Hi we have now made it to Singapore.

Flight with Cathay pacific from HK delayed by an hour due to incoming tropical storm, but managed to kill time, as like HK city the airport has sooo many shops its a joke!

Petra - just so you now went into Prada that bag was 1300 sterling!!!

Landed at singapore airport and had a little bit of a stress as we couldnt get through to matt on the phone, but eventualy sorted it with the help of customer services (we hadnt removed the international code doh!)

Quick cab to Matts only 10 mins from airport and we had arrived. Matts flat is lovely in development of @ 5 blocks in a private enclave. Landscaped pool with water fall and grotto (first swim of the holiday last night - heaven after a busy day sightseeing) a gym; tennis courts; and basket ball courts etc, spot on if a little outside the city but as cabs are cheap (its 16 singapore dollers which is about 6 quid into the city) its not too much of a bother, actually its a pleasure given the air con to grab a cab.

We arrived Sunday night, grabbed a shower and headed into town for dinner and drinks, Matt took us to Richardson Quay on the river, a smart mall type development which consists of loads of restaurants and bars. Grabbed a steak (Steve and Matt has mussels) and then headed down to South Bridge Road, another bar/ restaurent enclave, to find the "The Cavern" yes you guessed it a Liverpool themed bar in Singapore, as Liverpool were playing. It appears the local are a little obsessed with Liverpool and ManU. The guys in there were head to foot in Liverpool strips (including scarfs and socks and no doubt pants if they had been on show) Have to give a mention to the "iceman" for obviously being Liverpools NO1 fan/ total nutter!

Managed however to nag sufficiently that Steve gave in and agreed that we could go back to Matts and they would watch it there (sorry but didnt want to sit there for 2 hours whilst they both ignored me and screamed at the telly!) It appears given Steves mood at half time that this was in hindsight a good idea! (obviously improving after they won with 10 mins to go - jammy)

Matt had to work yesterday so we were left to our own devices, so after a bit of a sleep in as it was Steves B'day (Steve say thanks for the cards and messages) we headed into town for sightseeing and brekkie. Cab dropped us off a Raffles and we had a mooch through the Raffles shopping mall. Found an American diner called Shea Street diner and had the biggest bagel i've ever seen, it was like a small pizza! Needless to say we didnt eat again till 8pm.

I have to say here that singapore compared to HK is a breath of fresh air. HK is tall, dirty, fast and claustraphobic, where singapore is open, clean, green and life is at a much slower pace. I much prefer Singapore

Walked through the old colonial district, which apart from Raffles is pretty much new build in an old stylie and down into china town, getting lost as usual and having a row over directions!

Finally found the temple we were looking for in china town and took load of photos. I then had a total blonde moment and walked out the temple having left my camera on the steps were we had been sitting.

We then grabbed a cab up to Orhard Rd (massive street just full of shops and huge departments stores to pick up some conditioner that i forgot to pack) not till we had got out the cab and went to take a photo did i realise i'd left the camera in the temple! Mass panic ensued and we jumped another cab straight back to where we had been. Legged it out of the cab into the temple, no camera! Trying to explain to the dodgy blokes who sell the joss sticks that i'd lost my camera, they hadnt got it, just as hope had died a women said behind me " oh have to lost your camera love" Thank the lord for honest geordies! they had found it and were just about to hand it in, i could have kissed them both!

After that small incident we decided we would go to the botanical gardens and have a wonder as it had cooled down and the heat was bearable. Gardens are lovely and so well maintained. Become a little excited about the little turtles as you will see from all the photos, they are so cute. The fish are huge and at one point i was walking about 30! I will explain, you can buy food for the fish from the visitors centre, so as soon as they see you at the side of the lake they all come swarming over expecting to be fed, so i was walking along the side of the lake with my arm out pretending like i was ging to feed them and they kept following me along the water edge, by the time i'd gone 20ms i'd accumulated @20-30 fish and even when i stopped they just kept following us. Wouldnt want to have fallen in pretty sure they were Koy so didnt have teeth but i reckon they would give you a good suck!

Headed back to Orchard Rd after gardens and resumed quest for make up and hair products . It started bucketing down at 4pm so we headed back to the flat (Matt had warned us not to get stuck in rush hour 5-7) as we got back it stopped raining so we went for a swim, well more like a splash and duck in effect as Steve kept trying to drown me (he didnt obviously)

Headed back out at 7 after Matt got back from work and went for a singapore sling at Raffles long bar, one of those things that just has to be done so you can go "tick- done that" but pretty much disappointing - Full of tourists and sooo over priced 69 dollars for 3 drinks (that about 12 quid a drink!) However unintentionally played a bit of a blinder... I had a HK 20 dollar bill in my purse which i had written by pin on for my new CC Card and didnt realise till we had left that i had given them a singaore 50 and the HK 20 dollars tp pay with! for those who dont know a HK 20$ bill is worth @ 1.80 sterling. OOPS but they didnt notice either so their loss.

We then went to a posh restaurant i'd booked for Steves b'day Indochine on the Waterfront (1 Empress pl) if you ever in SP go its lovely. In a big classical building overlooking the harbour and the food was GOOOOD (Thank you Ian Ashworth for the recommendation) We then did a few bars in Emerald hill, a small street of old houses off Orchard Rd which again is just bars (I'm sure all they do here and in HK is shop and get p'ssed)

This morning we were supposed to be spending the day at the zoo, but its tipping it down. As we had a bit of a late one last night we didnt get up till noon (disgusting i know!) so we are just going to bum around the pool and go to the gym (just waiting for washing machine to finish so i can dry stuff before flight later)

So thats its from Singapore, we fly to Cairns at 22.15 tonight (just checked the weather forecast for OZ 37 degrees and sunshine for the foreseable future, oh well hard life)

So i'll be saying g'day again in the next couple of days

Love SARAH