Merry You-Know-What

Well its that time folks, so Merry Christmas to all out there from us in soggy Singapore!
Rach and I flew back to the peninsular from Borneo, landing at 2am on Xmas eve. We stayed the night in Johor Bahru and then made our way the next morning from Johor Bahru across the straits and into little Singers. After slogging up the chic Orchard Rd past all the boutiques in our minging travel apparel (not many guests seem to arrive as we did - carrying our filthy luggage through the rain from the MRT station...), we checked into the luxury Shangri-La hotel where they did their best to hide us from the other guests and shoved us into what is to be our lovely boudoir for the next 4 days.
We immediately made ourselves at home, ate all the free stuff, did our washing in the bidet and hung a line on the balcony... nice!
It's firmly wet season here in Singers - it's barely stopped raining since we arrived, giving us the perfect excuse to stay in the hotel or shopping malls...
We worked hard to get a little more used to the comforts of the Western lifestyle and spent Xmas eve in a few local pubs, supping a few Guinness and enjoying the Singaporean approach to the event; more like our New Year's Eve, counting down to midnight and then emptying thousands of aerosols of Chinese-made silly string and fake snow onto each other, us and themselves. Odd, we know. The streets were literally covered in empty cans; not what you expect of control-freaky Singaporeans, and not the sort of Christmas present the ozone layer wants, either.

Christmas day was a lazy hotel affair. We started the day as we meant to go on - in unsurpassed luxury with an enormous beakfast in bed, complete with fluffy robes and Santa hats. Thanks to Mother Bochenski we had a "proper" start to the day with a large box full of wrapped presents for us both. Andy got his blue Christmas shirt, as seen in the photo, I got a couple of fab bikinis and the obligatory (and very welcome) Christmas pants, socks and choccies. Once we'd let all that go down I road tested my new bikini in the hotel pool. We swam for an hour and hopped in and out of the jacuzzi, then as rained beckoned we retired to the grand lobby area for a cuppa. We changed and primped ourselves as best we could for drinks at 5pm and then dinner. This meant that basically we looked smart (I don't think we stuck out in the crowd...) but nothing matched, although I think in the circumstances we did very well. The Christmas dinner was a buffet - let the eating commence!! We started with the world's biggest plate of sushi and then shellfish, including our first taste of lobster. Then on to the traditional turkey and cranberry sauce. To finish off, our favourite treat of a huge cheese plate with a glass of red to wash it down and a chocolate fountain. Then in a final concession to the cheapy backpackers we really are we stole (well, borrowed) two large mugs for a cup of tea in the comfort of our room, in front of "Batman Begins" on the telly...

Thanks to those who sent cards and pressies. Pictured is me in my combat pants and new shirt, Rach in her Hong Kong birthday pressie dress and Christmas necklace.