Our lives are busy these days, and not without their share of grief and responsibility. But we do make it a point to celebrate opportunities to see and do new things, for that is what continues to keep our lives in balance. This weekend I had the chance to see the Malaysian Grand Prix, the first Grand Prix I have seen live since Dad took my brother and I to see the first Canadian Grand Prix in 1961. (Just in case you were thinking that I was over-indulging out here).

The tickets were a gift, as was the invitation to the Mercedes party on Saturday. I did end up spending about 30 bucks on these neat little handheld monitors they rent these days. They not only show video of the parts of the race track you can’t see, but give you updated track times, leaderboard and even onboard video views of whatever driver you select – great for close-ups.

I caught a ride out to the track on the back of a buddy’s motorbike, and spent two days at the track, seeing everything from practice, through qualifying to actual race. The whole experience was fantastic, and the level of driving by these guys is really something to watch.

On Saturday there was a fair bit of rain for qualifying. Here is an uncharacteristic view of Lewis Hamiltion, spinning out on the hairpin entering the grandstand straightaway. Button did worse, and neither McLaren or the two Ferraris made it to the front of the grid.

On race day Hamilton sliced through the field like a hot knife, but ran into a very stubborn Sutil and had to settle for sixth. Considering he started at 20th, he did very well indeed. Provided his car continues to perform, he should do well this year again.

On Saturday evening Pam and I had tickets to the Mercedes Benz party, and had a lot of fun munching on canapes and dancing to some very decent live music. With a number of colleagues from the college along for the affair, it made for a very pleasant evening. Today it is back to work and responsibility again.