Chapter 2: Planning

28th July, 2008 - I couldn't stop gushing at the thought of going back to Singapore, I mean I was there like just 8 Months back and here I am planning to pack my bags again. Seriously, a lot of people are starting to get worried with my craze to travel overseas and how I come up with these "Dreams" in a split second when some folks plan these things for their retirement, well thats not me. Check this out for Singapore F1 details

One of the reasons this "Dream" seemed possible to achieve was the fact that I had a Visa for Singapore but I still had to figure out the air tickets and the race tickets and accomodation. Phew! Well I decided to take one-day-one-task at a time.

30th July, 2008 - 2 things fell in one basket and that was to check for accomodation and availablity of race tickets in Singapore. I reached to 2 of my contacts, one was the friend from MS I met on my last trip and one was a team member who worked for me in Wipro. I got to know of the latter only after I returned to India. I sent both the gentlemen a courtsey mail and hoped they would reply, fingers crossed, toes crossed, hair spiked, nails chewed just about everything that could tell you how I was feeling, I was feeling very very very very hopeful ;)

31st July, 2008 - Bling! Bling! You have got mail, the friend from Wipro promised to look for what I wanted him to look for (race tickets) and also he was very gracious and agreed to have me put up at his place while I was there. What are friends for huh?!! :)

1st Aug, 2008 - This time the Wipro friend's Reply knocked me off completely and it took me some time to gather myself, coz he confirmed that tickets were available, not the best ones but still a ticket to get inside the circuit and watch the race, the damage? Approx $ 300 SGD thats Approx. 9K INR. Hmm well, not for everybody, let's put it simply. I gave him the GREEN Signal to take-off

2nd Aug, 2008 - Once I got the confirmation of race tickets, I was scrambling like a mad dog to find the cheapest air tickets to Singapore. While all this was happening, I realized I better tell about my ambitious plan to my immediate bosses. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, the colleague who agreed to come to China was ready to come to Singapore, so I had to arrange everything for him since it was his first trip. Now the problem was both me and my colleague are at senior level positions in the office and one of us needs to be around all the time to keep a check on business. As was expected, my immediate boss flatly refused to allow us to go together on this trip but I wanted to make this happen, no matter what, so I drafted the final Itinerary

I decided to let my friend go ahead of me on 26th Sep, Fri and I could join him on 27th Sept Sat, watch the race on 28th Sep, Sun and then back home together on 29th Sep, Mon. I can't think of another person who flies to Singapore only to spend his Weekends, probably Enzo Ferrari ;)

5th Aug , 2008 - I decided to call my Wipro friend in Singapore to speak to him personally, he confirmed he got the tickets, it was a 3-Day Pass (from 26th-29th Sep) I was going to miss the Practise but make it in time for the Qualifiers and the Finale. Surprise! Surprise! the friend from MS also got back but there was no encouraging news, if my MS friend had manage to get Corp. tickets we would have got 5-Star treatment at the circuit and watch the race from our private balcony (a la Maonaco style), well, maybe some other day

I was scouring the Internet for tickets and I pounced on a promotional offer by Singapore Airlines for flights between Mumbai-Singapore, the offer was valid for Aug and the trip was to be made in Sept, Purrrfect! I booked 2 tickets for my colleague and myself, this was a straight flight of 5H:25M. Man, what a relief! the damage? 18K INR per person.

Well, we are all set for the BIG Day ahead and the countdown to the F1 has begun for me...officially