Singapore

I think we are pretty good at having a smooth and efficient journey for flights now. Our packing is down to the tee we know exactly what items should go in the bag and what items need to be worn to ensure the bag is at 7kg. The alarm went off at 4:15am, the Grab was booked at 4:30am and we left by 4:45am. Checkin and security was smooth and easy and we sat in the lounge eating our weird chocolate bread loaf that we bought the day before. It was literally chocolate bread... We thought it would be muffin like but definitely wasn't. When we boarded the flight it was absolutely freezing. The trip was so cold the whole way, I was so glad to arrive and get into some heat! I'm sure I'll regret saying that.

Thankfully we don't need to worry about accomodation here as the lovely Amber has let us stay in her lovely apartment. And it was truly lovely. Its on the 17th floor, the bathroom isn't a wet room so I don't have to always get wet feet when I want to pee, the toilet seat isn't constantly wet from the shower, I can sit on a sofa, she has a washing machine so I can do my own washing whenever I want and she has a scale so we can finally weigh ourselves. We have both lost about 7kg! I don't remember ever being this weight, super chuffed and not even had to try!

After we put on our washing and faffed a bit we went for our afternoon nap. We should probably start putting alarms on... We woke up at 4pm! Apart from a bit of bread we hadn't really eaten but now we were running late to see Will's ex colleagues in the Singapore office! After a quick shower and putting out the washing we jumped on the MRT and headed to his office. Honestly it was a really surreal feeling, almost as if we had never gone travelling! It was so lovely to see Wing again after so many years and Pierre was there too! I probably should have dressed a bit nicer wups... They took us to a super cool rooftop bar which looked out on to Marina Bay Sands. The views were amazing and oh my god we had wine. Wine for the first time in months!! In fact we haven't had alcohol for nearly a month. We all sat and chatted and it was just perfect. The generosity of everyone at Trading Screen is just unbelievable. Here we are 2 people who have little money, one who is now an excolleague and they didn't let us buy anything at all the whole night! Wing even bought our dinner at Mc Donald's! He and Chee Seng insisted we had to try Durian Ice cream. I must admit this was the biggest mistake of the day. For the rest of the evening I smelt of durian, I burped durian, I hiccuped durian - it was god awful!

We then went to watch the match with Chee Seng and it was interesting to hear more about Singapores history and political state. Singapore is a really interesting country. From an outsiders point of view it seems so progressive, advanced in use of technology and education but actually when you get to know more about its history and the people rights of freedom of speech its a very different story. The land and shape of Singapore is very much man made and is still growing at a rate of 30% a year. Crime rate is possibly the lowest in the world but that is also because the severity of the consequences are so high. The same governmental party have been in power for its 50 years of independence existence. Protesters are seen as radicalists and illegal without the correct procedures and authorisation, which is generally difficult to get. Any party gathering of more than 3 people is supposed to have the correct legal paperwork otherwise this is illegal and people can be jailed for the crime. In the background it seems Singaporeans have a very old style cultural political system.

After many drinks we decided to call it a night, nipped to the Newton Hawker centre for some fried rice and jumped straight into bed. We've not had a 2am late night in a long time... I don't think it's going to be an early start!Read more