Raffles welcome fruit & flower bowl
Dear Friends, when I last wrote, we were just about to head out for a pre-dinner drink and we found ourselves at the Long Bar again where we were given a great table as we were hotel guests. Lots of visitors came looking for tables, but finally a young Asian-looking couple wandered by, so we invited them to join us and had another of those wonderful encounters you have when travelling. She was Korean, who has lived in Boston from age 15 and he was from Arizona. They are now in their thirties, married and have lived in New York and currently in London, and were fleeing from the cold for 2 weeks. Their biggest decision is where in the world to settle down.
Long Bar box of peanuts – it is etiquette to leave the shells on the floor
After two G&Ts each, we said goodbye and walked across the road to Chijmes, where we found another Lei Garden Restaurant and enjoyed double boiled sea treasure soup, steamed prawns with asparagus and Chinese cabbage with mushrooms for dinner. We walked back to Raffles and reprised our crème de cassis over ice drinks of the night before and reacquainted ourselves with Jimmy the pianist.
The next morning we were sorry to have our last breakfast in the hotel – everyone made a fuss of us – we are very easy guests and make sure we smile and say thank you for every service, unlike some of the guests who take the staff for granted. The afternoon before, we had received news from Barbara that her cat, Ascot, had gone missing on Sunday and when found, had been in a fight and was at the vet recovering. Fortunately there are no broken bones, but she has been unable to get onto both back legs, which has been worrying, although now she is home, has eaten a little and is responding to TLC. Fingers crossed that she recovers fully.
We went for a walk to the Singapore Library where we saw a wonderful exhibition on traditional weddings, as well as admired the various photographs and miscellany that has been donated over the years. Then into the biggest Anglican Church for a squiz and finally a browse in a second-hand bookstore, where we found a good history of Singapore, a book on Napoleon and another on Ramses, which will keep Wes going for ages.
We packed our bags, checked out of Raffles, enjoyed our only dim sum meal for the trip, in the Raffles bakery, and then found a quiet spot under the main staircase where we settled down to read our books until our car arrived to collect us. One of the many butlers who stopped for a chat organised tea and coffee for us, and we very reluctantly took our leave at 6pm. Our driver was very interested in cricket and Australian Rules and suggested we needed to get a catchier name if we are to appeal to Asians in the future with footy.
We arrived at the Singapore Lounge and the first thing I spotted was that day’s Melbourne Age. What bliss! We settled down to have a serious feed as we expected to be given only a snack on our flight home. When we found our seats we were amazed to be on a very new plane, where there are only 4 seats per row in Business Class – what luxury – the window seats are single seats, which means every traveller can get up and walk around without disturbing your neighbour. We found the seats so comfortable, the TV screens enormous and the bed delightful – it comes down from the backrest and includes a doona instead of a scratchy blanket. I watched a very silly film ‘The Tourist’, because it was set in Venice, while Wes caught up with ’Another Year’ and ‘The Fighter’. When we reached Immigration, we were delighted when the young official said to us ‘Daylesford, I’m going to retire there’. It was lovely to be home.
Singapore Restaurant – perhaps a clone of the House Next Door?
We passed through security easily, got the Andrew’s courtesy bus, collected our car and set off home, arriving here about 9am, which was fantastic, as we landed at 6.40am. Everywhere looked wonderful – Jonno had cut the lawn and trimmed the garden beds, Judi had collected mail and papers and put out bins, with some help from Barbara, the roses, tomatoes, basil and spinach were all blooming, and Sandra had cleaned our house to within an inch of its life. Judi had put yellow liliums in my favourite (her least favourite) vase and left us tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber for a salad, as well as cabbage and carrots for the boys.
Wes went straight over to see Barbara, who had missed him dreadfully, especially with Ascot’s drama, while I unpacked both suitcases and started the first of 4 loads of washing. We climbed into bed with The Age, the local papers and cups of tea around 10.30am after Wes put the computers through their paces, and slept on and off the rest of the day. We got up in time to see sunset and watched a ‘New Tricks’ episode while enjoying our tomatoes and spinach on toast.
On Friday Nicole came to do my hair and Wes collected the boys from Eureka - This is how they looked as we left them to go away – you would never guess how excited they were and how much they enjoyed their holiday as well. I opened the mail, packed a small running away bag and Wes drove me to Ballan to catch the 3.30pm train to Southern Cross Station for the footy. I met Danny at European Restaurant in Spring Street, where we had a memorable meal – I was greeted with a glass of champagne to celebrate my return and matched it with ‘black and white pasta with fresh crab’. Danny had a stunning piece of meat, and we somehow managed tiramisu, which was a meal in itself.
We got to our seats just before the raising of the 2010 Premiership Flag, which was done very well – including as many past players, staff and supporters as possible and culminated with Simon Prestigiacomo hoisting the Flag onto the flagpole. We were delighted to be part of 88,818 crowd and the atmosphere was fabulous. Carlton came out with all guns blazing and gave us a great game, which we managed to win in the last quarter.
I stayed overnight with Danny, where we were wakened early by a group of painters, who decided to start work at 7.30am and thought it would be OK to knock on the door, rather than ring and make a time the day before. Danny went off to work, and I caught the train into town, where I bought some new Winter tops and some chocolates for Wes. Then I walked to Carlton, where Wes met me for lunch at Jimmy Watson’s to celebrate 45 years since we met on Sunday, 10th April 1966. He had taken Barbara to dinner at ‘Gracenotes’ the night before, watched the first half of the footy with her, and then collected Ascot for her next morning. Afterwards we saw ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’, which we really enjoyed and drove home in pouring rain. Barbara had let us know that the power was out, but we could see that everyone else had power as we got closer to home, so Wes went straight over to her place to restart her power which had turned itself off.
This morning we had a lovely reunion with all our friends at Cafe 3460 where Kim outdid himself with breakfast, Gary was at our sides with drinks before we knew we needed refills and we distributed our gifts. One of the delightful traditions of going overseas is bringing back presents for the Breakfast Group and everyone had great fun with their bags of goodies. Kim & Gary were given a Sri Lankan cookbook so we are expecting all sorts of wonderful goodies next week – string hoppers might be a bit much to ask for though!
Laundry hamper – Trident Hotel Mumbai style
No comments:
Post a Comment