sooo....it's been a while since I had posted a card related to Formula 1....but time to change that.
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Mainly, it is coz i havent been following it for a long while so I couldnt really post something about it when i didnt really know what was going on....lost the interest since Raikkonen left (the races were already boring, yet i had someone to cheer for, so I watched it).
But...just this past week, it was announced that Ice-man had signed a contract with Lotus Renault GP and is coming back to F1 the following season!!! Yippie!! Yippie yippie yay yay!! Must be one of the greatest news ive heard in a long long while!! I can hardly wait!! I dont care in which team he is and if the season is not as fun as it should be...I really missed the F1 adrenaline and now i have the reason to get my dosage...I miss the waking up at 5 am to watch the Australian Grand Prix...cheering and biting my nails.
I know there have been quite some changes in the F1 so it's gonna take me a while to get a hold of it all, but im in no hurry :)
btw, i cant tell the exact driver this card represents, however, it came in handy :)
and speaking of good sports' news....Spain won the Davis Cup today...after a nail-biting match between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro. I really like Del Boy, so i felt sorry for him in the end, but Rafa is Rafa and after a crappy season, this was like the perfect closure :P Yay yay yay!!
I have several cards from Monaco, so this one shouldnt be such a thing to be proud of....unless this card was actually sent written and stamped from Monaco itself!!
Yess yess yess!! Exactly! All the Monaco cards I have are actually cards I bought myself when I went there, and of course, i didnt even think to send one to myself....coz back then honestly i didnt pay so much attention about whether the card would be blank or sent written and stamped from the country of origin. But if nowadays I went to some rare country (rare in the terms of mail-wise), I think i kill just to mail a postcard with a stamp and a cancellation from 'the face of the place' :P
The card itself is perfect too...shows a map of the Grand Prix circuit! Even though I havent been following the F1 event this year, i still love F1 related cards. And I just checked....this year's Monaco event was held on 16th May, with Mark Webber from RBR-Renault being the winner, Vettel, also from RBR- Renault had come second, while the third place had gone to Kubica from Renault.
I also checked now the overall results (yeah, I am totally OFF from this year's F1), and Webber seems to be holding the 1st position, but the points within the first 5 places seem to be rather close. Im curious to see who's gonna grab the title in the end.
What just really surprises me is that the so much praised champion, Mr. Michael Schumacher, is 9th in the overall standings....whoah! Now thats something I didnt expect to happen, but I guess the competition did its job.
Funny thing is, Ive realized that a number of other devoted-to-the-core F1 fans, have given up on it this season....so something is really wrong in the F1 world.
And, the stamp couldnt be more perfect! It was issued this year and it is dedicated to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament which this year was held 10-18th April. And do you know who claimed the title?? Uhmm? uhm? uhm??? Oh yesss....Rafael Nadal! And not only he claimed the title, but he also set a record, becoming the first player in the open era to win this tournament 6 times in a row! You see how great Nadal is?
I was wondering if i should make an F1 post at all or no....well, the decision is quite obvious.
well, this is a sort of outdated card, but probably the most appropriate one i have for the current post.
Yesterday the new F1 season officially began...and yesterday, was the first time that I actually hadnt watched it..ok, i watched the start only, and something like 5 minutes somewhere near the end...and thats it...and thats how actually this whole season ahead will be....without Raikkonen, I have no one else to wholeheartedly cheer for, and when I dont have such a favourite, I also dont have the enthusiasm to watch something.
I have the enthusiasm to watch the WRC but due to my bad timing, i had already missed that, and the next one is due in April.
I just need to make sure that I can watch it on RTL or find a free live streaming...
As for today's race from what I read, it was Ferrari who had a 1:2 win...and Im sort of glad about it, coz Masa is back after last year's accident, and also Alonso is in Ferrari...but I still cant grasp that Schumacher is back and that he is driving for Mercedes....I just dont like that guy....so even though i have no favourite driver this year, I just DONT DONT DONT want Schumacher or Hamilton to take the title....if there are drivers I cant possibly stand, its those two guys.
