Singapore old and new

The building where L and L reside (they are on the 30th floor of that building, around the other side facing the Tanjong Pagar docks) towers over an area of low level shop houses, as well as over a number of older housing estates such as Everton Park. This epitomises the many contrasts of Singapore.

We didn't go far on our last day in Singapore. It was far too hot and humid for that. The weather app told us that it was "29 degrees, feels like 40"... Enough said. I had a coffee meeting nearby at Populus, but unfortunately both my attempts to organise a lunch failed. So Mr A and I lunched together (also at Populus), and then went back to the apartment for me to have one final swim.

Then it was off to the airport, to engage in a set of travails to secure an exit row seat (eventually successful, but not before I got quite frustrated with Etihad - which will be the subject of tomorrow's blip).

So our nearly 8 week trip to Australia and Singapore has finally come to an end. There have been mainly highlights (such as feeding joeys, riding the Indian Pacific and meeting Mr A's family) and only a few lowlights (such as my sciatica and the associated aches and pains which still see me walking in a rather restricted way; I've also not slept as well as I might have wanted during the trip). My visits to Universities have been pretty universally excellent, and the presentations that I have done have resulted in very useful feedback that will really help with the next stage of my project. I need to write up some of those ideas for my blog. I've made some interesting new contacts, and met up with plenty of old friends. We've mainly eaten great food, with just a few "turkeys" thrown in, and we enjoyed some really tasty wines in Australia. Our modes of transport have been varied: aeroplane, bike, local light rail / tram, bus and coach, taxi, private car, and of course train.

I'm not 100% convinced I would do this type of trip again (it's been a bit tiring and I will be so pleased no longer to be living out of a suitcase when we get home), but there are one or two places I really want to revisit, and preferably spend more time in, Perth for one. So perhaps if we went away for a couple of months again in the future to such distant parts, we would stick with one or two centres, with some side trips thrown in.