There's a new resident at 34A - we met for about an hour on Sunday, after his drive down from north of Auckland and my final packing activities. I think the locals will be very happy with their new neighbour and I feel very happy to leave the house in his capable hands.
We met up with Kay at the airport on Monday morning, and managed to get three seats together on the Christchurch to Singapore leg. It really is an AWFULLY long journey - even on Singapore Airlines - but we passed that leg watching television and playing cards, arriving in Singapore around 5.30pm. A bit of a rude awakening being met by a humid 35 degrees after the -3 frost in Christchurch earlier that day.
Had a bit of a hiccup with the hotel booking, but we won in the end. Phoned Rosemary's son, Bob who, instead of just having a wee chat and/or a coffee, took Kathleen and me on a 3 hour trip around the city, ending up with lunch in a market, close to Rosemary's favourite haunt during her time living in Singapore.
The afternoon saw us going on a WW2 amphibean vehicle on a tour that took us around other parts of the city - then splashing into the river and taking us around to see it from a different angle - and then spent 40 minutes on The Flyer (like the London eye) getting yet another aangle. We felt as though we'd seen our fair share by the end of the day.
Again 35 degrees - and it successfully achieved its goal of giving me a migraine - but a lot of pill popping and a bit of a lie down (and air conditioning) sorted that out sufficiently to have a good night's sleep and prepare for the next 13 hour leg of the journey,
Arrived at 7.15 pm and was met by my cousin Steph and her husband Ray. Steph and I flatted together when I was in London in 1969, so we know each other pretty well. And it also helps that our fathers were twins so there is a special understanding between us (and her sister Gina) which means that I will spend the next three weeks here settling down and settling in to life on the other side of the world. She's very long suffering.
Today I've experienced 2 earthquake scares - one a helicopter making "the noise" which put me on alert and the other when Chai (their dog) bumped against my chair and scratched. Old habits die hard.
I'm writing this on Steph's computer - I'm hopeful that by tomorrow I'll be back on my own desktop but the dongle I purchased last time I was here seems to have changed the rules. It will be of no surprise that I have no idea how to put photos on this system, but perhaps I'll add a couple tomorrow.
It was about 20 degrees today - tomorrow is expected to be wet. We shall see.
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