Singapore Part I

Well here we are in Singapore.


I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be reunited again with my daughter. We have opted for a couple of days staying in Changi to begin with and this afternoon move to a different hotel in the city. The Marina Bay Sands hotel which by all accounts is pretty amazing. That said, our base here in Changi has been lovely. Above is darling daughter practising for the synchronised swimming section of the 2012 Olympics !

And above enjoying a fresh coconut at the Hawker Centre (no Mother, if you are reading this don't worry - we don't have upset stomachs!!)

A view across to Palau Ubin Island where most of the prawn farms are; we saw them landing huge bags of them yesterday morning. And Changi Beach to the right. In spite of its dark past being the site of the Sook Ching massacre by Japanese soldiers during WWII, it's a popular place for Singaporean families to come during the weekend and relax. We are going to visit Changi Prison and Chapel Museum too later on which recounts the Japanese occupation of Singapore during the Second World War.

Gorgeous fresh fruit in the market.

And here above is the now deserted place (some say haunted apparently) that is dear to my heart and which I wanted to show my daughter. Old Changi Hospital where some 50+ years ago I was born. My parents were stationed here in Singapore as a newly married young couple. My father was in the R.A.F. - how different it must have been in those days to live nearly half way around the world. No internet, no mobile phones and indeed too expensive even to use the landline phone. They wrote each week to their respective parents and I sometimes wonder that it must have been quite difficult for my mother in her very early twenties not to have the support of her own mother as she gave birth to her first child. Although I will add that my father was (quite unusually I believe in the 50's) a very 'hands-on' Daddy !!

So all in all a little bit of a nostalgic trip in this fairly quiet (by today's standards) part of Singapore before we go to the bustle and hustle of the metropolis.