The Heat of Singa's

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We'll finally, once again. It's been a while but since leaving Dundee, we've been fairly well on the go. You know how it is with all this travelling.

It was sad to leave cousins Wilma and Pam, but we did that last Friday. The idea was to spend the day in Edinburgh and stay in Edinburgh for the night and not have to rush to get to Edinburgh airport in the morning. So, after Pam's suggestion we drove as far as the Forth Bridge and then took advantage of the 'Park and Ride' - basically you park your car at a bus terminal and then travel into the city on a bus. Great, especially if you are new to the city and the city just happens to be having its Fringe Festival, including the Edinburgh Tattoo. I've already told you about the crazy people on the roads in the UK, we would have been lambs to the BBQ!!

We met up with the daughter of one of Bird's cousins, who is coming out to Melbourne in November for a holiday with some of her friends. Her name is Fiona and one thing I've come to realise is that the name 'Fiona' runs long and deep in the Leighton family. Then, when you are in Edinburgh you go and see 'the castle'. There is only one worth mentioning here in this fair city and that is Edinburgh castle, which sits on top of a big lump of rock. I thought that I'd be all castled our, but E castle is certainly worth a trip. The walk up the Royal Mile to the castle is interesting and made more interesting by all the Fringe Festival activities going on.

Now for the ladies there was one act involving three blokes on various drums and one playing the bagpipes, dressed a bit like Mel in Braveheart and a young lady playing another drum. If you are like me and into the music, great. If you are a woman and into biceps and pecs, well bugger the music, the blokes would do for you.

As I said the castle was a great look. Having seen our last castle, Bird and I hopped on the bus for the trip back to the Forth Bridge and then to our hotel. The hotel wasn't anything special. It's restaurant was a Burger King and it had a servo as well which was great as we had to fill the car before returning it the following moring.

We were up at 5.45am to get to the airport and return the rental and get booked in early as we needed to book our luggage thru to Singapore. The flight to Heathrow only took 1 hour. Heathrow is big (the busiest airport in the world) and as far as I am concerned, one of the uglier airports. And talk about people, thousands of them. Not my cup of hot water I'm afraid. Arrived there about 11.00am and had to sit around for a 6.30pm departure for Singa's. 12 hours to Singa's and we'd been on the go for over 24 hours and feeling the pace. Arrived about 2.30pm Saturday afternoon.

Great to get to the York Hotel and relax. Now I've got to say right here that in comparison to all other hotel accommodation we've stayed in Singapore leaves them for dust. The York is not up there with the Mandarin or the other hotels on Orchard Rd, but it's still better than anywhere else we've stayed. Singapore put's the 'S' in service. They make you feel special.

Have been to see the Padang (played rugby there back in '76/77'). It is where the Singapore parliament is. Also where the Singapore Cricket Club is. SCC has a lot of ex-pats as members, most of them Brits. Back in the day, we loved playing them in rugby. It was a win/win situ for us. If we lost, the members would keep the shout going all night. If we won, you got one beer after the game and sent on ya bike....... but you went home satisfied that you'd won.

As I writer, Bird is having a pedicure and other stuff. We are heading off to Bugis Street this afternoon. No! The Bugis street that a lot of people know, is gone. It is now a shopping precint, but we'll go for a look.

Well, that's it for now. Looking forward to getting home and catching up with everyone. Don't worry, we will only subject those who a truelly interested to our 2 hour presentation on our travels......... joking!! I'm told that Ballarat is a tad cold. Not looking forward to that.

Kia ora ra

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