FIA retain their old rules

I was listing to news this morning (22nd March 2009) and I herd the biggest news of the week (probably). It's about the new rule which FIA announced on who would be the Drivers Champion for 2009 Formula 1 Season. In my earlier post i have stated my doubts about this (read the full article here).

FIA had announced that they are going to change the rule on deciding who the Driver's Champion would be in 2009 Formula 1 Season. Earlier it was the driver who gets most number of points becomes the champion, but FIA had changed this as The driver who wins the most number of races who would become the champion. And guess what??? They have decided not to implement this new rule for this season.

Exactly one week more for the 1st race of the Season to begin and I hope every team is doing their best to keep the fans (like me) happy :)

The Beach

It was quite a happening week but unfortunately the ending was boring. It was the 21st March 2009, I was invited to a party called "The Beach" at La Langousterie - Mount Lavinia, a place I have never been before and the crowd; well I haven't hanged out with them before either :D. As I entered La Langousterie it was like a mini version of Mambo's at Hikkaduwa. It is the dream place which you would buy and start a business like a restaurant.

Party was just starting when we stepped in; crowd wasn't bad, mostly ACBT people and few outsides (like me and Udara). The kids seems to be having fun but us; ummm not really. The thing was we weren't with the usual crowd. Luckily Rajeev and Jo came and saved me a little bit but we all got bored at the end. Maybe the music was not very good but we have partied with far worse music; so definitely it’s the crowd that rocks the party.

Remarkable rule changes for 2009 Formula 1 Season

Formula 1 rules evolve every year, that’s one of the core factors which keeps the F1 fans guessing what would happen with the new rules. For the 2009 Formula 1 season FIA has changed the rules remarkably. Slick Tyres were not used in F1 races for around 10 years due to safety reasons but now it’s back in action for the 2009 Formula 1 season. This alone would not affect the end result of the series much however this would indeed increase the excitement of every race, but if the track is wet and with the possible crashes and safety cars coming in to the track it would even slow down the races more than we think like what happened in the 90’s.

Slick Tyre (Bridgestone)

As of technical changes FIA has announced that they would be allowing Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for the F1 cars in the 2009 season. Now this is something huge, again there are both ups and downs. Acceleration wise it would definitely be an advantage but additional weight of the KERS equipment would be a problem for higher speeds. So in general for the tracks which have fewer straight lines than the bends this would be ideal. But I wonder how many teams would be actually using this new technology. As of the movement of this being written, Renault has confirmed that they would be using KERS for the Australian Grand Prix.

And the last but not the least, the biggest change as I see is the deciding criteria of who would be the Drivers champion. Earlier it was the driver who scores most of the points in the season who will be the champion, but in 2009 FIA has changed the rules. It’s the driver who wins the most number of races in the 2009 season will be the world champion. However the rest of the places would be decided on the old points system. This is wired indeed, if this rule was there in the 2008 season then Massa would have been the champion in 2008 though he has got 1 point less than Hamilton.

I have serious doubts with the FIA’s rule about deciding who would be the Drives champion, and we could even expect some twisted results at the end of the series. I believe the beauty of the championship should decide on the last game, like in the 2007 & 2008. But if the new rules are to be applied then the decision would come long before the last race and the final race would have no much excitement :(

Broadcasting a wedding over the Internet

Yup, I know it’s wired but I did it. It was my cousin's (Nilupa) wedding and I had to broadcast it over the internet from Mt. Lavinia Hotel since there was a huge demand for that from my other cousins who are not in Sri Lanka (Specially from Rosi). This isn't the first thing that I have broadcasted live over the internet; the first was Lawyers association annual get together at Holiday Inn. Both the occasions I missed what was happening there.

