Read this blog: The one where we jettison the shoes Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March 2025 We had woken up on Friday to the rather dramatic news that a fire at the North Hyde Substation had caused a total power outage and Heathrow International Airport was consequently closed to all flights. As we were due to fly into Heathrow, this obviously caused us some considerable consternation. However, realising that nothing we could do would influence the speed at which the matter was resolved, we decided we would still spend our last day in Singapore visiting the Battlebox, the museum in the WWII Bunker at Fort Canning, as planned. After breakfast [see Dish of the day] and en route to the museum, Robert wanted his photo taken to showcase his two new branded bucket hats. Where better to do this than outside the Long Bar at Raffles? By opening time, a queue had already formed at the entrance to the Battlebox. As advised the day before, we had brought our Airpods for use with the audio guide, to avoid having to wait to be allocated headsets, and so we were able to jump the queue slightly. We were consequently the […]
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Read this blog: The one where Robert is not allowed in a train carriage Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th April 2024 The MRT [Mass Rapid Transit] network in Kuala Lumpur has introduced a trial of women only coaches to provide them with a safer and more comfortable way to travel. We did not have to use the MRT during rush hour so there was generally plenty of space in both the mixed carriages and the women only ones. On some occasions, to ensure we were compliant, Robert stood behind the pink line while Matilda was able to take a seat on the other side. As we would not be leaving from the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station we decided we should go and view the exterior, which is said to be very striking. Opposite the old station stands the Railway Administration Building, dating from 1917. It still houses the national railway administration for Peninsula Malaysia, which is now known as KTM [Keretapi Tanah Melayu]. The building was designed by the architect, A.B Hubback who was Assistant to the Director of Public Works for the state of Selangor. During the 20 years he held this post he also designed the Kuala […]
Saturday 4th June 2022 Matilda had decided that, after our New York deli breakfast, she would sample her cheesecakes, so when we returned to the hotel, she sliced them both in half so that she could compare. Even though she had carried them round New York for several hours the day before, she was not disappointed: both were light, fluffy and flavoursome: special cheesecake indeed. The plain perhaps won by a whisker. We had previously investigated getting Covid tests as we needed to provide proof of a negative test, taken within the last 48 hours, together with our vaccination status before we would be allowed onboard. The hotel receptionist suggested we went to a nearby surgery, but here the GP receptionist quoted $220 each for them to run the tests. A very helpful gentleman who was sitting in the waiting room said we would be able to get it done at one of the many pop-up testing stations we had passed. We found that here the cost would be just $50 each. So, before starting the day, we went to have swabs professionally rotated around our nasal passages. We then wanted to check out the transport to the embarkation point […]
Saturday 6th April 2019 On Friday 5 April, our final train journey from Amritsar to New Delhi ran to schedule but as it was an eight hour trip and we were up at 04:30 we decided to award ourselves an afternoon of rest and recuperation, to cool down in the pool and plan our sight-seeing for the next few days. Robert felt that as we were now in a cosmopolitan capital, he could wear shorts so that he really knew he was on holiday. The air-conditioned metro is just a short walk from our hotel and as we were walking there a passer-by complimented Robert on his shoes and advised us to be careful on the metro as it would be crowded and therefore pick-pockets could take advantage. In fact the metro was not only cool but relatively quiet. Our first stop was the Jama Masjid mosque. We read the signs regarding rules of entry and one of the requirements was no shorts, so on one of the only days that Robert has indulged in this, his sartorial preference on holiday, the shorts proved to be a barrier to our plans to see certain sights. We did see coaches disgorging […]