Journey of the Stork

We have been in Singapore for 4 days and so far we have been up before seven am every morning and have not stopped til seven at night. We have done the following:

• Singapore Flyer
• Marina Sands Casino and resort
• Merlion
• River Cruise x 2
• Raffles
• Little India
• Chinatown
• Orchard Road
• Botanical Garden and
• Clarke Quay

All thanks to Hippo Tours and some serious leg work. We have seen most of the inner city stuff and tomorrow we are having a "fuck it" day as my friend Jo Knight used to call one of those days where you slept in, didn't make any plans and done what took your fancy. This principle can also be applied to "Mental Health" days. Plus Vince wants to find a laundromat. Go figure. I like the little lady who collects our clothes and drops them back beautifully clean, ironed and folded.

The highlight of the trip so far for me was having lunch today at the Raffles Hotel. I had a club sandwich and a Singapore Sling. Vince had a chicken curry and diet coke. Yes it was over priced at $S92, but the experience was priceless. My Pop spent most of the war in Singapore and was in Changi Prison for most of the time he was here. He never spoke of the war much, but he always joked about the Raffles Hotel and Singapore Slings. So it did feel special being there.

I know the highlight for Vince so far has been the Botanical Garden and it came a close second for me. They truly are amazingly beautiful. We spent some three hours there, lost in lush green rain forests, padding perfect meadows of lawn and admiring the enormous orchid collection. There is also a lake jammed pack full of fish and turtles. The park provides vending machines with fish/turtle food that is very cheap to encourage people to feed the fish with the right food. I admit that we felt like little kids watching the water churn as the turtle and Koi battled it out for the multi-coloured pellets we were throwing to them. This is one activity I know we will both love sharing with the kids. Everywhere we go Vince gets excited by the ferns growing all over the trees. His second highlight was finding a Japanese Ramen House. He slurped to his hearts content!

We have both loved strolling up and down the river. On Boxing day we walked to Clarke Quay for coffee (at Star Bucks of course) and it was such a great moment. I guess we would have sat there for a good half hour and never spoke. It wasn't that we had nothing to say or that we were not speaking. It was simply that we are so comfortable in each other presence that we just sat and watched the world go by. It was at that point I knew we had both switched off and were beginning to relax.

J.