Wednesday 2nd March
In 24 hours of unreal time we will be back in the UK. Before then though there is a day to spend in Singapore. Overnight there were thunder storms so it seems especially humid today. Breakfast in the hotel included such delights as Pong Potato. These were balls of potato about half an inch across. We quickly re-named them ping pong potato. There was also Hong Kong noodles and onion scrabbled eggs. The fried eggs looked especially baked this morning so we passed on them. We then packed the cases so we could leave them in the porter's lodge but have access to some things easily when we returned to freshen up during the day before leaving.
Jenny wanted to get a few things for presents so we returned to China town (again). We would have liked to have seen some of the other parts of Singapore, but that will have to wait until next time. To get there we used the metro system rather than a taxi. It is clean and air conditioned so quite different from London.
One of the things Jenny especially wanted was an umbrella that was silver on the outside so it would reflect the heat but dark coloured inside to keep you cool. We eventually found one in a market. We did seem to go round and round in circles rather a lot though. We also had the odd downpour to avoid as well.
When we started looking for food we ended up back at Boat Quay on the other side of the river to the Parliament building. It was not the best food or the cheapest that we could have had, but it offered us a quiet place where we gathered ourselves ready for the trip out to the airport. Although it was perhaps a little early we went back to the hotel. Jenny had a swim in their pool. At one point it looked as if she would be swimming in the rain but in the end it stopped just before she got in. I had a shower to cool down and so felt refreshed.
We then had cake and coffee in the hotel before waiting in the lobby for the taxi and the trip to the airport. There was a lot of traffic and an accident so the journey took a little longer than anticipated, but we still managed to be there in plenty of time. We checked the weight of the bags and changed into travel clothes. We put on clothes that were nice and warm as the temperature in London is cold enough for snow. We had thought that we would miss out on winter, not go back into it.
We had a chat with other passengers as we waited to board the plane. There were numerous searches and checks. The passport was checked 4 times before we got on the plane. You could not get into that part of the airport without going through passport control but there you go!
It was a long flight of 13 hours but we did see the lights of India twinkling below us which from our height did look very beautiful. When we got to Heathrow it was 5.00 in the morning. We were greeted by a scowl from the person on immigration control. You felt like asking for a smile but thought better of it! The baggage collection area was cold grey concrete and a depressing place to be. The baggage seemed to take ages to come down the chute onto the carousel. Then it was out to find where the bus would meet us. The coffee machine was not working in either the National Express office or the waiting room so Jenny went back into the terminal. It turned out to be a good move.
We got on the bus and it was the last part of the journey home. We noticed that some cars had snow on their roofs. The journey was really slow. We eventually found out that there had been a multiple vehicle accident on the M25 which was closed and some broken down cars on the North Circular. As a result traffic was solid a long way out of London and we were in the middle of it. Eventually we got to Stanstead via Hertford. We ended up back in Norwich 2 hours later than we expected.
So it was a taxi ride back home. Fifi had left the day before and had looked after the house really well. It was warm, lived in and welcoming. There was a huge pile of post on the table, 1800 emails in the inbox (far too many offering Viagra and the like!) and photographs to process. Then there are all the memories
