Back to the Warmth - just....

I've been very slow in getting a post Christmas update done, but if the speed January has gone by is a good indication, 2009 should be over in the next 30 minutes or so.


To all those people who fed us over Christmas, many thanks. We thoroughly enjoyed all those roast potatoes (which I'm now busy trying to work off in the swimming pool, gym and on the tennis court). It was great to catch up with so many people and apologies to those we didn't manage to see. We also did the chores - optician, dentist etc and David visited the London office too.


Other little touches we enjoyed were: having hot water in the kitchen tap (but the cold tap water was sooooo cold there!), wide supermarket aisles and no ants to chase down any crumbs of food on the kitchen work surface. It's funny the little things we appreciated!

After 12 days of a social whirl in the South East, we headed up the M1 to my parents in Leicestershire. The weather was slowly getting slightly warmer and we spent 5 less hectic days over Christmas catching up with my family. We also caught up with the many Christmas presents we had ordered from Amazon etc (which saved humping them all the way from Singapore) and spent Christmas eve in a sort of wrapping frenzy so that we could then unwrap them all again on Christmas morning.

The day before we were due to fly back, David thought he'd do our check-in early, on-line, as the flight was likely to be full. Then there was a call "Rachel, why does this flight booking say 28th January?" Ooops......

Booking our flight back here hadn't been a straightforward task due to problems with the website/call centres and at some point, December must have become January during a phone call. But after a number of phone calls and some hasty and kind rearranging of plans by my parents, we finally all got a flight the following evening, returning just one day late.
Just before we returned, David received a text from Siew Mei, his no. 2 in the office forewarning him that there was to be a little exchanging of Christmas presents on his return to work. With little time to prepare, David went in with a large box of chocolates for everyone to share, feeling guilty that he hadn't had time to get individual presents.
When he came home, I asked what his presents were. I think, at this point, we have to remember that Christmas isn't so big here and some of the staff don't celebrate at all. It's just a day off. One gave him three Ferrero Rocher chocolates wrapped in Christmas paper and another gave him air cushioned shoe insoles.....an unusual choice for the boss.

Well, with Britain's temperatures plummeting into the next ice age, back here it was glorious and warm. Actually, it was cool by local standards, but to us, it was gorgeous. Of course, we're also back to kitchen ants and narrow supermarket aisles etc, but I suppose there has to be some penalty for being away from those short, cold winter days.

While away, we asked our neighbour to water the plants. On our return, the plant pots were both filled to almost overflowing with putrid, foul smelling water while the plants themselves drooped sadly. I'm so glad the mozzie inspector didn't come (see earlier blog). Even after tipping away the excess, we had been home 4 weeks before needing to water them again. A shadow of their former self, we doubt they will ever recover but our neighbour here has successfully ensured that we never ask her again.

The day after we arrived back was New Year's Eve, and we went to a buffet at an international hotel here. Courtesy of the jetlag keeping the children up late, we took them too. All was going well until the staff told us they were closing the buffet in ten minutes - at 10pm. On New Year's Eve???? We'd only just had our starters! We quickly piled up lots of plates of food and they did keep it open an extra 20 minutes for us, but the band finished and by the time we'd eaten it was just us and the staff laying up for breakfast. They did, at least, give us extra free champagne and a substantial discount.

We then headed off to the Singapore River to see the fireworks - along with about 250,000 other people. The fireworks were fantastic and the atmosphere fun. Afterwards we dashed off as fast as possible towing the children at a run and climbing over a barrier (me in a dress and high heels - what a sight!) to get ahead of the crowds and were fortunate to be able to hail a passing cab to get home. But it was worth the run, as apparently, people who thought they would let the crowd dissipate found that it didn't, as the underground system was quickly overrun. 10 more minutes and it would probably have taken us hours to get home!


Now, it's Chinese New Year and the Year of the Ox - a big event here, so coverage will come soon.