Familiar faces, familiar places

We spent most of Monday 27/3 travelling,, Jen having dropped us at the train late morning (very good train service from Ashfield to the airport), 8-hour flight Sydney to Singapore, not too crowded, we sat in aisle seats across from each other and each had an empty seat beside us so that was good. Food was okay, Qantas crew very pleasant. And we barely had to stand and wait going through to immigration in Sydney, not a repetition of the 90 minutes in Auckland thank goodness.

Timeline – we lived in Singapore for several years, in Asia for more than 10, this will explain how we got there
• April 1993 Pete was made redundant by Telecom, went to work in Ho Chi Minh City for a year for NZ company TeleNZ
• Nov/Dec 1997 Pete/then family moved to Bangkok, Pete working for Nokia
• Oct 1998 Pete working mainly in Singapore on a Nokia project, family in BKK completing schooling
• July 1999 Family to Singapore
• Feb 2002 Pete made redundant by Nokia, took 3 1/2 years of telecom contract work in Thailand, Philippines, Kuala Lumpur; Andy to Melbourne to Uni 2002, Jen to Brisbane to Uni 2004; Ailsa worked in Singapore 2000-2005
• Aug/Sept 2005 Pete/Ailsa to Hiroshima, Japan, contracting to Nokia
• Oct 2007 Redundant again, moved to Bangkok to look for work but nothing came up
• Feb 2008 Pete/Ailsa returned to NZ

We’ve had a few short stays in Singapore over the past years on our way to see the family in Poland, it’s always good to get back. This time we’re staying at Hotel Royal on Queens Road, good tourist grade, comfortable room, very pretty to look out at the lights from the 13th floor at midnight. It’s two blocks from Raffles, might have to find a Singapore Sling tomorrow

Got a taxi from the airport, typical taxi ‘uncle’ talked the whole time, we got the gen on the new expressway and how many billion $ it cost, tourism is picking up which is good, no masks unless going to the doctor or hospital AND the best chicken rice in Singapore is down in Chinatown, he gave us the address three times, so keen for us to go. Lovely man. Hard to get my language ear back into the ‘Singlish’ though, a bit hard to understand the fast chat, but so familiar all the same, made us smile.

Headed out this morning having bought bus/MRT cards, not without difficulty but I have to say there was a very helpful and proactive young woman at the station on duty to help helpless tourists, very impressed. In the mall above the station we saw three cops, all armed with tasers and possibly guns (didn’t like to stare), Singapore is still a safe place.

We took the 77 bus to Holland Village – I took that bus route from Orchard Road every day for more than five years to and from work, interesting to see the changes but also there’s much the same ‘Fort Americal (AKA the US Embassy) is still standing alongside the Aussies and Brits. All around the Botanic Gardens still looks like a jungle in the middle of the city, Singapore has a law that a certain percentage of the island has to remain green, a good thing. Funny to see two ‘helpers’ (or maids) on the bus with two little expat kids in strollers, kids were griping so they gave the kids their phones to play with, next thing we hear the familiar ‘Baaaaby Shark, do do do do, do dit, do do’. Oisin and Flynn love that song.

We had a look around Lims Chinese furniture and Asian homeware store, my fingers itched to get some of the blue and white pottery to add to my collection, not to mention wooden cabinets, but Pete reckoned they wouldn’t fit in the backpacks. Bother!

Then we met up for coffee with our old friend of nearly 25 years, Amy, so much to catch up on about family and what we’ve all been doing, shared memories are wonderful. Then we went to 6th Avenue for old time’s sake to check out our old neighbourhoods. Quite a bit of building going on, some seriously expensive real estate around the area now, condos and houses. The workers still have their makan (lunch) then lie in the shade for a sleep, we tiptoed past.

Our Lily Avenue house is still standing but we were amazed at the beautiful park next door. One photo shows the huge storm drain that was at the end of our cul de sac, and the other shows that it has been completely piped in (the whole canal job cost $500m I believe), and a park, playground and walking/cycling track created.

Took the bus back to Orchard Road and had Yakitori chicken at Ngee Ann City food court, nostalgia again. It was my go-to meal at least once a week when I was living on my own, I worked for NZ Defence in the Ngee Ann City tower block (it has 8 floors of food and shopping complex, and about 40 storeys of office space in two towers).

I’d booked a treat for the evening, another of our favourite places, the 70th floor of Swisshotel the Stamford where we took visitors to see the sun go down, beautiful. When booking on line they asked ‘any special occasion?’ so, ever resourceful (cheeky?) I said it was an early birthday celebration, and please could we have a table by the window. So we got the table and a surprise cake and candle. There were two young men alongside us setting up advertising for Veuve Clicquot champagne, bottles and glasses set up for photos with food, the staff member pouring, sunset, views – interesting to watch and they were ready for a chat too, having been assured that they weren’t disturbing us at all. The sunset was pretty but it’s really lovely watching the sky dim and all the city lights come on below us, beautiful. Such a good day all round.Read more