The Weekend (and Monday)

Well, I'd like to say I never blogged on the weekend because I was so busy, but unfortunately it was the opposite - I didn't really do enough to warrant a blog! So thought I'd save up three day's worth.

So Saturday.  I got up early because I was going to attempt the Southern Ridges walk - some sites say it's 9k, some say it's 10k, what's a kilometre between friends hey? Well it turns out I did neither, as I got bored by HortPark and sort of gave up.  I did it the opposite way round to the person who's blog I have linked - so I missed out the Canopy trail (I thought the forest trail I did WAS the canopy trail, hey they're both up in the air right?) and HortPark was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, I was hungry and very sweaty and gave up.  The beginning of the trail from Harbour Front MRT (the Marang trail) was just LOTS of stairs which knackered me from the beginning, embarrassingly I had to stop at the top of each set of stairs!  Then came the Mount Faber park bit, which had some nice views and did tempt me to go on the cable car across to Sentosa, but no I thought, must plough on in the hope of seeing some wild monkeys (you would have thought I had had enough of those in Sri Lanka).  Then you reach the Henderson Waves - my photos of it are pretty poor but the view of it wasn't that great from the direction I was taking.  For some reason it's popular with newly weds for their wedding photos (there were a couple having a photo shoot when I walked across), but I am not sure why as the views aren't that great.  Then after that you reach the Forest Walk which is just an elevated metal pathway that zigzags through the 'forest' (more forest in NorthWales than here), then Alexandra Arch which is literally a bridge going over the motorway, then HortPark - it was at this point I got bored and gave up!! To be fair I didn't do too much research in to it but I did think it would take me off the beaten track a little bit...but no!


minging mozzie bite - I have about 10 on my legs and one on my arm

Mount Faber looking across to Sentosa

Mount Faber looking across to the other side (Mount is a bit of an exaggeration really)

cable cars

Henderson's Waves - better photo of this on the blog I linked to above, or google image search it

It is quite a nice bridge, but I think the Clifton suspension bridge is a bit better

Fancy some kickapoo joy juice?

The Forest Walk

went to the toilet and he was waiting for me


So I then got the bus to VivoCity - this was my first experience of buses and they're just like London ones, except you have to remember to swipe out as well as on, and they don't announce the stops so you have to pay attention to where the driver is going. Oh and no Durians are allowed on board (they stink to high heaven, and back!)

Vivocity is Singapore's largest shopping mall, and probably my favourite.  The only reason it is my favourite is because.....I FOUND A $2 STORE!!!! I was in my element let me tell you.  Oh my goodness. I was so excited when I went in, I literally spent about an hour in there looking at everything.  Not only is it a $2 store (basically a 99p store), it is a Japanese $2 store!!! And you know how interesting the Japanese are.  They had the coolest stuff, but also really nice stuff, much better quality than our pound stores (yes, some of your presents have been purchased from here...).  They also had dog outfits (Bex I thought of you but didn't know what 'size' your dog would be, ha), kitchen implements, stationery (I bought pads, highlighters, sticky notes and pens for work - procurement queen in the making) cups and saucers, craft items, hair and beauty products, just loads and loads of lovely things.
$2 dog outfits...

If I lived in Singapore (or Japan) then I would go here all the time. It was amazing!!! I then got hungry and had dinner in the foodcourt in the basement.  I had an egg sandwich for the grand price of £1, and the most delicious pudding ever -Mango Ice.  such a simple concept (I want to start a business in the UK doing it, though I don't know what demand would be with the weather currently as it is!).  it was a big bowl of shaved ice, with a dollop of mangos, mango syrup and condensed milk.  It was delicious and semi healthy at the same time, and a bargain at £1.50.

nom nom nom


I went outside and enjoyed the sun for a bit, and debated whether to go across to Sentosa (the fun packed island where you can fake skydive, go to Universal Studios, sit on a beach, play golf, go 'lugeing' but I decided it would a) be no fun on my own and b) if I did go, I'd want to swim in the sea and I had no such items of clothing on me.  I was also quite tired from my roughly 6-7k walk in the morning, so decided to head back to the hotel.  I got another bus just because I was feeling brave, and spend the afternoon by the pool.  I then skyped my family in the evening, which was amusing - my little brother was offering me cookies via the camera (thanks, much appreciated, I'll have one when I get home) and shoving his cat in the camera (haha, reading this makes him sound like he's about 3...he's 21).  All I can say is thank goodness for the internet, it's made me feel much less lonely on this trip.

Sentosa from VivoCity

the Port (well a tiny portion of it)

these birds are dead cute and sound like sparrows.

