Jen Jen Qld

Brisbane International Airport

Ben, just before landing at Singapore

We are in Singapore!

We made it. It was a long, long day.
The flight went very smoothly and although it seemed to drag, on the 8 hours did speed by. Ben finally drifted off to sleep at 9.30pm after no day sleep; he also slept through the landing. Singapore Airlines were great. Georgia played Nintendo games the whole time and Chelsea and Ben watched a lot of movies. The only drama was when we realized 5 minutes after we were dropped at the airport that we had left the camera in the car…..A few phone calls later, Jo returned to the airport and we got the camera. Yeah!!!. I thought my eyes were going to turn into sultanas and my skin aged 20yrs on the flight; even with moisturiser I still felt the cabin air sucking all the moisture out of me. It doesn't help that I have a cough and cold…..
The airport is suporganized and our pick up was waiting for us as soon as we came out. My first impression is HOT (28 C) and humid, it was so muggy and it was very late at night.
We had about a half an hour trip to the hotel and that is all I have seen so far. There were apartments everywhere and the streets were SO clean and tropical. The Hotel (serviced apartment) is great, very luxurious. It is still early morning and GJ has taken the kids to the pool. The shops and attractions don'’t open until after 10am so I am taking the opportunity to type.…
We are going to do a quick look around Orchard road this morning, buy a few groceries and then let everyone have an afternoon nap. What with coughing fits, kids waking and silly hotel alarm clocks going off (at 5am!) I have only had about 4 hours sleep.
The first thing to buy is milk. I bought some of my own coffee, but only had light long life soy milk to add to it in a tiny little cup, and the coffee at Breakfast was not very nice.
Georgia is very excited as she realized that on her birthday she will be in two different countries and both hemispheres of the world. She will wake up in the Northern hemisphere in Singapore and then travel to Jakarta in the Southern hemisphere in the afternoon. GJ told her that as that was so special that she didn'’t need any presents LOL. The girls have both been very good in the last few weeks and have won back all their privileges.
We are having Georgia'’s and Ben'’s birthday on Sunday 15th Oct (Ben'’s actual birthday) and GJ and Chelsea'’s birthday on Sun 22nd October. The big family party will be on Sat 21st as the day after we arrive back Janny will arrive.
For newbie's, October is birthday party month at our home….
Georgia 5th
Benjamin 15th
Chelsea 25th
GJ 30th

We also have Jeremy's, Chloe'’s and Abbey's birthday in October. We often joke around that James could have the 10th for his birthday and Kate could have the 20th (that would be if I had a 4 and 5th baby which is SO not going to happen!!!!!)



Day one after lunch:-

We caught the hotels shuttle bus into Orchard Rd for a quick look around and shopping. The first place we went was a department store called Tangs. It was organised beautifully, and there were sales people everywhere; not like Brisbane where it can take you ten minutes just to find someone to pay! The girls wanted to spend their Birthday money straight away. The top floor was all for kids, clothes, toys and novelties. There was so much Barbie and Bob the Builder things the kids didn'’t know which way to look first. These photos are of a cute dressing table that was a display. The kids change room was also very groovy.
We went to the next centre which had a food court, there was so much to choose from. By this time we had been out for about 45 minutes and the kids got tired. I found a boutique style supermarket while the kids had ice-cream.. Such a variety of things, they even had alcohol in the supermarket. In Australia alcohol can only be bought from licensed shops. GJ bought me a bottle of bubbles, the cheapest bottle was S$20, much dearer than in Australia.
So far Singapore has been great (the tiny bit we have seen!) It was not as hot as I had feared!
The kids are asleep and GJ has just figured out how to log onto broadband; I started on dial up and nearly gave up it was so slow!
We are going through the brochures to see what is on tomorrow. I think it is out of the Zoo or the Science centre.

Kids change room

Tangs department store

Upper Orchard road

This is Orchard road, the main shopping street of Singapore. The trees have been covered with a red polka dot fabric (for a current festival?). It is so lush and tropical.