G: The first day!

21st Feb, woke up 5am. Blogs written offline throughout the day.

On the plane, 21st, 9.45pm Singapore time (1.45pm body clock). First blog of the trip! A mixture of being tired and overexcited reminds me of my childhood, though we sit in our comfy Qantas seats, which is new experience.

The airport was fine as airports go. Getting up at 5am was not fun, but as often happens when going away, adrenaline got me through the morning. Said goodbye to Mum, and set off to Heathrow with Dad. Aiden brought a whole contingent – his mum, younger sisters, and big sister Michael. I remarked that it was surprise he didn’t bring Jazz (the dog). We found each other, checked our bags, then sat down for breakfast. Dad left soon after, which made me tear up a bit. Before going through security, more tears were shed saying goodbye, and I made lots of promises to look after Aiden, which I will keep. Mark you, he probably won’t make it that easy!

Waited at the gate, then boarded. We have individual screens with a very large range of entertainment (incl. audiobooks, oddly), and we got complimentary head phones, blankets and pillows. There’s also a lot of space – the seat ‘ceiling’ is high enough to stand under, and I could poke my head through the gap at the window (it being me in the window seat, Aiden on my left next to me). We saw from the gate how big the plane is – it has an upstairs for pity’s sake.

So far I have had the fortune to watch the third episode of ‘Sherlock’. I forget now why I missed it on its original airdate, but suffice it to say, I was annoyed, seeing that I had enjoyed the first two immensely (as I have the third). Aiden is still watching the end of ‘R.E’D’. There’s not much else in the films and TV shows I fancy, though the flight may prove onerous enough for something to seem more attractive later on. Aiden was very excited by the system. The screens are touch screens, with music and radio, and a live feed from a camera attached to the tail!

Having finished listening to the entertainment, I have realised one of the babies is crying. Yes, one of. I saw at least two babies at the gate, there may be more that I’m not aware of. We’ve eaten our first meal – the rice salad common to plane food, with the also common bread roll and butter, and beef and Guinness pie, and of course tea after. Not bad. The Mars ice cream bar was good.

At the hostel, 22nd, 1.30pm Singapore time (5.30am body clock). We have been up over 24hrs now! I was able to get some rest on the plane (though not true sleep). However, Aiden is suffering a lot more because he wasn’t able to get any rest. The only thing on his mind since we got out of the taxi at the hostel has been to get to sleep.

The rest of the flight wasn’t anything special. We played battleships at one point, watched TV shows, and I read, as well as trying innumerable positions with both provided pillow, and my own neck pillow, plus the blanket, and occasionally Aiden as extra support – with his consent I hasten to add! We got breakfast (A. had muesli, I had hot), and we landed at 8.09am local time. We wrote out forms for border control (or whatever it was for), and got our bags on our immediate arrival at the carousel (get in). We had hoped to be met by our taxi driver, but we had to give them a call and found out they were at the wrong gate.

We left our bags at the hostel, and took a short stroll round the nearby area. Well, Singapore, what can I say? HUMIDITY is the overriding feature, as we were warned. Our jeans are soaked with sweat, and A. already looks a little pink. I was horrified to find that an arm my new sunglasses had fallen off, so I spent the first few hours squinting. However, once we had got hold of a map and chosen a direction, we ended up in several shopping malls, and I got my glasses fixed for free! Lovely man.

So it has been about 25 degrees Celsius I think. There are a lot of trees, especially on the outcrop with the airport; we drove for about 20mins through very green roadsides. The main city area we’ve looked at (a rather small portion, especially considering the size of the Republic itself) has been lots of Asian architecture high risers. I think the oddest thing to get used to is the fact that the main language spoken here is English. It all feels so foreign, and Asian, and then all the signs are English, and anyone you speak to fully understands.

Another thing about Singapore is our relationship with it. We’re really only here for a pit-stop; the three days we’ll eventually be here don’t feel like ‘real’ days of the trip. Of course, we will be making the most of it – seeing the main sites of the quays on the river hopefully, and the wonderful night safari planned for tomorrow.

In conclusion: 13 hours on a plane is fricking hard to cope with, and so is high humidity. But we’re really on our way now, and with Aiden feeling better after a shower, this is a good day to start our big, scary, wonderful adventure.