Time spent with mum...

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It's been about two months since my last entry. Not that much has really happened, to relieve the cliffhanger of the last one Luke's birthday present was a ukelele. He loved it for a while but now it sits, all orange and lonely on the floor.

Currently i'm sitting at home listening to Fat freddy's drop and waiting for lukey to finish work so i can go pick him up. I finished work at six today and had squid and pumpkin arancini for dinner and it was way way too much and i now feel very sick. It's mothers day in Australia today so it was expected to be busy but it was not. It was very tame actually. I love working at the Brisbane now and i feel alot more inclined to go out and get social with the people i work with. Luke and i have decided to stay here in Perth until about August.

One or two things have happened though, i saw mum for the first time in litterally ages! I went to Singapore for about 4 days and spent some quality time with mum. It was incredible. Singapore is so beautiful and the archecture is sensational. The hotel we stayed in a was a business focused hotel and it was excellent. The first thing i did when i got there was have a swim in the beautiful outdoor pool and watched the beautiful city at night while catching up with mum. We went out to the strip of bars and restaurants right next to the hotel running along the river and had an obligatory singapore sling, but niether of us could stay awake so we just went to bed. That was Tuesday. Wednesday mum woke us up at 7am ordering room service, which i ate. I got up and had a swim and a run in the gym, showered and out the door by 10am. I walked past all the bars and restaurants on the river prominade again and saw a crab the size of a dog. seriously, huge. I was on my way to a place called Clarke Quay and wandered around all the restaurants and bars and clubs, it was clearly a night time area because everything was shut, so i decided we would definatly come back here tonight. The rain started then, and thunder but it didn't stop me. I had an unusual sandwich and burnt coffee (didn't have one successfully made coffee in singapore anywhere!) and headed off the Orchard Road, which is high end shopping, lots of big names everywhere, Armani, Gucci, Dior, Cartier etc. They had UK shops there too like topshop and new look and river island which i was so excited about but i looked around, fully intent on buying the first thing i even nearly liked, but no, i ended up buying something from cotton on - an Australian shop of all things. I returned the thing i bought in the end as well because it was too small. Hasty purchase. Bought some glass necklaces though.
I walked past the Art school which is one of the most beautiful buildings i've ever seen and the art museum which was free entry on Friday due to it being good Friday so i thought we'd just come back. I walked home after that and it was about 4pm so i took my time getting ready and hanging out in the posh hotel waiting for mum to get back at 6pm. We went back to Clarke Quay and saw all the night life. There was a bar called the highlander and all the staff were in full kilt gear with sporns and everything, it was awesome. I wanted to go and see if i could buy a uniform but i doubted it. There was another place right opposite called The Clinic and it had wheelchairs as outside furniture and you drank your drink out of a drip. Hilariously novelty. Mum wasn't keen. We wandered around and the amount of different cuisines available was crazy - there was everything. We ended up going to a place called IndoChine, mainly because we'd come to the end of our walk. Our waiter was an insistant fellow who was determined to make sure we had the whole experience photographed, including, one individual photo each and a couple of group photos, all equally awkward, then of course when the food came out we were obliged to take photo's of it before eating - really never got why people take photos of food. Not my thing. We had tiger prawns and a whole seabass, some mojitos and tom collins. It was great. We were by the river and opposite there were people flying huge electrontic kits with lights on them...maybe they were remote control planes, either way it just set off the atmosphere. The best thing was the chat, talking to mum about all the things i wanted to talk about, and we were both so relaxed, it was wonderful. After dinner we took a taxi the short walk back coz mums wee feet hurt. That was wednesday.
Thursday was another Claire day. Up at 7am again but no swim and gym this time. Breakfasted and ready and straight out the door by 8.30. I walked down to China town to look at all the cheaper market type shops. First shop i came to i bought a dress for Georgia, it was only $10 but it looked like it would suit her. I wandered around looking for things for Luke and I. I bought a couple of Asian tops, one of them cotton but still asian style, the other silk...well, ''Silk''. I bought a head massager for Luke, which was worth about a $1. After that i went and met mum for lunch - we went to an English pub called Harry's - food was ok, had a beer. After that i walked through the park and to the national museum, which had an awful lot of space. It took me three escalator trips until i even saw anything. I had a look at the free exhibition on the 80's in Singapura which was pretty interesting but by the time i'd found where to get the tickets to see all the other galleries i'd thouroghly had enough so i walked home, very keen and excited for a nice cold swim after walking in the humidity all day only to find the pool acosted by a huge swarm of families including multiple children splashing around. I clicked that it was to be Good Friday the next day and people would be taking their kids on holiday. I didn't fancy a bunch of kids making noise in my quiet swim so i went back to the room to pace for a while and think about what to do. I definatly needed water but a shower wouldn't cut it so i ran a cold bath and watched glee through the mirror in the tub. By the time mum got home i was ready to go and do whatever we were doing. Edrick (mums collegue in singapore) picked us up at 7pmish and took us to Arab street where we sat on a table in the middle of the road, had some yummy food and drink, and smoked some shisha pipe, as it's done in that part of town. Mum did very well after we peer pressured her into trying it. Then Edrick took us for a foot massage - very new experience for me and mum. 45 minute per foot and after a wee soak in Chinese herbal water they bash them and click them and pummel them into submission all the way up to your knees. High's n lows. Tickled and hurt. strange but i loved it. And just as we were told, best night's sleep ever. That was Thursday.
Friday was a day for me and mum and because of the foot massage we slept in til 10am!! First we went out for breakfast but the placed we'd planned on was closed so we just went up to Orchard road again and i was getting pretty crabbit with no food or coffee so we went to a place called The Coffee bean and had a bagel and a PINT of coffee - seriously - i was so happy. We wandered again around the shops, going into shops like prada and dole and gabana and getting stalked by the sales girl. Of course they could tell that i couldn't afford the free spray of perfume never mind anything worth any money, but still, nice to look. We did buy a few tops in Morgan, then we just walked to the Art museum and had a look at the the strange abstract art like hanging cardboard men and lightbulbs hitting mirrors over a line of broken glasss, and a never ending bookcase. After that we went to the Raffles which is a fancy hotel mum wanted to see. We had a cocktail lunch in their courtyard and had another great old chat.
From the raffles we jumped the rail to harbour front and caught a cable car to Sentosa. It was very touristy, with attractions like observation towers and such everywhere and they had a universal studios but it was too late for that for us. we went up the Merlion, which is a lion statue with a fishes tail and had another couple of awkward photos taken of us. We had dinner in a wanna be hard rock cafe, only because the actual hard rock had a wait of 45 minutes. Then we caught the cable car back and watched a cruise ship take off. Back to the hotel for cocktails in the back yard of the hotel and another great chat. Mum read some of my travel journal and it was nice to hear some of it back. I'm sure mum was a bit shocked at some parts but it's cool, mum get's it. I was terrific spending time with mum uninterrupted. We got to really talk and i think i really needed that. Wonderful thank you mum.


Ok, my fingers are tired from typing so i'm done.

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