Heading home

 I did warn you that this might be a yawn-inspiring trip. 

The Sydney departure lounge food court has a McDonald’s like I’ve never seen before. 

Burgers made upstairs, sold downstairs. 

Whacky doodle, man

Observations

 Had dinner at a nice Italian place at Darling Square on Sunday. 

Hadn’t noticed that they close at 2030 Sundays and 21 o’clock most other days. Very early finish here. 

Some cool furniture 

…and an entertaining glass

Sarah found a Momo shop in George St. 

it’s like Aunty Dai’s dumplings at the supermarket, but from Nepal. 

I was a little surprised by the sheer volume of cutlery provided on each table. 

And then she found a desert on the almost top floor of QVB

I’m in danger of starting a food blog if I follow her too much. 

Uneventful flight

 We arrived in Sydney this morning. 

It was an uneventful flight, and I slept most of the way.  Except, of course, for the emergency landing in row 17:

Clearly the bump jarred the trapdoor over our heads. 

Bugger. 

Furnace to Freezer

 I have had a cold for the last week, and Sarah has it now. 

I don’t think it’s infectious. I think it’s what I call the Furnace to Freezer effect. 

When you walk any street in a hot country, the temperature is well over 30deg, sometimes touching 40deg. 

That will certainly make a fat white guy glow a little. 

Then go into a mall, and it feels like you’ve walked into the beer chiller at your local bottle store. 

In reality, the mall temperature is around 21-23deg. That alone is a sudden difference of between 10 and 20 degrees. 

Added to that, outside had 80+% humidity, while the inside climate is dry. Walking into the mall causes an aggressive, sudden drop in skin temperature, making the mall feel sub-zero. This is called the Thermal Shock effect. I prefer my name, because it covers coming inside as well as going outside  Freezer to Furnace.

Also, main walkways and atrium spaces suffer from high airflow speeds from massive overhead vents. This wind-chill effect accelerates sweat evaporation on your skin, making the perceived temperature feel much colder than what the thermostat reads.

This is why people make such good use of subway train and mall access to get around these cities. Locals behave like gophers, popping into a hole in one part of the city, and popping up in a completely different part of town a few minutes later, without having to brave the weather outside, rain or shine. 

Not having mastered that, and also wanting to go to places not directly connected to this arterial network, we must suffer the furnace to freezer effect a number of times a day. In and out.

At some point your body will react with a sneeze, a sniffle or a sore throat. 

Meh

Happy Bidet

By the way, today is grandchild number one’s 18th birthday. 

Happy birthday, lovely girl. 

That means her mum is getting old. 

It also confirms my antique status. 

Heading back tomorrow

 Just a couple of points of interest. 

In the mall over the road from Raffles Hotel, is a cookie shop, called The Cookie Museum. 

They sell all sorts of flavours. 

Sarah has bought cookies from here on many previous trips.

The one flavour that always intrigued me, was this one. 

Not only is it crab flavoured…

Odd, but hey this is Asia. 

…each cookie has a real crab perched on top. 

I’m sorry, WHAT now?

Not crab-shaped icing, or a themed gummy  

Yup, crab cookies have a real crab on top. Check out the photo. That’s a real crab on a real cookie. 

We bought some for Tik years ago, and she confirmed their authenticity.

Lordy!!

Tourists

 Decided it was time to take a tourist’s view of Singapore. 

First was a jaunt up the river on what they call a “bum boat”. I know, right?

Then it was onto a bus to check out a couple of light shows. 

Our guide has a very understated way of making sure we don’t lose him. 

First we go to a place called Gardens by the Bay. 

The show starts with lights and music. 

They then add smoke and lasers, to recreate a Northern Lights experience. 

Then it’s off to Marina Bay Sands for a light and water show. 

I have to say that MBS is so much bigger than it looks in photos, or even from across the bay. 

The light show is also impressive, but probably best seen from a bar across the bay. 

Clarke Quay

 There’s a new thing that must be all the rage here:

 Kitten flavoured ice cream 

My happy place

 Back in Singapore, and back to peanut central 

While sitting quietly near the bar, we notice a couple hoist themselves up onto some barstools. 

No sooner had her butt cheeks moulded to the shape of the stool, she introduced themselves to the 2 guys on the next stools. 

“We’re Australian”, in a twang that both Kath and Kim would be proud of. 

Or in my language, a thick Australian accent, with emphasis on the thick. 

Maybe I’m cynical, or maybe I watched too many detective shows, but it seems suspicious that someone would make their arrival so public. Setting up an alibi, perhaps?

The only thing she didn’t do was tell us all what the time was. 

Maybe that is too cynical. 

Here’s something even more unkind. They should use the Long Bar for nut allergy conventions. Isn’t that called full immersion treatment?

Too much?

Revisit the bat-fish

 One evening we did a buffet, and met an old friend:

They call it char-grilled Ikan bakar. 

I call it scary. The chilli moustache doesn’t help either. 

Wildlife

 Did not expect to see this. 

In fact, if I had seen one in this part of the world, I would expect there to be kebab rods and barbecues involved. 

Someone here has a sense of humour

 Just at the other end of the pool, before you get to the beach, someone erected this technical piece of equipment. 

I’ve seen similar ones elsewhere. This never gets old. 

Splish Splash

 I spent an hour or so in the pool today. It’s been more than 20 years since I’d been in a swimming pool. 

This was the first time that I have been in an infinity swimming pool. To be fair, it wasn’t an infinity pool until I got in. 

They have some nice cabanas and umbrella spots scattered around the pool. 

Parents can sit on this floating bed, while the minions splash around. 

Very kid friendly without Disney animals 

Just so as not to start an international incident, I wore swim shorts, which look basically like the shorts I wear during the day. 

Nobody would thank me for wearing anything else. 

If I were to lie on the beach in speedos, Greenpeace would start trying to roll me back into the water. So there’s that.

Actually , I’m convinced that a fat white guy in a black speedo years ago gave somebody the idea for “Free Willy”.

True story.

Wuhan Fry

 Little sister ordered the fish. 

Are those wings?

Some kind of bat-fish?

Maybe gain of function meant being able to swim underwater and fly above it  

Terrifying!!!

We ventured across the border

Spending a few days in Malaysia. A coastal area called Desaru. About 2-hrs drive from little sister’s place. 

Nice  

The boring bit in the middle

 Not a lot to say about Singapore. 

Just tooling around like tourists. 

Always fun, but usually not blog worthy. 

One comment from someone whose pronouns are ‘fat white bastard’, is that there are so many people here who are pastier than I am. I think mostly the girls. Is that a thing here?