Oh, I like it that Pedro de la Rosa is back to F1...he was a good driver...and another news is that there are 12 teams this year, or 24 drivers.....as they say, the more the merrier :)
Well, i will follow the news of how the races go, and who knows, if it does seem to be interesting, i might watch it...after all, i have some circuit cards to post...they need to be used :)
Well, as you can see, today is not gonna be a regular update day, but more like a shortish post since the day itself calls for commemoration...and on the other hand i have a bad mood-swing day, so its not really advisable that i ramble here....
As the title itself tells you, this boy here has celebrated his 30th birthday today! Who would have thought...honestly, he doesnt seem 30 to me, but looks can deceive you...and lately actually ive been well deceived by certain people and their age, who either appeared much younger than they actually were...or seemed older...and it was all men...which is odd...
Anyways...i hoped that this day might be a lucky charm for Kimi boy since today were the qualifications for the Brazilian GP...but i have to be satisfied with him finishing 5th...if you watched today's qualifications, you would have been happy if your favourites were among the first 10...2 and 45 minutes of drama...probably more interesting than most of the actual races this season....and i still hope for drama tomorrow...and i wish that Button scores zero points and that Barricchelo ends among the first ones, so that we can have an even more dramatic last race, which for the first time will be held in Abu Dhabi this year (and what a coincidence, Kimi has Abu Dhabi written on his cap...)
And i can just hope that next season will be luckier for Kimi, and that in general it will be a more interesting one, coz frankly, this was the most boring one i had ever watched...and lets see if Kimi leaving Ferrari will be a good thing or no...as for tomorrow's race....im honestly indifferent...even if Kimi wins (which i doubt), its not really gonna change on the overall for him...so he just needs a fresh new start....what im really concerned for tomorrow is the Nadal-Davydenko Final in Shangai....Davydenko can be a tough opponent, and he has proved to be so against Nadal....but i truly wish Rafa plays his best tomorrow...it has been an up & down season for him and i just really love to see him back on track....so, all in all, its gonna be a sportish day tomorrow....lets hope i wont regret having spent my time watching it actually :)
and here are the stamps of this card...i wasnt really gonna show them, but i thought they were really beautiful actually...
Yup...finally after a longer while, F1 related card here...but unfortunately, with not much personal talk and points of view, since as with most of the races lately, i just dont have the itch to watch it...gets really tedious..
But i have to say im pleased how it ended....and it was like that only coz Hamilton who was third, crashed into the wall at the very very last lap...so of course, the driver who was fourth, came into the third position....and guess who was 4th?? But of course,...KIMIIIII!! So it was good to see him on the podium! I just regret not having watched the previous race in Spa...i even have a postcard for it, but since i was out of the country, i wasnt able to watch, and of course, even if i did, i wouldnt have been able to post it here...but after sooo many years, i missed a race, and thats when Raikkonen had to win, and i couldnt witness it! Now, you'd say, why such a fuss...well, if you know how Raikkonen has been doing lately, then you'd know that winning aint in his agenda....and once he wins after so long, and i missed it =|
As for the race today, as i already said, it wasnt much fun...Raikkonen started 3...ended up third...had Sutil breathe in his neck all the time...and that was a bit tensed...i thought he was gonna oveertake....but luckily he didnt. No special happenings during the race that are worth mentioning. Barichello won...Button was second...i dont know how the Brawns managed to be so competitive this year, but they are surprising me big time...so surprising, that it even makes me paranoid :)) I often think that in order to make the F1 circus more interesting, they had to somehow put behind the dominating teams, and bring forward some of the outsiders...but i dont know...this is getting boring as well...at the beginning of the season it was fun to see another team dominating and felt like a huge refreshment...but after it started repeating over and over again, it somehow lost its charm..
I do miss Massa though.....but at least he is alive.
Well, this post was intended to sound waaaaay too much different....with a different tone...and composed in a different way...but as usual, its better when a man doesnt plan anything coz his plans never really turn out as he wanted them to...neither did mine...
The new F1 season had started and i was ready to make a nice, elaborate, full of facts post today...but something went wron on the way...even though i dont have a postcard from the Albert Park in Melbourne, where the race was held today, i really wanted to commemorate it and include some symbolic contribution from my side. But i guess that will have to wait for some better times...
