We made it. There were times when I thought we wouldn’t (because I had been arrested, or Charlie had been removed from the plane by parachute). Times when I thought my watch had stopped as I counted down the hours and minutes until our Christchurch ETA, watching the Flight Path on the big screen, watching the “Time Until Destination 9hrs 49mins” change to “9hrs 48mins” as Charlie continued to scream uncontrollably. Tick tock.

But before Charlie once again transmogrified into ‘Chucky’, we did share some happy times together on our whirlwind tour of Singapore which I will share with you.

Lunch at the Peninsula Hotel’s cafe.

Look at my gorgeous date!

Unfortunately he was on one of his regular hunger strikes and didn’t fancy papaya and watermelon, so with a bread roll wrapped in a paper napkin we headed out into the 33 degree midday heat of Singapore‘s Colonial District to do a quick reccy before we had to head back to the airport.

A walk around Boat Quay

Typically the busiest establishment was the English Pub at the end.

It really was very hot and I was worried about Charlie, so we didn’t hang around. Suffice to say it was an interesting blend of lush greenery, imposing high rise banking establishments and beautiful colonial architecture. Oh, and of course no chewing gum or litter ANYWHERE. I was looking for anything at all, a cigarette butt, a wrapper, a bottle top… I didn’t see anything.

Raffles Hotel

The highlight of our day was visiting Raffles Hotel. It is such a lush, tranquil oasis in the middle of a bustling city. I wished we had more time to spend there, but we took some photos, bought the t-shirt and rushed back to our hotel…. well almost….

Once inside I felt like I was in a colonial plantation somewhere, or that I had gone back in time and was in British India. It was beautiful, elegant, peaceful and I want to stay there!

Apparently no trip to Singapore is complete without partaking in the
famous Raffles Singapore Sling so Charlie and I headed to the Long Bar,
where the cocktail was created in 1910.

It was quite delicious. But at $24 you’d really want it to be. I liked drinking it. I made hundreds of these cocktails in my bar tending youth and have to admit it was worth it for the warm feeling it gave me to be drinking it at the source. Or it could’ve been the gin.

The dark wood-paneled bar is kept as it was in the early 1900s. There are bamboo fans attached to a mechanism on the ceiling to keep the room breezy. It’s really quite quirky and I loved it.

Boxes of peanuts (monkey nuts) are scooped out of large hessian sacks for every table. The etiquette is to crack open the shells, eat the peanuts and drop the shells on the tiled floor. It’s a strange sight to see upon arrival, until you get the gist of what’s going on.

Luke – you would’ve loved it! And I don’t know how they do it, (boil them?) but the peanuts inside are salty!

So that was Singapore in 120 minutes! After that we packed up, checked out and waited for the ghastly minivan to take us back to Changi Airport for the final leg of our journey.

Surely this time he would sleep wouldn’t he? Wouldn’t he?????

No, it wasn’t to be. He stood up in his bassinet in front of
the entire cabin and tapped the central TV screen with a metal teaspoon whilst shouting. If asked (or made) to sit down, or worse still lie down, he would cry and scream in protest. He was hyperactive the whole way to Christchurch. I knew it was getting bad when one of the ultra-attentive and tolerant flight attendants asked Charlie to be quiet.

Things not to pack in future when flying with Charlie:
– Book
– Crossword Book
– Laptop and USB cable
– Notepad and pen for diary writing
– Eyemask for use whilst sleeping
– iPod
– Games