For Dummies: It isn't hard all you need is a good quality web cam, Laptop and last but not the least the Internet :P

I wasn’t an active blogger during the past month or so, for the time being I’m leaving this short blog entry but there will be some new updates soon, especially after the 2009 Formula 1 season begins :)

Negambo

Negambo is one of the places I have visited least, to be honest I don’t remember going to the Negambo beach in the past. I was invited to the home coming of my old friend Sathya who is also Udara’s sister. The place was Jetwing Blue Oceanic. The invitation card specifically indicated that we should wear casual cloths; I was quite puzzled and called Udara on the day before and asked what that means, he said wear whatever you like and come. Knowing the fellow for the past 20 years I didn’t buy his word. I called Gajan also and planned the thing out.

It was Tuesday (3rd February) after finishing work I came home and went to Negambo with my Father and Brother. The time we arrived there was 8pm, and by that time all the others has come and they already started to party. My Father and Brother left before midnight and I stayed back.

As the time went by a new day arrived, and guess what?? All the people stood up and started singing the National Anthem and there were fireworks all around. Yup it’s our independence day (4th February). We all sang our national anthem together with all others (proud to be Sri Lankan) It was 2.30 in the morning but we are still partying. Around 3.30am we went to the rooms that Udara booked but, NO we couldn’t sleep. We were talking various things about our childhood and stayed up all-night.

In the morning I went to the beach and… wow it’s amazing. I have never seen the sea without the waves. It was like a swimming pool (trust me :P). The fishing boats and everything was different to what we see in down south.

(Negambo Sea and the Fishing Boats)

The environment in Negambo is exactly the same as Hikkaduwa, plenty of Hotels, happening nightlife, the beach and everything. But there was one thing which was different, and that difference was not in a good way as well. It was the food; it was horrible, maybe it’s the hotel we stayed in :( We discussed said same thing about food during the dinner, breakfast and as well as in the lunch. After lunch, we chilled for a while and came flew back home since there were no traffic what so ever.

The Stig Revealed?

The Stig

The million dollar question, who is the Stig? Lot of individuals has claimed that they are the legendary Stig but BBC has kept this as one of their best guarded secrets. And yesterday (20th January 2009) the ex Formula Three and NASCAR race driver Ben Collins has claimed that he is the Stig.

I have my doubts on this but let’s wait and see. As Jeremy Clarkson says “All we know is… he is called THE STIG”

Source(s) : TopGear

New Year Eve 2009 at MAMBO's

Till the last week of I had no plans for the 31st night, suddenly I got quite a lot of invitations from people who are organizing various events at Colombo on the 31st night. On the other hand some of my friends were planning to go to Hikkaduwa, so I was in two minds whether to stay in Colombo or go down south.

Mambo's Beach Party: New Year EVE 2009

On 30th I decided to go to Hikkaduwa since my friends has already booked a place. As usual things never go according to the plan. Some of the guys had problems of going down south and they didn’t come with us. It was only Me, Udara, Devinda and Harsha who went to Hikka. We went to Hikka by 7pm and chilled for a while at the place we booked. The place was an old bungalow called “Curry Bowl”, not too luxurious but was very good and it’s extremely cheap (just 1000 bucks for a double room). We went out at 10.30pm and had Dinner and we went to the place where the party was supposed to happen. The Mambo’s place, the environment and music was perfect. There were lot of foreigners and quite a lot of people from Colombo too. The place got packed within two hours and it was the time to celebrate the New Year. Fireworks were on, but its nothing much compared to what we see in Colombo.

Fireworks at New Year EVE 2009

It was the beach environment and the music that kept us going. We partied till 6am in the morning and fell asleep. We were very tired but manage to get up at about 11am. Went searching for a place for breakfast and ended up having Lunch (quite unusual isn’t it :P). Went back to the beach and we were there till 3pm enjoying the view ;)

It’s bad that I missed all the happenings in Colombo and specially to let down the people who invited me for those. I’m pretty sure from all the 31st night parties I’ve been to, this is an unforgettable occasion. Cheers to Mambo’s place at Hikka :)