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We had to leave Singapore today but before we did we went shopping and boy did we shop! We spent five hours walking up and down and in and out of shopping malls. A crazy thunder storm had started just before we left the hostel and didn't stop for a few hours. It was still hot outside so the air was very humid, so humid that our fingers felt wet when we rubbed them together! Luckily all the shops were connected to each other, otherwise we would have got soaked by the rain. The rain didn't stop us from going though, Chris needed two new vests because his others had stains on them and he also needed to replace his small back pack which had a hole in it and I wanted to buy something to sleep in for Australia. Private rooms will be too expensive to stay in so we will have to start sleeping in dorms from now. Also my sandals were beginning to tear away so I wanted to find another comfy pair. They needed to be waterproof, wide and pretty!! It's never easy finding shoes for me, I can't wear the normal cheap thonged flip flops, I find them too uncomfortable plus I don't like my feet and they would show them off too much.
After a few hours we were already fed up, Chris didn't have much luck finding himself any new vests. The ones he did see were so expensive! He did find a bag though which he was very happy about. At first the lady tried to charge him S$65, she tried so hard but Chris was too good with his bartering skills and managed to get her to discount down to S$40. As for me, well there were plenty of cheap women's vests which annoyed Chris even more, but I couldn't find a pair of sandals that I wanted. We looked everywhere!!! By 5pm our feet were aching and we didn't have long until we would have to leave to catch our flight to Australia. So we gave up and started to head back to our hostel.
Back in the hostel we collected a few things to post back home in an attempt to make our bags a little lighter. We headed back out to the shopping malls and found the post office. We chose the cheapest option which was sea mail. Our stuff wouldn't arrive home for at least ten weeks but that didn't really matter to us. It cost us twenty dollars which I think was quite expensive.
On our way back to the hostel again Chris noticed across the road was another shopping mall he was sure we had missed. I wasn't bothered about going over but he wanted to so we did, and I'm so glad we did! The first shop we went into had my perfect sandals! So I bought them and we started to head back out. Just then Chris found himself walking into a camera shop. He had been in quite a few lately to look at the big fancy ones. I asked him why he bothers if we were not going to buy one. Then the shop assistant got Chris's attention and started selling to him. I felt sorry for the guy at first because I thought Chris was wasting his time, but the more the assistant spoke to us the more Chris looked interested. We both wanted a fancy camera but had no idea where to start, so the assistants help was very useful. My mum had given me some money for my birthday so I knew we could afford one now and to be honest our current camera was just not good enough for us anymore.
Time was ticking and we really didn't have long before we had to leave. Chris started talking prices with the guy so I knew then we were going to get one. The assistant offered us a really good deal with a few freebies thrown in! Finally a price was agreed! We bought a Canon EOS 550D camera and japenese lens that does wide close ups and long distances up to 200 meters. The price also included a spare battery, UV filter, glare filter, a remote control for taking self portraits, an 8GB memory disk and a camera bag all for S$1647. S$90.60 of that was tax which we could claim back at the airport so it was actually S$1557.20. In pounds that works out to about £778. We were really pleased with it.
We had less than half hour left for the assistant to teach us as much as possible about the different settings on the camera. We took in as much as we could and it all seemed a lot easier than we thought. Luckily he also gave us a huge guide book so we will be reading plenty from that over the next few days.
By now it was 6:30pm and we had to rush back to the hostel. We quickly grabbed our bags, collected some food and left for the airport at 7pm. The train seemed to drag on for ages as we were in a hurry. It took about an hour and twenty minutes but seemed a lot longer. When we made it to the airport we quickly checked in and went through to immigration where we collected our tax refund, oh and grabbed a load of free sweeties from the desk lol. Then we were able to chill out again and start playing with our new toy. I flicked through the manual, there were so many useful settings I couldn't wait to start taking great photos! And what better place to start in but of course Australia!!!
On our way to the gate we bought some bottled water, but at the gate we were asked to drink it all or empty our bottles only to refill them with tap water! It was crazy, the only place we could have bought the water was from inside the airport so I don't know what the problem was. Two other girls behind us got quite annoyed over it.
Our flight was delayed by thirty minutes so left we late, a common habit we have come to realise about Jetstar. We settled down into our seats but only fifteen minutes in I asked to move. A guy sitting in the seat behind me was constantly moving his legs and poking his knees into my back. I asked him twice to stop but he ignored me. Luckily the flight wasn't busy so I got to lay across a whole row of seats! Chris was more happy with the fact that he got free food! I didn't eat though, it was 10 pm by the time it came so I wasn't hungry.
Finally the lights went off and we were able to go to sleep, we are both extremely excited about waking up in Australia tomorrow!!!!
Charlotte & Chris
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