Hello from Singapore

Well the good news is that I made it to Singapore, although it took a LONG time to get here- more about that later...

On Saturday I left Emma's house and moved my stuff into a youth hostel. Her parents were coming to visit for the weekend so I stayed one night in Picadilly. I was carrying my backpack etc out of the tube station when I heard all of these whistles. Turns out I had walked smack into the Pride parade (London's gay and lesbian festival). The atmosphere was great, with flags and whistles, floats and all sorts of costumes. A lot of people were waving Union Jack flags, with the blue changed to pink. So I stayed and watched that for a while before checking in to the hostel.

I was going to Cambridge in the afternoon to see Kara's sister and drop some stuff off to her, so I killed an hour or two wandering around Trafalger Square in the absolutely drenching rain. Everyone told me to go on the river when I went to Cambridge, but it didn't seem likely in the rain! I arrived in Cambridge and got picked up by Jan and her husband, and we headed back to her house. After a cup of tea we decided to make use of the halt in the rain and so I go taken on a tour of Cambridge. But the fun part was, everyone rides their bikes over there, so we went around Cambridge by bike. It was a bit scary at first, dodging double decker buses (they don't wear helmets in England) but in the end it was really fun to see all the sites and cycle on these old streets and footpaths, and having lived there for a while, Jan and Daff knew heaps about the place. There was a graduation going on at the time, so they told me about the ceremony involved. Because of the graduation many of the colleges were closed, but Jan had a staff card so we got to walk around and have a look at great buildings and bridges.

Following that, I headed back to London and wandered around for a while before heading to bed.

Sunday I checked out and returned some stuff to Emma's place in Wapping. I had to leave for the airport at 2:30 so I had a few hours to wander around. So I went and checked out Harrods, before having my final meal in London. You'll laugh, but my final meal in London was from Mark's and Spencers, which is a department/supermarket that has amazing food in lunch-sized portions that you can buy. For example, I had an Italian salad selection, which was 4 salads in a presealed package. The salads were bean salads, pesto salad, cous-cous etc.- really good. Then they have all these individual portions of desserts- creme caramel, chocolate mousse, raspberry jelly with raspberries in it etc- you can even choose from about 6 different fruit salads, all with different combinations of fruit in them.

It's been a big week in Britain- a new Prime Minister, 2 bombs that didn't go off, an attack on Glasgow airport, Wimbledon, July 1 bringing in anti-smoking laws in all enclosed spaces and a large concert held for Diana's death. It's funny though, because London itself seemed quite unconcerned- the tube was as crowded as ever, the newspapers mentioned the bombs etc but said little about the risk of future attacks. The only signs of tension I saw were policemen with guns in Picadilly, and the Age newspaper online which said the Aussie government had raised the DFAT warning about travel to Britain. Anyway, just to be sure I left for the airport with plenty of time.

I thought I'd had no problems with check-in as they are less concerned about weight limits on long haul flights. I thought my hand luggage may have been commented on as it was a little bit heavier than it should be- Heathrow ariport are REALLY fussy about hand luggage- you are only allowed one bag (not even a bag and a handbag), but the Heathrow staff don't usually weigh it. My bag was within the size limit, but not really within the weight limit. Anyway, I got chatting to the people in front of me (who said that they were travelling heaps now, because when you get over 70 people won't insure you, so they want to fit it in before then!) We noticed that one check-in guy was being more fussy about hand luggage then the others, so were hoping we wouldn't get him. When they got him, I thanked them because it would mean I wouldn't, but turns out every other desk was so slow that I did get him. Anyway so he looked at my hand luggage and asked me if it was heavy. I grinned and said no, but he weighed it and it was 3kg over the limit. He told me I really wasn't allowed that much. But then he said he'd let me take it on- as long as next time I packed a lighter bag!!! Got away with it again!!!

So I got on the plane and we set off for Singapore at 6:30 London time. At about 8 or 8:30 London time, flying over Europe, the flight attendent asked for doctors due to a medical emergency. Luckily there were some doctors on the plane and they went to help and that was it. So they served meals, and turned out the lights and we were all just going to sleep about 12:30/1am London time when the pilot came over the intercom and announced that due to a medical emergergency we would be diverting to Istanbul. At the time we were flying in between Russia and the Middle East and I guess Turkey would have been the best option. So we look on the TV screens as the plane suddenly change direction towards Istandbul. Then about 10 minutes later the TV screens had the destination listed as Dubai. The pilot came over the intercom againa nd said they had negotiated a better arrangement in Dubai! So the route map showed us suddenly change direction again- by this stage we had done a zig-zag.

Once we landed in Dubai, about 2am London time, we went to the cargo section of the airport and the paramedics came on and took the person off (I don't know what was wrong, they had an oxygen mask for them, but that was all I could see. It must have been a sudden deterioration over Russia to make them decide to land). So the pilot had told us that when we landed in Dubai they would refuel and we'd head off. Except what had happened once we'd landed was that they had to dump fuel to be within the landing limits at Dubai airport, and one of the fuel gauges had not closed properly. Turning off all the power several times they managed to fix it and finally 1.5 to 2 hours after we landed we set off again for Singapore. We'd had to stay seated the whole time, although by the end we were all standing in the aisles.

Dubai- Singapore is about 7 hours, and we'd already flown for 6 or 7 hours by the time we got there. So the 11 hour flight became a 14 hour flight! Although, I checked up after we left and we were so lucky we didn't go to Istanbul- the flight time from Istanbul-Singapore is roughly the same as London-Singapore. That would have exceeded the crew's legal limits so we would have been waiting there a fair bit longer I think!

Anyway, we made it to Singapore, 3.5 hours later than expected. Hopefully the sick person is recovering in hospital in Dubai, because that would have been an awful thing to happen on a flight.

So I made it to my hostel in Singapore, exhausted, had a shower and decided to go for a wander and have some dinner (I'm staying near Chinatown). So I entered one place to see the menu and was greeted by three people waving their hands in a 'no' gesture at me. One pointed to the wall on which there were two posters of condoms, with some Chinese writing, so I think I'd wandered into a brothel.

Anyway I managed to find some food and think I might head off to bed after such an exciting day!

I have one day in Singapore, then leave tomorrow night, arriving in Adelaide on Wednesday morning. Looking forward to seeing everyone again!!

Anneke