Plaza Singapura

When I asked the receptionist where the nearest supermarket was on Wednesday evening, she gave me a tiny map of the very local area. We headed to the supermarket and laid in vital supplies such as milk, tea and wine.

I noted that Orchard Road didn't seem to be all that far away and that Plaza Singapura, an enormous shopping mall, was on the intersection of the main road that connects us with Orchard Road.

It was a lovely morning yesterday.  Not too hot.  Not too humid. Jim thought that he could probably walk there if we took it slowly (his feet, knees and hips are not happy about being expected to walk all over the place).

So off we went. It was a pleasant walk, up past Fort Canning Park.

En route

Through a park

And here we are.
Hello, Jelly People.  We meet again

I was a bit surprised to find a rather large one of these in Plaza Singapura:

I do like Daiso.  There is one in Richmond, not far from the flat but it's not as big or shiny as this one.

We also found one of these:

I like Coco Ichi as well.  We went there for lunch

No real need to travel as far as Japan - all my favourite Japanese things are to be found in this area of Singapore. Well, apart from Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki of course. Oh, and vending machines on every corner :-D

There's a Marks and Spencer, where we got some summer shirts for Jim.  The Build a Bear shop is now a Lego shop. There's a large supermarket in the basement. We spent all morning and part of the afternoon pottering around and (mostly :-D ) window shopping.

I have been wondering why shops, cafes, restaurants etc are offering discounts such as "buy one, get the second one at 54% off" or "selected items reduced by 54%".  Seems a very odd discount.  Then I realised that Singapore's National Day marks 54 years of life as an independent country. Made more sense after I made the connection.

The reviews for Robertson Quay Hotel almost universally slate the breakfast. I don't think it's too bad. You get a choice of two sorts of cereal, fried or scrambled eggs, toast, baked beans, chicken frankfurters. People complain that there's no variety but it seems varied enough to me.  The coffee, on the other hand, was HORRIBLE.  We headed to Starbucks to get a decent cup of coffee.  Iced coffee, I think.  

Starbucks does not do a decent iced coffee ;-(

Bitter black coffee, a bit of milk, lots of ice. Bleurgh.

The coffee shop in the centre of Plaza Singapura did better:

Made with  creamy milk, nice coffee.
Would have been perfect with ice cream

Daiso has ridden to the rescue for urgent cold coffee needs:

We turned left at the river yesterday evening and headed to Clarke Quay. There were more Japanese offerings but we went Greek instead.  A massive shared platter 

There is a layer of chips underneath this lot.
We didn't quite finish it

So a lovely day, capped by a lovely evening

Beware of unexpected dangers:

Better than being eaten by crocodiles, I suppose