Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

...lend me your ears, and I promise to make it a quick one. Am suffering the after effects of too much pre midday champagne so my prose may be somewhat more fluid and somewhat more... abbreviated than past gushings.

Talking of gushing, actually, the champagne was doing that from about half eleven onwards at the Grand Hyatt just off Orchard Road, where the Mingays (including Ray Mingay, recently arrived from your frosty isle) and I partook in the Champagne Brunch. I tried oysters, lobster and foie gras... not to mention the dim sum, cheesecakes, yorkshire pudding (what?), tropical fruit, starfruit juice, etc ec... fabulous, utterly fabulous... as pictures paint a thousand words you might have to wait until I'm pestering you with hundreds of photos to appreciate the... fabulousness of the whole thing.

Other than that, I have been a busy girl taking in the Singapore Art Museam, taking a quick run up Orchard Road, getting used to walking in the heat (oh... it doesn't look very far on the map... wearing new shoes... ooopss!! My blisters are biiiig), and making further aquaintaince of the superbly efficient MRT.

Yesterday I rocked down to Pagoda Street in Chinatown and picked up some magenta trousers covered in black Chinese embroidery, which teemed with the new Birks and the Nepalese cotton shirt (hitting Malaysia... need to cover all limbs) make me look like a right hippy. I took the MRT accross town to Farrer Park, paused not long enough to orientate my map on emerging overground, and set off in the wrong direction in the midday heat on a sunny day. Fantastic. Walking much further than I needed to, I eventually found the Lavender Street Bus Terminal... from what I know of Singapore, I had expected a state of the art, modern affair, so was not at all prepared for the (pleseant) surprise that met me. Lavender Street Bus Terminal, fans, turns out to be... three shacks on the edge of a carpark. I bought my ticket to Mersing, and I am headed there tomorrow at 10am. I'm on my way!!

This rather trunkated splurge is mainly for my parents benefit, whom I haven't contacted in a little while - it occured to me, darling mother and father, that you were totally unaware of my plans. I'm headed to Tioman Island on Tuesday, provided no out of season monsoon, tsunami, tectonic plate movement etc makes the boat journey impossible. As there is no road round the island and i'm not headed to Tekek, the 'hub' of the island, I will be out of internet contact for maybe a week, as I'm planning on doing a four day PADI open water course.

E-mails much appreciated.

Love to All

Pxx