I sensed it all at the qualifications, that the Ferrari's are struggling (the McLaren;s were even worse) and from the final outcome of the situation, i felt it was gonna be a weird race. I didnt really have a great desire to get up early and watch it, since i already went to sleep late, and Raikkonen was starting 7th...and my eyes were literary closing...and i admit i slept thru the majority of the race...i noticed several crashes, a Safety Car and the next thing i remember, Button is celebrating...Raikkonen is not even on the list...Why? the guy had crashed into a wall! Geez! Why did i at all get up at 7:30 am?!!
To make matters worse, after that i slept until 3pm! Awful! Disastrous! And just today we had had to have a time change and go ahead one hour! And on top of that, i nstead of having a lazy Sunday (coz i just didnt feel capable for anything) turns out i have work to do, which im not supposed to do it in the first place, but when you have to deal with dishonest and complicated people, thats what you end up with...of course i barely did anything and i can freely proclaim this day as one of the days when i had felt i had totally wasted it! From start till end!
Thank godness Nadal won hos match several hours before that....i couldnt have coped with two losses :)
And thank god the upcoming race is at 11am....even if a disaster happens, at least i will not regret waking up early for nothing...
And all I wanted was to just say that I want to see many many races where Raikkonen would be cheering as on this card! I guess i will have to wait for that a bit...
And last, but not least, i would like to thank Raquel for sending me my first ever Kimi Raikkonen postcard. It's self-printed, but its of an absolutely great quality! And the card is just great and im more than happy to own it!
And just one thing...if you happen to have postcards from the F1 circuits, please contact me...thank you in advance :)
Ok, lets get down to some work....
oh, just one more thing...i want to say that im glad that actually Button won, and Barichello took the second place...im especially glad for Rubens...that man had been struggling sooooo much in the past few years due to having an uncompetitive car...he really really deserved to be on the podium today. Same goes for Button. He hadnt scored so many points in two years as he scored today!
Well, finally it happened...Brazil...Interlagos...the last race of the season...I hate things which denote some kind of an end, coz in general, endings make me feel sad...unless of course some kind of an agony is terminated...i dont like the ending of the F1 season, coz it means 5 months without races, withoug speed, without cars on track...
I dont know if im gonna manage to make a decent post regarding this last race of the season...i feel emotionally disturbed about it all, and its really hard to write under such conditions...i didnt expect this whole thing to affect me as it did, but it did...the outcome, and the circumstances under which it happend, have taken their toll...and im not here to write journalistic reviews, so this whole thing is 100% subjective...with all my feelings and views stripped to the bone...
the whole race today was of great importance coz it would have given the new champion...Massa or Hamilton....Hamilton was in favour of 7 points, but it was the same last year as well, when he was 7 points ahead of Raikkonen, and eventually Kimi was the champion coz of a mistake Hamilton made during the race...I truly hoped something similar will happen here as well...well, Kimi wasnt even close to fight for the championship, but I truly hoped that Massa will....i have somehow grown fond of thim this past year, and im glad when he wins or scores good points...of course, its out of the question that i prefer Massa to win than Kimi...but id rather Massa wins than Hamilton...actually, I rather anyone wins, than Hamilton...ive never felt such an antagonism for a driver...not even for Schumacher, not even Alonso (my attitude towards Alonso had drastically changed since he went to McLaren...I guess thats why I actually hate Hamilton so much...maybe 'hate' is a strong word, but i really feel some very bad negative emotions when it comes to him, and to make it clear, im NOT a racist...not one bit...its his personality in general which drives me nuts...and his lack of fair play...and ill never forgive him how he hit Raikkonen in Montreal at the pit-stop exit...lets get real, it was on purpose!)
