Singapore

We passed our routine house inspection on Tuesday with flying colours. The boy estate agent wasn't in the house for as much as five minutes. He took a photo of each room, noticed that we have a veg garden in wooden boxes, and went away.  We had an email later in the afternoon thanking us for "maintaining the property in a neat and tidy condition".

Funny expression, "neat and tidy".  I would have said they were almost synonyms.  "Clean and tidy" would make more sense, when you think about it :-D

Anyway.  Wednesday was our wedding anniversary.  Much to our surprise, it was our tenth wedding anniversary.  We were surprised both because it hardly seems as though ten years could have passed so quickly, and also because I don't think we expected to last for almost 15 years when we first got together (it will be 15 years in January), still less be married for ten.  My mother has noted that she and my father made 63 years. Given that Jim is 77 and I am almost 64 it seems unlikely that we will match that milestone!!!!

We thought that an unexpected ten years merited something more substantial than lunch in the pub.  I suggested going to New Zealand to look at the glaciers while they were still there.  Jim reacted with horror.  Look at glaciers? In the middle of winter?  Are you mad???????????

No glaciers, then.  So I thought Singapore.  It's close enough to be viable for a short break. It's definitely not cold.  We both like it.  English is one of the official languages and most people speak it, so no need to learn Malay or Mandarin or Tamil.  I booked flights and a budget hotel by the river. If we don't particularly want to do anything much, we don't have to.  We can potter by the river and eat sandwiches, drink coffee, have wine when the day progresses far enough.  a nice quiet short break.

And here we are.  Our budget hotel is indisputably budget, but the wifi is sturdy, the location is magnificent.  I thought the bed was quite comfortable (although Jim finds it a bit hard). The shower is a good height for Jim and has good water pressure.  It lacks glasses and proper mugs in the room, but we are about to go out and fix that. It will definitely do.

We have found a supermarket close by, plus the river bank has innumerable places to eat.  It does look as though we have arrived in Little Japan - not one of the recognised areas of Singapore but there are lots of Japanese eating places near us. Given that yesterday was our actual anniversary we pushed the boat out and had dinner sat by the river in a Wagyu beef Yakiniku. It was very, very delicious, even if it did seem a bit odd to be sitting at a table with a central barbecue in high humidity and temperatures.  Although, as the sun set the humidity dropped and it was all rather pleasant.

Completely by coincidence, we are here for Singapore's National Day, which is tomorrow.  They were practising in the marina for tomorrow night's light (and firework) show.  We wondered why all the coloured lights were going on.

The view from our table

Practising the light display

The river by night

Right.  Shoes on.  Time to head out for the morning.