WOW! Where do I start then? I’m sorry it’s been a while.
Mum’s on the plane on the way home :o(

I HATE goodbyes. We’ve had a lovely time, but the goodbyes are just bloody awful :o( As they say: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I’m missing her already (as my facebook says – lol).

Anyhow: let’s start with the happy stuff! Singapore was FAN-BLOOMING-TASTIC!!! Four nights of fantastic! The flight going out (for me) was fab. I got a spare seat next to me (thank you to the seat guru website and the on-line check in with Singapore Air. I picked the seat right at the arse-end of the plane and provided it didn’t reverse into a mountain (ha ha), I should be OK! I tell you, it’s how air travel should be! No ‘how much longer’s?’, no drinks spilled in my lap, no smelly passenger hogging the arm rest. It was heaven! The only stress was what should I do? Watch the ‘Sex in the City’ movie again, read my book UNINTERRUPTED (which I had taken out a small mortgage for – considering the amount of trees in Australia, books are phenomenally expensive!), or listen to my iPod with my own, carefully chosen selection of ‘naff-middle-aged-Mum’ tunes. So I did all three simultaneously whilst scoffing Airline food. I am turning into my Aunty Eileen though, so I was glad of the near by toilet :o)

The flight was good; no turbulence (unlike the Qantas flight that came into Perth a few weeks after my flight where everyone was made airborne WITHIN the cabin :o( and I arrived safe and sound in Singapore.

I got a taxi to the hotel and checked in. The hotel had upgraded us to a harbour view room and although small, the room was lovely.

The bathroom was all marble and the staff were just lovely! From our room we had a view of the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye) and the harbour as well as the hotel pool. I grabbed a bar snack before going back to meet mum at the airport that evening. I was SO pleased to see her and very proud of us for managing to circumnavigate the globe for our ‘stolen few days’. I know millions of people do it every day – but they’re not us and we were brave!!!

We whizzed back to the hotel and off loaded the bags before doing a little shopping in the mall directly next to the hotel. The shop staff were lovely; following us about with baskets for us to place our choices in. We had a quick wander about and then retired to the hotel bar for our first (of MANY!) Singapore Slings. They are gin based and delicious!!!!

The next morning, we hit the M&S trail. Do you know there are 7 Marks and Spencers in Singapore?

Bet you didn’t – well, I did my research!! We managed to squeeze most of them in and some of them even had food – the kids LOVED the Percy Pigs :o) Unfortunately, no prawn and mayo sandwiches – never mind – can’t win them all, eh? I did pur-chase in M&S. A few of the shopping malls were running promotions where you were awarded 20% off for being a tourist with a few Singapore dollars in your pocket :o) We had breakfast in a ‘greasy spoon’ café and were fuelled for a day’s shopping. We had an afternoon tea booked at the Regent Hotel in the afternoon. After an initial confusion with the booking and five minutes on the ‘naughty chair’ as mum called it, we were seated and helped ourselves to the all you can eat buffet which looked like it came from ‘lilliput’. You have never seen such small desserts; all beautiful and equally delicious. We eventually waddled out a few hours later to return our shopping to the hotel :o)

I think we did more shopping in the afternoon, guess what? Finished off with a Singapore Sling in the bar. Oh yes. It had to be done. It was the LAW!

The following day (Monday), I had a meeting with a guy about business. I scooted off in a taxi to meet him whilst Mum enjoyed the freebies at the pool (sorbet, drinks, fresh towels :o) In the afternoon, we had tea booked at Raffles, so we went to do the Singapore Flyer first. I took some fabby photos (but lost my memory card D’OH – so no photos of that I’m afraid. It was the build up to the Singapore Grand Prix, so when we first checked in at the hotel, we were given some passes that without which, our taxi driver wouldn’t be allowed back into the circuit area to bring us back home.

As (believe it or not), our hotel was smack bang in the middle of the circuit. Singapore was the first grand prix to be run at night, on a road circuit, so you can imagine the preparation that went into getting everything ready in time in a city that really is busy, busy, busy before hand! We would have had a FANTASTIC view from the hotel bar. As it was, we sat in there every night watching all the labourers working frantically to get everything ready in time.