Anyway...when i turned the TV on, i was shocked to see how it was pouring...they had even postponed the start of the race for 10 minutes coz of the heavy rain...and this got me worried coz it had been seen in practice that Ferrari dont really manage well in rainy conditions....but after the start, the rain soon stopped so there was no place for fear regarding that....Massa started first...Kimi third...Hamilton fifth....not much of a drama there except that Coulthard and Piquet had a collision in the very first few metres....the race itself didint bring much of an action or overtaking or stuff...so there is no need to go into details of that...until 5 laps before the end...when it started to rain again...and when there was a pit-stop rush in order to change tyres...and when afterwards while Hamilton was 5th he was overtaken by Vettel...and Hamilton was 6th...and do you know what that meant??? that meant NO TITLE for Hamilton...by being 6th he would have the same points as Massa, but he would have lacked a win....and that meant the title would have gone to Massa....now HERE was the real drama...i cant explain how thrilled and excited i got...i couldnt believe it that was happening...I absolutely ADORE Vettel for what he did...and until the very end i was 100% convinced that Massa had the title...as everyone else was....until the screen said that Hamilton was at the 5th position...thats where everyone got confused and didnt know what was going on...how come out of nowhere that Hamilton is 5th and we didnt see any overtaking, any car to retire, any incidents...HOW THE HELL Hamilton ended up 5th??? From the replay, turns out that Glock who was 4th, slowed down and let both Vettel and Hamilton go past....on purpose or no, I dont know...but it is obvious that he is slowing down...stupid Glock...i really really feel bitter at him....I dont care if i should or shouldnt, i simply do and thats it! It was shocking to see Massa's family cheering up and then being told that their whole excitement is in vain...can you imagine THEIR pain in all this? Massa couldnt stop the tears...it really is painful to lose the championship in such a way by JUST one point...it wouldnt have hurt this much if i wasnt convinced as everyone else that Massa won the championship, just to see afterwards on the screen that it aint so...you should have watched the ceremony after the race (apart from Massa winning, Alonso was second and Kimi third)...it more felt like attending a funeral, than a winners' ceremony...it was a dreadful atmosphere...Massa just couldnt celebrate such a win, and you could tell from Alonso's face that he is utterly bitter and disappointed that Hamilton won the championship...if there is someone who openly spoke against Hamilton saying he would do whatever he could in order Hamilton not to win, that was Alonso.. you could see no joy on his face...not even afterwards on the press conference...even though he finished second, which is a great achievement for him....sad, really really sad...
if there is maybe one good thing about all this is that in the general status Raikkonen moved to the third position...if that can be called any kind of consolation...
so...5 months without a race now...maybe it will be enough for all the dust to settle down and start things from scratch next year....and since Kimi and Massa are both staying in Ferrari, i truly hope Ferrari will do a better job next year and wont make such clumsy mistakes as it did this one...i truly hope it will be either Kimi or Massa or Alonso to win the title...or even Kubica..why not..he is a good driver...I may be an absolut Kimi supporter, but if he cant win it, i wouldnt mind if someone of the above mentioned does...even Vettel, he showed a lot of great potential...let anyone win, just not Hamilton...just PLEAAASEE not Hamilton...
Im truly truly sorry Felipe...you have all my geniune condolences and my geniune support...I know it wont change a single thing in the whole outcome, but know that people out there do feel with you....you honestly, DID desrve to win the title...
I know I should write a word or two about the track itself as well....
Interlagos is in the city of São Paulo and is the home to the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. It is named after José Carlos Pace, a Brazilian driver who had died prior to its naming, though it is still widely known by its former name Interlagos.
The circuit is one of the few non-oval racing circuits to go in an anti-clockwise direction. The present design of the track dates back from 1990, when the original circuit was shortened from 7,829 m to only 4,397 m (so that it could fit the new FIA restrictions on track length). Another reason why many drivers consider Interlagos interesting is that it was not built on flat terrain, but follows the ups and downs of hilly ground, which makes it harder to drive and demands more power from the car's engines.
Interlagos has one of the longest pit-lanes ever used in Formula One, starting just before the start-finish straight and rejoining the main course after Curva do Sol. Entering the pits was originally not a trivial task, as the high speed and the left turning may force the car rightwards, out of the pits.
I actually like the curvy outcome of the pit...feels really interesting and unusual..
well...that would be it....in the end I really want to thank Sandro for sending me this card...if it wasnt for him, today;s post wouldnt have been possible to happen...thank you Sandro, a real real lot!
I hope that for next year I may receive some other F1 circuits as well...I wouldnt mind if its the same circuits on different cards..it would be nice to be able to write about this, accompanied by a card...without a card, it would be pointless...
Well, another post for a reason today, without any actual postcards...to bad that such two different reasons had to follow one after another...
Today is 17th October...and, I want to use this cance to FINALLY post this, in honour of Kimi Raikkonen's birthday...yup, the Iceman turns 29 today :))
This is my first ever received FDC as well...I dont collect FDC's nor stamps, but for this one I had a special hunt in order to get them and thanks to two lovely ladies, I got both the FDC, which I feature today, and the stamps on an actual postcard, which im probably gonna feature tomorrow...I dont want to put the stamps today, separately from the card...coz they simply belong together.
