When I was told that we had a public holiday on a Thursday, I was pretty
unimpressed. I have always loved the extended weekend impact of Bank Holidays
at home – a Monday or Friday off work just makes the weekend feel like a real
holiday, so I was unconvinced about the idea of a midweek break. I couldn’t
have been more wrong!
With this Thursday off
not only did we get an extra Friday night on Wednesday, it also means that
Friday feels like the good element of a Monday fresh start combined with the
joyous pre-weekend magic of a Friday. I’m sold!
This Thursday, with the
whole day to play with, but having only gone to bed at 5:30am on Wednesday /
Thursday morning, our day didn’t start quite as enthusiastically as I had
hoped.
As normal, I was awake
and bored by 8am, so whilst Nick didn’t even stir from the bed, I clambered up
and started to clean our dump of a flat. The night before we had used every
single large plate, small plate, item of cutlery (bar one spoon) and glasses
that we had in the flat. The place was a complete state, and even through it’s
only a small space, it took me a good two hours to get it back into a
reasonable state.
By ten I thought it
might be time for Nick to wake up, I was wrong (as I was told in no uncertain
terms) so I knew at that point that I was going to have a good few hours to
fill by myself.
My first thought was to
have a shower, but in an attempt to use my day as productively as possible, it
was first time to swim before getting ready to start the day.
I then headed out to
the Prime Ministers official residence, which is about 15 minutes away from our
flat, and is opened up to the public for just two days each year. As Nick has
done this outing before I didn’t feel too bad about going without him, so I
stood in a queue for about half an hour to get in, before passing a good hour
or so wandering around the amazing gardens and checking out all the shiny gifts
and furniture inside the house too. It’s incredible that even in Singapore, the
locals are as happy as Brits to spend a free day looking around stately homes.
It wasn’t as impressive as a National Trust style property, but the intentions
were there, and that’s good enough for me!
At around lunchtime I
headed back to the flat, ready to drag Nick, kicking and screaming out of bed
and into the real world. Eventually he was up and running, and we were able to
go to the Gardens By The Bay to see the temporary tulip exhibit that I have
been trying to visit for a few weeks, as well as the other displays that they
have open all the time.
Gardens By The Bay have
two climate domes open to the public, one it cool enough to simulate Europe (perfect
for keeping the tulips happy) and the other is cool and damp with a giant
waterfall running down the middle. Both of them were cool and fresh, so considering
it was so hot out in the real world, it was the perfect place to be when you’re
feeling a bit delicate in Singapore.
The tulips were
amazing, and I am really pleased we got to see them before the exhibit closes
this Sunday, and the waterfall dome might be my new happy place – with the
strong wind machines and the cool, damp air it feels strangely like being at home
by the seaside. It was the perfect temperature!
On our way back to the
flat we walked past the famous Hong Kong dim sum restaurant Tim Ho Wan, where
there is normally three rows of queuing patrons waiting for a seat. For some
reason, probably because it was about 4pm and a strange time to eat, the queues
were really short, so we took advantage of the rare lull in demand and we only
had a ten minute wait or so to be seated.
Nick has been to the
Hong Kong restaurant a couple of times, so we were really going just so that I
could see how amazing it was. The pork buns were incredible and well worth the
wait, but a couple of the other dishes weren’t really up my street – probably
due to me being hungover and more in the mood for sandwiches or a giant bowl of
pasta.
Still, it’s ticked off
the list now, and that made our day just productive enough for me to go home
and nap for an hour before spending the evening lying on the sofa watching
Gavin and Stacy reruns. It was the perfect end to a fabulous (if slightly slow/
painful) day. And now there’s only one day of work until the weekend.
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