after enduring the worse kind of treatment you could go through within your own team. And then he gave a big F@*K YOU to Ferrari by making them pay him not to drive an F1 car for 2 years!

On to Alonso. Let's compare 2009 first. "Development Driver" you say? Alonso finished 9th in the driver's championship and Renault, the team he was driving for, were eighth. I would say Renault had a better driver pairing compared to Kimi but 8th is all they managed comapred to Kimi's fourth, running one race sans a second car, even (Hungary GP 2009). I do not see how 2010 could have been a dog year for Ferrari cos they started developing it early in 2009. Alonso came on board with them 2010, even if the car was not to his liking initially, his supreme driver's development skills should have been able to steer him and the team to infinite victories that year. What happened? Sebastian Vettel won his first WDC for Red Bull instead. 2011 arrives, he has had from mid-2010 to most of January 2011 to give his technical expertise towards the development of the car - that car should have been bulletproof and like a rocket. Reality? Sebastian Vettel made 2011 his bitch, winning back-to-back titles.

And here we arrive at 2012. Currently, Alonso is leading the driver's championship with a 40 point lead over 2nd place Mark Webber. Kimi is a further 8 points down on that. All well and good for Ferrari and Nando, I do not begrudge them the way they have made lemons from lemonade - good job! Stats-wise, Alonso and Kimi are the two drivers who have gained the maximum points in the last five races - Kimi doing this without a win to his name, just five podiums. Kimi is fifth, a solitary point behind Lewis Hamilton after the Hungarian GP last weekend, 6 points behind Vettel and 8 points behind Webber. The 4 drivers above him have had race wins, 3 for Alonso, 2 for Hamilton, 2 for Webber and 1 for Vettel. Kimi has none. Together with Grosjean (more so Kimi's effort than the latter), they have hauled Lotus F1 into thrd in the constructors' standings, trailing 2nd place McLaren by a single point and Red Bull by 54 points. Ferrari are fourth in the standings with 189. Just so we are all clear, let me point out yet again, the dude, Kimi, has been rallying for the past 2 years. Two years in which things have changed in F1 - refueling is banned, Pirelli took over being the official tyre manufacturer, there's DRS. To be on par with the other top 4 driver's after being away for that long and having to adapt quickly to the new rules and regulations of the sport, what is that if not blinding speed, intelligent driving and god-given talent?

Like I said in the post before this, as a racing driver, Alonso is not to be trifled with, but as a person, I generally don't like him. He is petulant and selfish and he is great at politics and mind games. I might have mellowed out somewhat in my absolute dislike for him but his fans on the forums are anothr story - awful and deluded is all I will say. Rant over....:D

UPDATE (05/08/2012):
Okay, in the absolute boredom of TV No-Mans_Land as well as the F1 hiatus, I decided to rewatch some F1 races from earlier in the season. Just started with the Valencia race and I will admit here that Alonso did drive superbly from 11th on the grid to go on and win that race. Of course, he lucked into the 1st place with Sebastian Vettel's unexpected retirement but he did manage that overtaking maneuver on Romain Gorsjean for 2nd very decisively and precisely so kudos on that move. He put himself in primo position to inherit that win after Sebastian's car troubles. On a related note, I think I am overdosing on F1 via youtube. Been watching tons and tons of F1 related vids. To the extent that I'm starting to really think Fernando Alonso is an attractive dude. Gosh, I'm so ashamed. Found a couple of videos of him performing card tricks - what an adorable dork, lol. He's really rather good at it, it's quite impressive. Sigh. Zlena, no more softning on the Fernando Alonso front - maintain the disdain! Am sure it wn't take long for him to do something completely obnoxious. Also, Sebastian Vettel is such a cheeky git! And quick witted too.