Monday, September 10, 2007

Not to put too fine a point upon it....

Monza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

McLaren pulled a perfect one-two at Monza yesterday, with some kickass top speed, blinding laps from Fernando Alonso all through the race to clinch pole position and a lovely overtaking maneuver by Lewis Hamilton after his Pit Stop #2 to pull in second ahead of Kimi.

* Hamilton's view as he overtakes Raikkonen.
The Hamilton-Raikkonen overtake was THE moment of the race for me, because I was afraid Kimi's one-stop strategy might just be able to take away the second position from McLaren. And eeks! It did for a bit, when Kimi pulled in just ahead of Lewis' car exiting from the pit lane.
But Kimi had suspension trouble [yeah, whatever] and Lewis managed a neat overtake on the first chicane which left me screeching with joy, high-fiving nobody, punching the air with my fists and renting the peace of the neighborhood asunder with some very juvenile cheering...
*All race pics bummed off the F1 site.

As is usual on weekends, Suhail bhai had come over and we had a rollicking mad time. I had promised chicken pulao [mama-style] and I delivered. Accompaniments were tangy tomato chutney and yoghurt. [For excellent pulao recipe, please send me fan mail.]A very burpalicious, albeit late-ish lunch was had around 4:30pm.
What followed was the absolute nuttiest Sister and Suhail have ever been in a long time. There was one hour to kill before the race started and the Deranged Duo decided to sing the blues away. (They thought they were really good.) A number of very elegant, soulful, classic Hindi film songs were destroyed in the process as our two star performers refused to shut up till the hour was up. The horrific renditions were punctuated by a series of giggling fits, tune-improvisations and very, very bad poetry. [Which is a loose term for rhyming words.]
Fortunately all tales of terror must have an ending, and in spite of it seeming like Time stood still while these two yodelers went caterwauling, the glorious hour of 5:30pm eventually came and my miseries ceased.
Start lights on, lights off, and GO!

Ozz and Suhail [boys in pic] are Reds - Ferrari supporters. [Blech.] They stopped acting cocky soon after reality sunk in, which is to say post the Lewis overtake which sealed the McLaren one-two deal. Hah. Sister was with McLaren, so no animosity there. [McLaren fans' -sis and I- pic on left].
To celebrate our resounding victory, I brought in some steaming hot noonchai along with a gloating smile, and special Kashmiri bakery: Kishtwari kulchay and baakirkhaani. The opinion all round was that the chai was very good. I would like to thank Nandini-double-cream-pasteurized-homogenized-no-need-to-boil-before-use milk.

Once that was done, we watched some nonsense TV programs like Miss Teen USA, AXN Fear Factor Psycho, Page 3 type no-brainer entertainment segments, and primed ourselves for the US Open Men's Finals, which according to many sources would be played at 9:30pm , IST. This turned out to be the biggest lie of the century as many hours later, droopy-eyed and despairing, we realized that the match would only be played at a mysterious, suspenseful hour which none of us would be able to guess at. Another friendship, Iqbal, had also come over in the hopes of being able to see Federer win the Open, but his dreams and aspirations were thwarted as no LIVE broadcast from Flushing Meadows seemed available. Except the insipid Women's Doubles Finals which was not gripping at all.

Suhail and Doc eventually left around 1:30am by which time we all convinced ourselves that the match would only happen post 4:30 am IST. This turned out to be the second biggest lie of the century because as it turned out, the match started at 2:30am, which fact Suhail bhai called in to inform us of.

I watched the match very sleepily, from a supine posish under a comfortable blanket in the TV room. My involvement in the proceedings was at best lackluster and I slept through many points.

And that was the Sunday that was.

8 comments:

Fahad said...

I wonder if Alonso could EVER pull a neat over taking maneuver like that, WITHOUT bumping/touching the vehicle he is over taking.

Having said that, McLaren were much much faster at Monza. Ferrari of course knew this after the Canadian GP, and so decided to run one light and one heavy. The lighter one had all kinds of problem and lasted 10 laps...but an unfit Raikkonen gave his best, but was embarrassingly overtaken by Lewis with ease.

Kudos to McLaren. Off to Spa then. Back after a years hiatus, (has been lucky for kimi and Mclaren the last few GPs) Ferrari are known to do well here. So bwahhahaa...it ain't over till the fat lady (Sabbah) sings.

hehe..so much for my expert comments.

Very funny read about your weekend. Burpalacious.hahahaha

longblackveil said...

Yawn. Kid, come on, really.....

Babur said...

you can only gloat and smirk this week...for the iceman shall return and decimate "whiners & cheaters, pvt ltd" next weekend. make you eat your own words sans the noon chai.

DESPERADO said...

hey wanna trade links?
this is mine

longblackveil said...

@BB: Can't wait for Belgium, Jimmiya.
@Desperado: Yes, thanks, I've been and visited already.

longblackveil said...

Oh, and I LIKE KIMI, by the way. :) He's just in the wrong team.

Babur said...

oh..really? umm then why we fighting? i only sport the team kimi is in. could be red, black, or silver, for all i care. case in point, check this pic out...

longblackveil said...

Who's fighting, huh? Who's fighting?!!?? WHO?!
Shabaash, Bob. I knew us great minds think alike. When Raikkonen was with McLaren it was a beautiful time.... The Red grates on my nerves.