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Published: August 24th 2015
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Singapore
A view of Singapore from our room. Thursday 13 August 2015
At last our final wake-up in an overseas hotel before we head home. We had a busy day ahead of us before our shuttle ride to the airport at 4:30 pm. The usual packing, making sure the precious items were in the carry-on bag, sharp items in the checked bag, items to declare were easily accessible, warm clothes near the top, and passports in a safe place. We had plenty of available baggage weight (30 kg) but could we lift the bags. We farewelled our room with the usual casual glance, shut the door and dropped seventeen floors at a speed that made your ears pop.
After leaving our bags with the concierge we left for a round of shopping visits. The wonderful underground moved us quickly from shopping centre to shopping centre. We had an important appointment in Chinatown at 1:00 pm. As always happens in unfamiliar cities we emerged from the underground surrounded by high rise shopping centres without any idea which way to go. It was a busy lunchtime and 1:00 pm was far approaching. After we negotiated our way through alleyways, several floors, stairways, and the maze of market place stalls
we arrived at our destination only a minute or two late. Polly would have been proud of us. The assistant was outside waiting for us. There on the counter were two perfectly tailored shirts. Our new friend was the salesman to the end. He tried really hard to make that final sale - silk for madam. We still had time to kill so we returned to Orchard Road with a few more dollars to spend. Try as much as we could we just didn't have the will or energy to make that final purchase.
We returned to the hotel, collected the bags, and caught the shuttle to the airport. Once we had checked in it was through immigration and then time for a final overseas cafe visit. We chose Paul's, a familiar Paris cafe chain. We took the long walk to our departure lounge, experienced security, this time the other half of the Intrepid Duo got the full treatment.
Boarding went well. Amazing how people don't understand instructions. If you are not in row 49-56 you don't line up. The staff were really firm and several embarrassed people had to leave the queue and return to their seats. For a long time we sat there wondering who would be our fellow passenger. Just before departure a noisy tour party of sixty boarded. No empty seat. After dinner over Indonesia we settled back for a restful night to Christchurch. A glare or two to the young passengers who persisted in kicking the back of our seats worked.
With a tail wind we whizzed through the night crossing Australia and the Tasman Sea. As we drifted in and out of sleep we had that excited feeling of seeing New Zealand in all its glory. The snow covered Southern Alps are a sight not to be missed, especially when returning home after a three month holiday.
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