We had landed last night, I thought I was being really clever trying to get the kids onto our time zone, it seems I managed to con Joey and his little body but Ellie has been up since 3am telling me she's awake! A real pity because I'm knackered and the bed is bloody comfortable! We are staying at Park Avenue apartments which over look riverside point. They are very nice, not too basic, two bedrooms, little kitchen, pool and gym. Everything we need if we had the suitcase with our running trainers, Joey's sleeping bag, Ellie's Pow Pows, my swimming costumes in, also, all of mine and Jim's clothes. Luckily I'd randomly put one dress in the other case. It looks like this particular issue may drag on, they can't tell us anything until tomorrow morning now... We leave Singapore for Malaysia 24 hours after that... Anyway, we will not let it stop us! We were at breakfast at 7:30. It was just a very small room with a spread of bread, pastries, boiled eggs and much needed coffee and you just hang around the reception area eating it. I've never experienced anything like it before, but was very tasty, the only downside was the lack of table and chairs and high chairs meant I got to share a arm chair with Joey to stop him escaping which wasn't great for indigestion! This is only a Monday to Friday thing so we won't get it again.
We decided to walk along from riverside point to "the big wheel" Ellie had spotted, otherwise known as the Singapore Flyer. It is very, very hot here and humid. It was a fairly epic walk, Ellie did so well. We saw the Marina Bay Sands (off the movie Entrapment) and all kinds of impressive buildings. We walked along part of the Grand Prix night circuit, another one where we're there and the cars aren't, and headed to the complex where the Singapore flyer is. They have a really good food area where they have literally Tarmac'd it like a road complete with double yellows and arrows and put street food style carts along, so you literally feel like you're eating street food. We got a couple of bits of Singapore style satays and then headed up to the wheel. As we were queuing I was dreading it as Joey wasn't happy about being in one place but as soon as we got on and the doors were locked they were safe as houses and tootled around looking at what they wanted to and in Joey's case, licking what he wanted to! The views were incredible and a great way to start our few days here as you really got a sense of what is out there to visit. However, we came back down, had some lunch and Joey was boiling so we headed back to our air conditioning instead. Jim and Ellie had a swim (I have no swimming costume) and Joey had a rest for a couple of hours. When they came back up Joey was still asleep so Ellie made the most of being able to have a bath by herself for once without the splash attack from Joey. Once we were all ready again, we headed to Bugis Street, a market area, to try and buy some clothes to keep us going due to this looking like the suitcase issue may drag on. It was a great area, real hustle and bustle. The kids were constantly getting stopped for high 5s, Ellie loves it but is getting a bit over zealous and close to attack mode with hers, Joey won't even contemplate giving a stranger a high 5, he is very hot and very tired though. Jim managed to find a couple of tee shirts and shorts, whilst picking his tee shirts Ellie spontaneously stood infront of the fan in the stall, blonde locks a flowing, doing one of her special dances, it was hilarious and total inappropriate, I've recorded her so hoping I can add a video to the blog! Ellie purchased herself a very fetching Hawaiian shirt with matching shorts (I'm trying to convince her they are pyjamas, Jim's telling her she can wear them tomorrow in the day) and I wanted to buy a dress and a bikini so I can change my outfit tomorrow and go swimming, the only problem being I am quite a different size to the lovely ladies of Singapore, their dresses are like tee shirts and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get my bottom into their one size bikini! Also, they are also all incredible cute and wear bows and hearts and stuff, it would quite frankly, make me look like a knob. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow or a person dressed in hello kitty will be arriving back in Worcester. From here we headed to little India! again turning heads with Ellie and all of her blondness on Jim's shoulders, pink and orange trainers balancing by his tummy, we're hardly discreet here! It was a lovely area to walk through, but late, about 18:45 and the kids were tired and grumpy so we headed into a cafe busy with locals and got some food, one of the "must have" foods on a leaflet we read was chicken biryanni, which to be fair, we probably have a couple of times a month at home, but we picked that and a vegetarian platter. They were both delicious, Ellie had fallen asleep on Jim outside the restaurant so she wasn't really interested, she had some breads and a bit of rice. Everyone kept coming over to Joey to try and make friends, bless him, he really isn't interested today (unless it's a woman, then he may try and be friendly) poor little dude got an accidental bit of chilli and bless him, he got so upset. Luckily, as part of the vegetarian platter there was some natural yoghurt Jim managed to get in him and calmed him right down, he loved it. We got a taxi home and had the most talkative driver. He was so lovely, born and bred here (he showed us the hospital) it was like having a guided tour. And he just loved the Brits and all they did here, that the queen sent the president a card on his birthday (he couldn't believe she had thought of him when she is so busy!) what a lovely guy. I think he thinks that England is the most magical place where you are treated to all sorts of treats by our government - I told him not to visit, it would devastate him! We got back, put the kids to bed, drank some Tiger. Lush, what a great day. Although I have to say, everyone you tell that you're coming to Singapore they always comment on how clean it is. While it's far from a cess pit, it's no way as immaculate as I was expecting! Had a great but very short skype from my very lovely friend, well done you! Xxxx
Saturday 29/03 my dad's birthday! So gutted I'm not there to see your surprise Charlotte and Boo visit! In the morning, I washed our limited clothing supply (I have one nice dress and limited underwear) the clothes I do have are what I discarded into a bag when we reduced bag sizes earlier in the trip, nothing matches, the shorts are way to big and and tops are strapless and too big... It's just not working. So I hair dryerd my bra and slightly cold and wet, that and my dress, we headed off to the botanic gardens! They are flippin huge! 183 acres and 1.6 miles in length. We asked the taxi diver to drop us at the end where the park is, he dropped us at the opposite end so a 1.6 mile walk in what at the start was 31 degrees in the shade at 9:30, so god knows how hot in the sun by the time we got to the other end! We made it having walked through the beautiful gardens with interesting boards with the history on and got to the splash pad at the end, which we had all been looking forward to the cool down and it was closed! Never mind, they have the Jacob Ballas children garden, the only children's garden of it's kind in Asia. It was very lovely and showed labels on pebbles of the plants such like Banana tree, peanut tree, coffee and chocolate and carnivorous, a really lovely area for them to mooch in and things that kids can relate to when looking at. I should mention, walking around this Ellie is in her new Hawaiian shirt and matching shorts outfit!
After the gardens we headed back to have some lunch, a swim (I found some bikini bottoms and wore a boob tube!) and Joey napped while Ellie and I got some provisions for tomorrow's bus ride to KL. Again, we called Changi airport chasing our case and no updates. We headed out to China town which is very impressive as it's busy and truly Chinese looking but really, just full of souvenir shops and restaurants. Saying that it was great to walk around, I even managed to pick myself up a dress that covers my bottom! We got some food at Smith Street food center, we'd looked around a food court that only locals go to but it was rammed full, and Ellie and her Hawaiian outfit and blonde hair was causing quite the scene to the tiger fuelled patrons! After dinner we got ice lollies, it's so hot that they were actually steaming! And this is 7pm! We thoroughly enjoyed Singapore and just wished we had more time to do more stuff, I'm a bit sad to leave so soon, I haven't even had a Singapore sling and a chilli crab! Tomorrow we need to be up bright and early for our bus, we're hoping to get to KL in time to dash to the Grand Prix, so excited!
No comments:
Post a Comment