Day 4, Year 4: Fourth Busy Day in Singapore
Date: Sunday, October 26, 2008
Weather: More Sun, More Humidity
Location: One 15 Marina,Sentosa Island, Singapore
Some things never change. No matter how many times we promise ourselves that we are taking a day off and just relaxing, it doesn’t happen. We are doing wonderful things, but I feel a bit like I’m in a salad spinner. There is so much to do and see in Singapore and I don’t think there is any way we will really be out of here at the end of this week as we had promised ourselves. But it’s not Thursday yet, so we shall see.
I finally took the time to do the mountain of laundry that has accumulated since Kumai. Every towel and sheet on the boat needed to be washed and since there is only one dryer here that dries things very slowly, it literally took all day. I was, however, sitting happily in air conditioning and working on getting photos ready to put on the website. Mark was on the boat doing chores and when I got back to the boat after 2 pm, he was worn out from being so hot. We then changed gears, greeted friends from a number of boats that arrived here today, went up to take showers in the luxurious One15 changing rooms, and then off we went to Little India to have dinner and enjoy the last night of the Festival of Lights. It was so crowded that it was almost impossible to move. You had get in a flow of people and just go with it. We ate a lovely little second floor restaurant sitting on pillows on the floor around low tables. Rose and Tim of Rendezvous Cay were with us, as well as the crew from Scot Free II who just arrived this afternoon.
Now for the really important events in the last 24 hours . . . We talked to our grandson Sam via Skype last night and again tonight. We have to call Massachusetts late in the evening to catch Sam early in the morning and last night we called from the boat and had an on and off connection. But then we are trying to do two-way video and that complicates matters. Sam really couldn’t see us as we had to sit in the cockpit in order to have a strong signal, and the lighting there what you might call “mood” lighting. But we could see him and it was great fun to watch him. But we wanted to try again with better lighting so he could see us, so after returning from Little India tonight, we took the computer up to the laundry room and called from there. When we connected, Sam was developing a new game with a box and an old Sears credit card. He is one intent little guy and when he finished that game, he went to get some Legos to show us how he builds. Then he decided he wanted to read, so he went with his mom to get a couple of his current favorites. He seems to currently be fascinated with an alphabet book we gave him just before we left last spring. It is called Animalia and is by an Australian author. We tried to read this together. Heather would read and then he would indicate that he wanted us to read. So she would position the camera so we could see the page and then we would read. Early in the conversation, we were giving each other high five’s via the camera but he wouldn’t throw kisses. But when it was time to say goodbye, he threw kisses and even said the word “kisses” which surprised Heather and he had never said this before. Obviously, we were charmed. This little guy sure has won our hearts and we can’t wait to see him January when Heather, Jed, and Sam visit us in Thailand. Until then, Skype is our connection and we have had two wonderful contacts from here.
We are off and running again in the morning. We are going to Jurong Bird Park with Robert, Tina, and Neal on Shirena. We’ll stop for lunch at the Vivo Center and then spend the early afternoon in the pool here at One15. When we return to town to have our Singapore Sling at Raffles to celebrate our anniversary, Neal will be heading to the airport to return to Australia. Out here friends move in and out of our lives quickly, but because we have shared such wonderful experiences together, the ties are strong.
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| 081026 Day 4 Singapore–Back to Little India for Last Night of Deepavali Festival |
