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We had arranged to meet Mark at his hotel about 3ish but got a message to say he was called into work early so we was to make our way to his hotel and then he would give us directions from there. We had breakfast, a little walk around Chinatown then returned to the hotel to get ready. The time went so quick and it was about 4sh before we left our hotel. We followed directions Mark gave us to head to the Ritz Carlton. We thought it was going to be straight forward as we used the MRT the evening before but we got off at the wrong stop, walked along way before we realised we was lost then it took us ages to back track. What seemed like forever we eventually got to the Ritz Carlton, by this time poor Lee was exhausted. We stopped to use the toilets in the hotel and when we came out Lee looked exhausted. "I give
up I just cant walk anymore", we was only 2 minutes away from the bloody gate and now he wanted to give up! Get up I said, your not giving up on me now and the next thing there we was inside the circuit looking at a line of Porches and Ferraris' it was so exciting. We txt Mark told him where we was and came to meet us and brought us into the Paddock. He then gave us passes to the Paddock club which gave us access to Red Bull's lounge where we could as Mark said "fill your boots" with food and champagne.
Mark then took us into the Pit where all in there glory were the 2 Red Bull racing cars owned by Mark Webber and
Sebastian Vettell. We are not big fans of FI but we both felt really emotional at this stage, it was such a wonderful sight to see all these young lads busy around these magnificent cars. Mark introduced us proudly to his colleagues in particular a young photographer Andy. We left the pit and had a coffee in the Red Bull Cafe where everyone was busy having breakfast or just grabbing a drink, Mark was explaining who people were and what was going on, he then had to go into a meeting so showed us the entrance into the Paddock club so we we left him for the time being.
We walked into the Paddock club and was greeted straight away by a waitress carrying a tray of champagne of course it would be rude to say no. We sat down and noticed there was a spa offering foot, back and shoulder massage, we went over and enquired and sat and waited for a foot massage. It was wonderful so totally relaxing sipping champagne and having your feet massaged. We then proceeded up to the Red Bull lounge. OMG it was amazing. We was greeted so well and didn't know where to sit, we was made a real fuss of. We was offered a glass of champagne and sat by the window looking down into the Pit lane. We sat there for time people watching and sipping champagne when we was asked if we would like to sit at the table as starters were being served. So again a real fuss was made of us and we had the most wonderful starters of sushi, scallops and duck compote. This was followed by leg of duck with potato gratin. You then had a choice of deserts and cheese and biscuits. So we followed Mark's advice and filled our boots. We was getting a bit full so decided to go for a walk, we went back down the stairs and they were queuing for the Pit walk, we didn't really fancy queuing so had a walk around we then noticed the queue had gone so thought what the heck lets do it and we was so pleased we did, we shuffled along with the others and walked along abit of the track, then we approached the Pit lanes which had barriers around them, when we approached Red Bull we stood there looking at the cars like everybody else then someone from Red Bull came across opened up the barrier and let us in we was gob smacked so again there we was standing in front of these magnificent racing cars.
We took lots of photos and finished our walk and decided to go back to the Paddock to met Mark again he said the first FI practice was about to start so the drivers were all due to come out. Mark said just do what he tells us the next thing Lewis Hamilton is right by our side and Mark is taking our
Photo with him, followed by Jenson Button we couldn't believe it all happened so quickly, before we knew all the drivers were coming out and walking right next to us. Of course I didn't have a clue who they were but just bluffed it. After all that excitement we needed another drink so went back up to the lounge and there we stayed.
We watched the practice race, chatting, eating, drinking and laughing it was just the best thing ever. The lounge became very busy and soon they were going around topping up champagne glasses with Magnums of Mumm, two waiters in particular were looking after us and made sure our glasses were always topped us. Before we knew it was midnight and the lounge was closing so we made our way to the Paddock, bumped into Mark and Andy, sat and had a coffee, then decided it was time to go back to the hotel. We made our way back and it just seems like it was taking forever just to get to Mark's hotel the Mandarin. Fortunately when we got there a taxi pulled up so we jumped in and was soon back at our hotel. We then sat in the foyer and facetimed Sam at 3 in the morning.
The end of a truely memorable day.
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liz Brilliant