Raffles, although beautiful, was very disappointing in terms of service and food. The staff weren’t overly attentive and the food choice wasn’t anywhere near as good as the previous days at the Regent.

However, whilst we were waiting for our ‘Tiffin’, we (OK – MUM) purchased something from the Louis Vuitton shop. Seeing as she spent over a tenner (ha ha) and it’s the 150th anniversary of Raffles, they were offering a free afternoon tea in the Billiard Room.

We did try and take it in place of the one we had booked for that day, but they were in different venues, so we had no other choice than to return to Raffles the following day for a ‘free’ scoff – the most expensive ‘free’ scoff we’ve ever had :o)

The following morning (B.R. – that’s before Raffles!), we went to Sentosa Island on the cable car. I was very brave and it was on the ‘must do’ list. We even paid extra for a glass-bottom carriage, but as soon as the little pod left the safety of the station at the bottom, I crapped it!!!

There was one HUGE concrete pillar in the middle of the cable car route that you appeared to hurtle towards and then you were ‘dropped’ off the other side to slide down to the other station.

I was SO glad we’d bought a return ticket! Suddenly, the monorail looked very appealing!!

The building work going on on Sentosa is amazing. I have NO idea what they’re building (a whole new city I think!), but it’s massive. We went up the Merlion which stands guard over Singapore.

It’s a mixture of the Asia’s lions head and the mermaid’s tail which represents the water surrounding the busy port.

This is the amazing water feature at the base of the Merlion.

We stopped for a Tiger Beer:

before scooting back to Raffles and coffee in the evening at our favourite café on Orchard Road before a nightcap sling in the hotel bar. We became quite regulars at the bar – sitting at our familiar table, staring out at the preparations for the Grand Prix.

At Raffles, we had a Singapore Sling int he Long Bar. This is where the drink was invented and on every table is a container of monkey nuts where it's traditional to eat them and throw the shells ont he floor.

You can imagine the mess by the end of the day. Mum decided she didn't like the nuts, but was scrunching the shells in her hands and throwing them at me instead! I was picking shells out of my bra for ages!

I have never seen so many super cars in any one place. The Ferraris, Porsche and Maserattis were everywhere. Our mode of transport was Taxi and we planted our bums in a fair few over the four days. When it came to our return trip to the airport, we had to pre-book one of the hotel’s Mercedes limos as no taxis could get into the hotel grounds because of the Grand Prix lock down. You can see from the photos that we really couldn’t have gotten a great deal closer to the track if we’d have tried! It was a lovely atmosphere though and fantastic to watch the grand prix on the TV, especially as we could see our hotel as the cars whizzed around the circuit.

Singapore truly was wonderful. The place is awe inspiring, the people are SO friendly and welcoming and the four days spent with Mum were amazing; memories that we’ll both keep for ever.

It was just the BEST time. Thank you Mum for meeting me and thanks to Paul for letting me go and coping with everything for the time I was away. And thank you for brining Louis into my life. I shall love him like a 4th child and nurture him with love and used tissues. I shall think of you Mum whenever I am putting my Tar-gey receipt in him :o) Who knows where we’ll decide to meet next time? Dubai perhaps? It’ll take me a lot of brownie points to swing that one with the family! I can try and be a good girl :o)

So, as much as we were looking forward to coming ‘home’ it was with sadness that we left Singapore. I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit and I really think Mum enjoyed it too. She didn’t really know what to expect, but I think she was very pleasantly surprised!

We did have to return for Sam’s birthday however! Luckily, the birthday fairy can always be relied upon to carry out preparation and everything was set for Sam’s birthday the day after we arrived home. He had to go to school on his birthday, but afterwards, we went for dinner at the Hogs Breath to celebrate. I find it really hard to comprehend that Sam’s as old as he is. I don’t know why as we’ve watched him grow and develop, but I still find it hard to believe that he’s now 11. He wanted money for his birthday as he wanted to buy clothes and a pair of skate shoes (a type of trainer (in the loosest term of the word)). He’s bought one of these caps with a flat peak.

