Singapore

Sunday, April 28th

After a reasonable night’s sleep, I met with Carla, Robert and Jean for brunch back on Dempsey Hill. 

This time we ate at Jones the Grocer, an Australian franchise/chain specializing in up-market delicatessen, and where “eat in” is more popular than take-away. The place was full of ex-pats, many of whom had been playing tennis, or participating in similar Sunday morning activities.  Although I’d done nothing of the kind to earn my breakfast, I had the full English breakfast nevertheless, washed down with two of the best lattes I’ve ever had in the tropics. Lunch will not be necessary.

Of course, there was another person with us at breakfast - grandchild number 1 who is just days away from entering the world:

At the moment we’re all at Robert and Carla’s apartment relaxing – me to write this, everyone else to watch DVDs. Outside a storm is building up, so it’s not as hot as it could be.

The apartment is quite spacious by Asian standards, and is set in a compound with quite an array or recreational areas:

It makes you want to live in Singapore.

After afternoon tea, eaten around lunch time, I went back to my hotel via the Singapore MRT (underground railway), but not by the most direct route. We agreed to meet at 5:30pm at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel for some (in)famous Singapore Slings to celebrate Jean's birthday:

Now, these are not the cheapest cocktails in the world, but apparently you have to have one whenever you're in Singapore. Mine looked more like a Tequila Sunrise (it's your eyes that are blurred, not mine):

And Robert's like Vesuvius:

After the Slings we went to the port area where there is a very large area full of outdoor restaurants. We found nothing like this in Hong Kong:

But...rather than eat seafood, we ate Iranian - Carla because she's pregnant (!) and Jean because she'd eaten there before and loved it. Robert and I just had another meat extravaganza. We left for home once the belly dancer started (no picture!)