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Published: September 8th 2009
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Well. What can we say. The first day and a half of what was supposed to be a quick 3 day trip for the opening of the skatepark Brett built last year in Singapore, was good...
We got into Singapore in the afternoon, and made our way to the hotel we were booked into and met up with the rest of the crew from Brett's work that were flying in from their Melbourne office. It was a good flight over, it went fast and Terminal 3 at the Singapore Airport which we had never been too, was amazing as everyone says it is. It was really nice, really clean and really efficient, as most things in Singapore are. Our bags were waiting for us before we even made it through customs and there wasn't even a line at customs. Our hotel, The Grand Central, although not the best hotel we have stayed in by any means... was in a great location - just off of Orchard Road, which is the main shopping, dining and entertainment district. And you can definitley see why they say all Singaporeans do is Eat, Shop and Complain. Not that we saw so much of the
complaining part, but with a humongous shopping centre on every block, and thousands and thousands of restaurants, cafes and food stalls that are open all hours of the night, you would never run a shortage of places to eat! And the food is relatively cheap. Alcohol on the other hand is not. At $15 bucks for a Tiger Beer is some of the places you don't do that much drinking... Unless you go to Tiger Town, which is the food hawker stalls next to where the skatepark is where you can eat for around $3 and have a beer to share between 2 people for $5. A bit more reasonable.
The first night was spent checking out the skatepark before Saturdays Grand Opening and contest and demo. The guys who skated, all had a good skate, and the park looks amazing. We hadn't seen it since it was totally done and with all the landscaping in, it looks great! Then it was dinner and a couple drinks at Tiger Town, then an Irish Pub (When in Singapore - go to an Irish pub??? Don't really know how we ended up there!), and then it was off to Clarke Quay
which is the more touristy entertainment area with bars and restaurants. We did a bit of a pub crawl and went to a few different bars to check them out. Most have some sort of "theme", with one even being called "The Clinic", where you can sit in wheelchairs and your drink comes served in an IV like device. We didn't actually go there... little did we know the following night where we would be!!
So after an afternoon skating on Saturday, in the crazy heat and humidity, Brett took a pretty good fall in the combo bowl, landing straight onto his hip. Luckily because of the Grand Opening and demo, they had medics and free ambulance rides on standby. So it was off to Raffles Hospital for an xray, and unfortunatley he had a through and through fracture of his upper femur near the hip joint. So it was then on the phone to our travel insurance company back in Australia, and about 6 hours of waiting to figure out whether or not they wanted him to fly back to Australia, which there was no way they could move him. So he was scheduled for surgery the next
morning, and then 4 days later they had us booked back to Australia on a business class ticket each (could definitley get used to that!) and a wheelchair for Brett most of the way. The flight was pretty uncomfortable for him, especially considering we then had to do transfer terminals in Brisbane and then he had to get loaded on to the plane in an elevator contraption to the flight back up to Bowen. It was a long haul, but he did really well, and we were glad to be back, and to also see Brett's parents who had changed their flights so they could stay a few extra days with us.
I did manage to sneak in a bit of sightseeing, shopping and eating in, in between hospital visits, but didn't have a whole lot of time in the extra 3 days we were there.
The Raffles Hospital in Singapore was great - don't think if all this was going to happen it could of happened in a better place. The doctors and nurses were all amazing, and quick and professional and so nice, and even the food was good! I was saying to Brett I was
going to come stay there since the accommodation was better than mine at The Grand Central. I think the nurses were all sorry to see Brett go, think he was the funniest guy on their floor. Also our travel insurance agents were great too, and all we can say is thank god we had it! We would still be in Singapore now, trying to find jobs to pay it all off otherwise!
It will now be 6 weeks of little movement for Brett and crutches, and he should be fully recovered in 3 months. So we will probably stick around Bowen, for at least a little while longer until he can get around a bit better. And I was thinking I might head down to the skatepark here and see if I can finish the job for Brett now that I can drive the Posi-Track (see last blog). Not likely....
(There are 3 pages of photos if you want to see, scroll down and click on next page to continue. Or click on any image and they come up in a separate window).
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