Paul HATES it with a passion, but I try to explain that this is probably the same distaste that his parents viewed Dutch pockets or platform shoes, but he still thought they were cool at the time!

I think he had a good birthday. We also got him a little battery powered scooter that pulls him round the pool. He’s had a lot of fun with that as we also got him a big ‘joey’ chair for the pool that he can put his drink in and he can lay back and glide round the pool like Torvill and Dean (without the lycra or the ice – obviously! :o)

We didn’t have a madly busy schedule with Mum and to be honest, it was lovely. We had lots of lunches out and coffees here, there and everywhere. We had some days out with the kids – the Perth Royal Show was one adventure!

But we won’t be rushing to repeat it next year as it costs an ABSOLUTE fortune! Seeing as our aged benefactor (yes, Mum, that’s you!) probably won’t be holidaying with us at the same time next year, the kids will have to make do with glimpses of it on the TV! It was $10 each for a ride! Even for Mr Cheese.

And then there’s the showbags. These are bags of crap that are work $20 that they sell for $15; full of sweets (lollies), games, toys and plastic crap. I succumbed this year, but wouldn’t do it again.

We took Mum out on the boat which she seemed to enjoy. It’s a little more laid back and relaxed that the previous one. The Mandurah boat show was on whilst Mum was over and a group of friends came with us; the girlies sat on the boat and drank wine and gossiped and the buoys (see what I did there!) had a wander round the show. Paul only bought a fish finder so next time we go out, we should have no excuse for not landing moby dick (wonder if we could do that in a ‘boil in the bag’ style?)

We’ve also organized a few nights out and are going to see Bjorn Again in Kings Park at the end of November. I saw the Abba tribute band when I went to see the Spice Girls and they were better than the SG’s!

Whilst Mum was over, I also had my birthday. Gail and Paul came over in the evening for a few drinkies and I got some lovely pressies. Gail photoshopped (at least I HOPE she photoshopped!) a photo of the two of us – good god we look like a couple of day-release patients! She didn’t know what to get me, so thought I could look at that and laugh on the stressful days at work. It was very thoughtful and does the trick brilliantly. I would post a copy on here, but I’m sure it breaches ugly copyright, or something :o)

Paul excelled himself this year. I got a fabby disco ball that floats in the pool and tickets to go and see Delta Goodrem in Kings Park in January. Margaret sent me over a cardy exactly like one hat I’d bought in Singapore in a different colour, so I was chuffed with that too.

Paul and I also had a night away whilst Mum was over. We stayed up in Perth and went to the casino for a flutter. We bet $50 – Paul started off on a winning streak which eventually cooled and then I placed a chip on the roulette table on number 17 (for Darcie’s birthday) and for a $5 stake, we pocketed $200! A few more flutters later and we left with $100 in our pocket in profit after the initial stake. Not bad. The place was absolutely heaving though!! It took us an hour to get anywhere near any of the tables to be able to place a bet. All sorts of people and all different ages. I don’t say I would rush back, but it certainly was an experience!!

Oh, and in other news, Paul finally bought his drum set that he’s been coveting for so long.

All the kids have a guitar (in various sizes) and we have our very own band.

I’m saving up for a triangle – even then, I’d hit it at the inappropriate moment!

Oh and STOP PRESS: Adam has swimming lessons once a week – actually, he does. He has ‘let’s stand in the water with a face like a smacked arse and whine’ lessons. Six weeks he has been going and he hasn’t cracked once with a hint of co-operation with the teacher. Well, tonight, I let Darcie and Mr Cheese have a quick half hour in the pool (as it was so warm) and within seconds, Ads stripped to his pants, was in the water, down to the third step; kicking his legs and blowing bubbles and (get this!) TWICE he put his face under! He assures me that he will show Jo (his swimming teacher) this week. Somehow, I think he may have changed his mind between now and then. The promise of a treat may work though. What a difference a few days make. Perhaps he thinks if he tries hard, he can swim over and visit Nanny B. Adam was a complete sweetheart with Mum. He was funny and affectionate and a real little character. He truly is a cutie and I bet Mum will miss not having her eardrums bashed this week. Never mind, eh? That’s what telephones are for.