Hello from Singapore!

Well....one day late!! It turns out I really am stupid and I cannot read 24 hour times on my flight tickets. Yes I missed my flight and my Dad arrived there before me, which me and my mum were trying to work out, and put it down to the time difference!!! so long story short, mum got me on the flight I thought I was going on anyway lol cheers mum!

So...Sunday 5th July, I flew this evening, the flight was 5 hours long, i met Dad in the reception of the hotel redezvous where I would stay with him. It was really hot and sticky weather, not sunny just very humid, and raining all the time. It was odd seeing Dad, he looked a lot older to me, and shorter! lol it was nice to see him, but I pretty much went to bed as soon as I had unpacked, my eyes were so bloodshot. Monday 6th - we spent the morning walking around fort canning park, absolutely sweating!! then we headed back to the pool and jacuzzi and both fell asleep by the pool in the heat before it started tipping it down again. In the evening we found a mexican restaurant and had food that was not really mexican at all lol, but nice all the same. We had a walk down the main road Orchard road, then went to bed early!

tuesday 7th - My first day on my own, Dad was working, and schmoozing with singaporean bus people. I spent the day walking down orchard road, there are huuuge shopping centres as cold as antarctica! There's families asleep everywhere, because aparently air con is so expensive in their houses, they take the family for a day out wandering round shopping centres and falling asleep in the cool, there are seating areas everywhere and random pieces of art, and even a climbing wall inside one of the malls. I spent the afternoon by the pool, even though it was raining, I thought i might as well use the facilities, so went in the gym and the steam room too! I had dinner by myself in a restaurant near the hotel, $30 for a 3 course meal, not too bad, and I had my first tiramisu! it was quite tasty. Wednesday 8th - I spent the day wandering and by the pool again. Dad txt me saying i was being taken for dinner with him and the guy Colin from the australian side of the business tonight, so to be ready. We went to "Jumbo" seafood restaurant by the sea, there were us 3 and 5 other singaporean guys at the table. The main bloke was very direct, and quite rude from mine and dads perspective to the waitresses,grabbing them by the arm and shouting at them, but aparently this is normal! I tried everything they offered apart from the egg! as me and dad cant eat egg. I had deep fried whole baby squid, it looked rank, you could see their eyes and everything!! but they were surprisingly tasty and crunchy, I had chilli crab, the delicacy you must have when you go to singapore, it was nice, but left my lips and tongue more than a little tingly!! its messy, you eat with your hands or chop sticks, you hear cracking and slurping from the men, they think we're weird because we eat with our mouths shut and chew quietly. They crunch away and spit the bones out all over the table cloth. As guests of honour we got offered the fish head, to which i politely declined!!

Thursday 9th - Happy birthday Nadine back home! dad left me his blackberry so I could email mum and ricky, as my phone decided to stop working. I spent today, you guessed it, by the pool!! and wahey it was sunny, and didnt rain once thank god. Friday 10th - HAPPY 27 YEARS ANNIVERSARY MUM AND DAD! more good news, Hannah got offered a new job teaching as a beauty lecturer in London, I am very pleased for her! Dad had the day off today!! wooo. So we walked to Clarke quay, and to china town, both were not overly impressive to me, i have seen much better places in Australia, Clarke quay was ok in the evening. I was very glad that the australian bloke Colin had now gone home and I could actually spend some time with my dad, he is one of the most irritating men i have ever met. He was born in kenya, but is Aussie, and worked in China, and is scottish and bloody everything else under the sun. Every sentence is started with in charmin, in china, it got extremely boring, and I think the Singaporean men found my dad much more interesting, comign from London, as its so different, whereas most of them have probably been to Aus as its so close. We had dinner in a cheap 24 hour local place, had some vietnamese food, it was really tasty, and so cheap. All the actual restaurants, and shopping places are not even cheap. Singapore was completely not what i was expecting at all really. I think, unless you are loaded, and are purely going there to shop and eat, there is nothing else to do. there is sentosa island which is meant to be nice, with a beach, and a zoo where you can do a night tour, but I reckon that would have been pants, and not worth the money.

Sat 11th - 10am we packed, had breakfast and checked out of the hotel, I headed to T3 with Dad, and then got the skytrain to T1 when Dad had to catch his flight. I got a little teary when the doors on the train closed and dad blew me a kiss and waved goodbye, it was nice to see him, but I didnt really get a lot of time to talk to him etc. I got to my terminal, and had to wait for hours for my flight, it was at 5.45! lol So I played on my nintendo ds, my dad brought from home for me, listened to my ipod and got thoroughly entertained by mass groups of indians with too much heavy goods frantically gaffa taping up boxes and boxes of stuff and stuffing it onto the weighing scales, and nearly missing their flights. I'm looking forward to seeing my Ricky, and finding out if I have a job in Aus through some of the outback agencies I have joined. I don't think I'll be coming to singapore again! lol

Sunday 12th July - back in peth, back with ricky. I am unpacking all my bags, and I go to give ricky my singapore dollars I have left over, as he will be going there first to get to china, and he tells me to sit down and he's been doing some thinking, and I'm now thinking jesus christ what's he doing now. He says China is a bad idea and he's not going, he thought I was going to be upset because I might think he's messing me around, but I am very happy, I just want him to be safe, not to waste his aussie visa, and to save up as much money as he can so he can see more of the world and not regret it, use his emergency flight fund and end up back in Rotherham depressed! We talk about perhaps going to Bali.... and go off to the cinema to see Bruno....