I received the FDC cover thanks to Essi, who was so kind to help me with this, and ordered the FDC for me and sent it to me...you know, Ive seen FDC's on other blogs...but since ive never actually had one, i had no idea how it actually should exactly look like...yup, shame on my ignorance...but now i know :) I truly hope there will be some other occasions for me to request another FDC...and feature it here for a reason...
The offical site of the Finnish postal service, says : "In honour of Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen´s Formula One championship in 2007, a two-stamp miniature sheet is to be issued."
Too bad that he missed the chance to claim the championship title this year as well...the stars just dont collide for him sometimes...he either has an uncompetitive car, something goes wrong with it, there is no consistency...or he simply gets hit by a wackoo as Luis Hamilton, while waiting on the red-light to exit the pit lane...I mean really...Raikkonen and Heidfield were waiting next to one another at the exit of the pit lane, coz he red light was on...the race was a mess, the SC was out...and while they were waiting, the Hamilton guy exited from his garage and didnt notice the red light was on, so he couldnt stop on time, and thats why he HAD to hit Raikkonen;s car?!! POR FAVOR!! Should I mention that while he was driving, he was actually behind Heidfield's car??? So how come he didnt hit Heidfield then, but had to actually turn the steering, and crash into Raikkonen??!! I think that, thats the race when things simply went downhill for Kimi...
Why I support him so devotedly you may ask (it is a devoted support, since ive been doing it since 2002....regardless the team he is driving for...he can go to Super Auguri if he wants, id still cheer for Kimi :)))
I dont know why...the guy is just pretty down to earth...way too cool (or as they call him, cold as ice)...he is a really good driver...and he has some inner thing in him, some kind of competitive force that i love...and well, he is Finnish...and you know by now that I have a soft spot for Finland...well, northern Europe in general...before 2002, even though I didnt follow F1, i supported Mika Hakkinen...so, its all in the "Finnish" thing...what I hate is when people think I support/cherish people coz of their physical appearance....HELL they are wrong...frankly, I dont have such an itch for people i personally dont know...I may say that someone has great charisma (as for example, Brian Molko does...or Morten Hartket...and Rafael Nadal...) but I never support them coz i have a crush on them or would want something with them, or whatever.....thats just non-sense....but oh well...thats people, and thats mentality, so I cant help them with it...
What I also hate is that Raikkonen is often associated with rude behaviour....which is just media propaganda, who love to apply it to him coz they think its just normal that a cold person as he is, behaves like that
For facts and stuff you can just visit the following pages:
Here are some highlights...both from his carrer in Ferrari and McLaren....or just outside the tracks
A commercial about Fiat, featuring both Kimi and Michael Schumacher.....huh, ive never liked the latter
A Nescafe commercial....uhhh, I LOVE this one!! It features coffee!! Delicious coffee!!!
this one is simply called as "Kimi drunk".....but he aint drunk...he just lost balance...so deal with it :)
An Incident in Valencia...one of the famous Ferrari moments, when the driver starts while the fuel hose is still inside....they switched to the lollipop method as everyone else
The last moments of the Brazilian race in 2007 when Raikkonen won the championship.....hahahaha, that was one of the best races ever! He simply ruined Hamilton;s plans at the very very last race
The commentator speaks either Chinese or Japanese...have no idea...I dont understand a single thing of what he says!!
A Mercedes-Benz commercial...Ive always found it funny due to Kimi's way of communication in it :))
Where he allegedly hit the little girl...I the the whole fault lies in the mother here for neglecting her child and running after an autograph...Kimi did NOTHING on purpose here....he may get pissed off, but frankly, he'd never hit a child
This is how Kimi ended in Singapore....something over my heart ached
and another heart-breaking crash in Nurburgring, in 2005...when just before the end of the race, his tyre just couldnt put up with the pressure anymore, and finally gave off...I admire him for continuing the race, even though he was aware his tyre was in trouble and couldve exploded as well...he was leading the race, and scored no points eventually...Alonso came first...
ok...i think you've had it enough :)
Happy Birthday Kimi boy...and get some grip!!! I expect that the next season is all yours, got it? :)