Sunday morning I had a big lie in - I didn't even mean to, but I didn't wake up till 10am.  I rushed to get ready because breakfast stops at 10.30.  I had a big breakfast of.......beef noodles, bacon, toast, pastries, scrambled eggs and watermelon....gotta love a buffet breakfast!! I was feeling particularly lazy and attempted to do some work, but decided to watch Fresh Meat instead (so funny, I love Vod).  I then went to the laundrette to do some washing - annoyingly though I had been saving up my spare change, the machines only take old coins and not new ones (they've recently introduced different sized new cent coins) which nearly all of mine were, so I then had to go and swap them for old ones.  In the laundrette I got talking to a couple who were in Singapore for 4 days, having come from Dubai for 3 days, and on their way to New Zealand where they were moving to for a year.  They were really nice and I wish I had got their details so I could hang out with them again (they did say I could hang out with them too) but as they were only there for 4 days I thought maybe they'd want to be by themselves so I declined...oh well!

After I did my laundry I realised I had wasted  most of the day, so decided to head to Chinatown for a couple of hours.  I had been there on my first day here, but only to the massive mall, not the outdoor market which I discovered yesterday.  it was lovely though each shop sold pretty much the same souvenirs, but it was an interesting experience and very pretty - all the streets were lined with lanterns criss crossing above.  A guy approached me with a special offer on reflexology - I thought what the hell, when in Rome (or Chinatown), and was promptly led down an alley and up some dark stairs (you would have thought from my recent experiences I would know better, but this is me I'm talking about!).  Turns out it was all kosher and I was asked to sit in this very comfy lazyboy chair whilst a lady literally pounded my calves and stuck her thumbs into my feet.  all I can say is OWCH and I will probably never have reflexology again, but at least I can tick it off my list of things I wanted to do in my lifetime.  It was a weird pain - it hurt whilst she was doing it but stopped the moment she stopped.  She had a way of digging her fingers in between my tendons and muscles which freaked me out, she also popped all of my toes which made me wince.  I got a 30min foot treatment and a 10 min back massage (again, not a nice massage, OWCH!) for $26, equivalent to £13 which is a bit of a bargain really.

I love this building, it's so imposing with all the mini forests sticking out of it

Chinatown

Chinatown

Chinatown

Chinatown

Sri Mariamman Hindu temple in Chinatown


I realised what the time was so headed back to my hotel to get ready for my badminton match with a bunch of random people I met online on www.meetup.com - really good site, highly recommend it - worldwide community site for people with similar interests who actually want to meet up and do things.  A girl called Grace had arranged to meet me at the MRT station ("look for the girl with the badminton racquet") and we got the bus together to the sports centre.  She was very friendly and  we had a nice chat.

hard core training session happening to the left

The badminton itself was quite fun - not as fun as my Clapham group, but I guess I have made friends there whereas this one I knew no one.  Unfortunately I managed to smash the organiser in the back with a shuttle on my first game - oops, but my standard was matched with that of the other players which was good.  (though I was sort of hoping they'd all be incredible and then take pity on me and teach me the ways of badminton so I could return a ninja badminton warrior).  Someone else then whacked me on the head with his racquet as our communication wasn't all that great, so all in all it was an interesting match.  also a very sweaty one - 30 degree heat with no AC because the shuttles will fly funny in AC, I sweated so much that it caused the pink in my bra to run into my white top and I had to walk home with weird bright pink patched on my boobs and back - pleasant.

I didn't get in till late, about 11, had a shower and collapsed into bed - woke up knackered today.  Felt lazy and got a bus to the MRT station, wasn't paying attention to where I was going and half way up the 'up' escalator realised I needed to be going down it - forgot I was on the escalator and turned to go down, embarrassingly realised and then had to go all the way up and down again. sigh.

Work was uneventful - but went quite quickly.  Didn't get home until 7pm, so had dinner in a restaurant where it was so self service i thought I was going to have to cook my own food - you seat yourself, tick what food you want on the menu, go up and order and pay, they bring it to you (one of the only things they do do), you go and get cutlery then clear your plates away after - apparently it's to keep prices down but to be honest I have eaten in cheaper and better places than that so won't be going back!  Then went for a swim in the pool - managed 80 lengths in 45 mins which I am quite proud of, I was aiming for 100 but really needed a wee and knew if I got out I wouldn't get back in again, so called it a day. Why do you always need to pee when swimming? I wonder what google says when I type that in.  Anyway here I am now doing the much anticipated blog update - I hope Lisa's happy, ha!

Comments

  1. Very happy - thank you!!! But who has beef noodles, scrambled eggs and watermelon for breakfast?!?!!?xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also had buttered sweetcorn...it's a buffet, you gota try everything!!! they're shuttles, the coach was hitting one every second to the boy who was returning them, quite impressive xxx

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