Watch out for team Brawn GP in the 2009 F1 GP season

Those who have followed the F1 sport will know that Ross Brawn was a technical director in Ferrari - back when Michael Schumacher was still driving for the team with the prancing horse.

Today, Ross Brawn has his own team. It is simply known as Brawn GP and he has financial backing from Richard Branson. "The" Richard Branson who owns the Virgin group of companies. And... this team used to be the Honda team that was No. 9 on the Constructor's Championship at the end of the 2008 season.

An amazing feat was done today. Brawn GP drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello passed the checkered flag first and second respectively in the Australian GP (Albert Park, Melbourne).

In short, a new F1 team makes an incredible debut by sweeping in a big bag of points into their pot.

Oh... and the Brits must be awfully proud. A British team and a British driver won the race. Moreover, there is also much hope that they can dominate the season and take over as the best constructor. Last but not least, there is a likelihood that they can help put another Brit up there as a world champion (driver's championship) after Lewis Hamilton's feat last year.

What's not to like in the eyes of the Brits?

Another realization sets in

In just a few days, it cannot be more apparent that my grandpa's mind ability has deteriorated sharply.

The clue was when he kept talking about his next appointment with the specialist on Friday morning.

But the clincher was when he asked me, were were we earlier.

Oh - my - gawd !!!

And the other thing was he speaks a lot more than he normally does at home... but mostly to ask about the most mundane of things.

It was a matter of time before it happened. We knew it would get full blown one day. It seems, he's almost there. The dementia thing. Ahh... time to hone more patience when talking to the old man.

Living with a stubborn geriatric

Everyone gets older. Your systems slows down eventually. It's common sense.

However, gramps doesn't seem to think that he is any older than he was 5 years ago. He's been having vomiting spells in the last few months. He's been choking on food. Why? We know why...

Firstly, he still stuffs his mouth full as though he has not had food in days. Not a very wise thing to do when the muscles in his digestive system is obviously slowing down.

Secondly, he obviously doesn't take his time to chew his food properly.

Thirdly, he is too stubborn to steer clear of foods that he should try to eat way less. When he gets annoyed that we are nagging him too much, he shouts at us saying we want him to go to the netherworld ASAP. WTF!

Fourthly, he seems to like avoiding the doctor... because he thinks he is his own best doctor. That is sOOoooo annoying. We have to nag him and drag him to go for a checkup.

Lastly, did I mention that the only person he may listen to is my dad? Bless mum and I if for any reason dad is traveling and we have to deal with the old man on our own.

*sigh*

And yes... I do wonder why my grandpa would rather suffer with the vomiting than to take the necessary precautions to avoid this complication in the first place. That's what any other sane health conscious person would do though it seems... that kind of logic just does not compute in gramps head.

The most I can do is watch and probably help to clean up after him... and have a superb amount of patience. I've been known to answer back to his more ludicrous comments... but I know... I should hold my tongue more in front of the old man... even if it kills me... I just need to vent my frustrations and opinions elsewhere. Like now... on this blog... or to my friends.

Edit, 2:30pm: Oh god help me! I've just spent the last couple of hours... cleaning up the house... this time... drips of diarrhea leading from the living room... and bombs away in the bathroom. Oh man... the walls, the walls... were hard to clean...! And all this before gobbling lunch too... errRrrk... o.O

The Ghost of Friday the 13th

Amazingly, today was the one time that I'm not aware of Friday the 13th. Coincidentally, it's also the day that things decided to take a life of its own at the office.

All the task I had for the day were lined up pretty and I had all the confidence in the world that I could get things done... until of course... the LAN port at my cube died. It totally died!

And get this... the office phones are VoIP ones... which means... I'm doomed with no cabled network and phone to use. As if that was not bad enough, the wireless network signal where I sit... is next to useless during peak office hours.

Yeah, if it was any other day where I don't have tasks to complete... I would be more than happy to bask in the glory of being literally cut off from the basic things that we need in modern office life.

With no obvious empty desk(s) on the 1st floor, the only thing I could do in order to get some work done was simply... to park myself at one of the empty cubes on the ground floor... one where I can see a wireless access point just about right above my head.

Oh yes... I went to squat at some "abandoned" cube.

Well... if that is what it takes to get my work done... so be it... amen to that and next time... I will try to remember to notice you - Friday the 13th... you sure know how to strike when I don't joke about you or notice that you are here.