I had a crazy idea last week. I thought that I could watch the Formula 1 race in Melbourne live. Even though it was on the other side of the world. The last two years of the Australian Grand Prix were canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID so I wanted to catch up by watching all races this 2022 season.
The first bad plan was to watch the qualification sessions at 2 AM Saturday morning. Set an alarm on my Fitbit. And though the alarm went on and I did wake up, I had no energy to move out of the bed. Classic fail. Back I went to sleep again.
The master plan was to try this better once more Saturday night. I even took a couple of hours’ nap on Saturday afternoon to pre-compensate. Instead of sleeping, I would try not to sleep at all until the race started. Would stay up until the pre-race starts at midnight and would watch the race 1-3 AM Sunday morning live.
This did work. And I enjoyed watching the race. As well as one could. I even spoke to my 91-year-old dad in India while he and I watched the race together until the end of it. We have been watching Formula 1 for over 45 years and he was the one instrumental in introducing me to it.
But then again after I went to bed at 3 AM, it was a Sunday lost. Could not get out of bed in the morning. A blasting headache ensued all day. A couple of extra coffees for the caffeine did not help. An afternoon nap attempt ended up miserably. And ended up the evening feeling as shitty as one could feel. Not much of a positive experience for watching an F1 race. A seriously failed experiment.
So, the learning was. Skip these and watch the 20-minute recap and just read a news update for 2 minutes. Not worth the trouble for more than that. And for the two races of the 23 that are still in Asia’s crazy hours - Japan and Singapore - it is Sayonara and Zàijiàn. Or probably Sayonara Ichi-go ichi-e and Zàijiàn Jué bù to be more accurate (see you again, never)
Hopefully, I will be recovered from this forced in-place jet lag by tomorrow morning. A boatload of self-created weekend trouble.