Our last couple of days in Australia seemed to fly by. We went to the Queensland Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art as they were both free and a short walk from the hostel we stayed at in Brisbane. They were surprisingly good and small enough that Jak's attention was held almost all the way round each one. There was a piece of 'art' by Tracy Emin on the wall of the modern art museum: neon pink lettering spelling out 'I have never stopped loving you'. No messy bed sheets though. On our last night we chilled out with a cider or two at the hostel. We'd signed up to their free barbecue at which it turned out we were allowed (I kid you not) precisely one slice of bread and exactly one sausage each. No-one was monitoring how much ketchup we took though so I gave myself an extra big splodge in defiance and tried to pretend it was actual food. I don't think my stomach was fooled.

On Wednesday morning we caught the airtrain to Brisbane airport and flew to Singapore. We each watched three films: 'Contagion', 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', 'The Help' (me) and 'Captain America' (Jak). We've both been so scarred by Easyjet that we still can't get used to these long distance flights with their on-demand films and free drinks :-) We arrived into Changi Airport at half seven and somehow got lost on the way to baggage reclaim. Not a good omen. When we were at last introduced to the baggage carousel and reclaimed our bags we caught the MRT to Bugis station - and promptly got lost again. We spent around an hour in total walking the 8 minute walk to our hostel, and therefore arrived dripping in sweat. Attractive.

This morning we woke up refreshed and ready to hit Singapore. We did what we always do when we reach a new place: go for a walk to get the lie of the land and just soak things up. We're staying in Little India and the cramped streets around our hostel were buzzing with life and colour and smells, with shops and wares spilling out onto the roads and lots and lots of people zigzagging in and out of everything. However, as we got closer to the centre of town the buildings became taller, the roads wider and everything cleaner and more shiny. It was incredibly humid and it quickly became necessary to duck into every other shopping mall on Orchard Street (Singapore's equivalent of Oxford Street) for quick fixes of air conditioning. There were dozens of malls and each one had its own Christmas tree and decorations. A disproportionately high number of shop assistants were already wearing Santa hats and many of the shops were also cheerily piping out festive songs - including, rather optimistically, considerably it was like a sauna outside, 'Let it snow'. It was premature and over the top but it did get me excited about Christmas for the first time this year.

We have eaten out twice here and already learnt two very valuable lessons: 1) If you go to Nandos in South East Asia make sure you order the mild or lemon and herb seasoning; do NOT do what we did and arrogantly order the 'hot' chicken burger just because that's what you always order at home. We couldn't stop laughing at our complete inability to complete our f***ing spicy meals, even as tears of sheer pain were rolling down our faces and our lips were swelling up (Jak's actually turned purple in the corners) and 2) Do not feel like you have to use chopsticks just because they are all you have been given. We spent an hour eating our noodles this evening, one strand at a time, before realising that 90% of people in the restaurant were using plain old knives and forks.

Asia is going to be interesting...