I uploaded the album last night to Click on Print to be made into a book. I can't wait to see it. We should have it within two weeks.

I'm spending today cleaning out our spare room, chucking out, donating, reorganising and sorting. Kerin is helping me, it makes the chore less bothersome when you've a friend to help :o)

Photo Book

I've almost finished the photo book. I just need check over it later today and make sure that there are no errors in the text pages and then I can upload it and get it printed. I'll be printing it with Click On Print. I can't wait to see it.

Here's a preview of some of the pages:

Page Credits
Spontaneous Delight Kit from Shabby Princess
Font used: It Ain't Rocket Science
White frame: tmurphy-mixtape-frame
Note paper: recolored Butterfly-Dream by Syndee Nuckles from Scrap Girls
Negative Strip made by me

Here's a fun layout I did. I downloaded this template ages ago and now have finally been able to use it. I'm busy working on an album of our trip to Singapore, and hope to get it printed in book form with inkubook.

Page Credits
Template 21 by Templates by Erica
Paper - Blue - Kay Miller Jungle Boogie Kit
Paper - White - Verona Karolyi - My First Flowers Kit
and Singapore Airlines logo

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 9

Saturday 13th of September

Today is our last day in Singapore.


We visited the Merlion before walking to China Town where we looked for Traditional Chinese costumes for the Cameron and Nathan. Once we had bought them, the boys couldn't wait to return to the hotel to put them on.


We packed up our cases and checked out of the room and then spent a couple of hours by the pool before heading on out to Changi Airport - boys back in costume! Nathan fell asleep in the taxi on the way.


As you can imagine, we got many looks and smiles from people enjoying the site of two anglo boys in traditional Chinese costumes. One lady even took a photo of Nathan because she thought he was so cute. Before boarding the plane, Nathan got changed, but Cameron wore his costume most of the way home. The boys both slept most of the way home, unfortunately, Mark and I didn't. It took ages to get through customs as three (or maybe four) planes all arrived within a short space of time. Finally we were out and into a Maxi Taxi! Home looked so big after being in a little hotel room for over a week!

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 8

Friday 12th of September

Today the boys and I walked up to Great World City again for lunch - they had Macca's and I had sushi. Back to the hotel where we met Mark after he had finished work early today. We went to Sim Lim Square where you can buy all sorts of electronic gadgets. We bought a mini USB vacuum cleaner for Kerin and my Dad. After this we went to Little India. Unfortunately (or fortunately as Mark would say) we didn't have much cash on us so we couldn't buy much. Little India is a great place to buy cheap Indian style tops (kaftan style) which I really like.

Little India

After Little India, we went to Bugis Market. Like the Vic Market, but with 100 times the amount of stalls in about one quarter of the space! Pretty squashy, tiny stalls and even smaller walkways between the stalls. Smoking is allowed (or if it isn't they do it anyway). A very interesting market where everyone wants to sell you something.

We then walked to Raffles where the shopping clientele is quite different to Bugis Market. Took some pics. Thought about having a Singapore Slinger there, but they were quite pricy.... and I have to save something to do on the next trip to Singapore! Back to the hotel (in a merc taxi!) and we had room service for tea.

Raffles

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 7

Thursday 11th of September

This morning we went down to the Waterfall Lounge in the hotel where we wrote postcards and Cam did some school work. After a swim in the pool, the boys and I walked up to Great World City for lunch (Macca's again...) and saw WALL.E. Such a cute movie. We wandered around the plaza for a while and found a really great sushi shop - I know where I'll be eating now!!!! Pity I didn't find it earlier. After walking back to the hotel, we had another swim. It was really nice to see some sun today. Every other day so far has been overcast (but hot of course) and the sun has come out for only short stints, so it was nice to get some sun - and a bit of colour to the skin.

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 6

Wednesday 10th of September

We went to the Singapore Zoo today. It was very humid there. Singapore Zoo is on a par with the Melbourne Zoo, but at the Melbourne Zoo you can't ride an elephant! The gardens were just beautiful. We saw and thoroughly enjoyed the 'Elephants at Work and Play' show where we were sprayed several times by the elephants! It was really enjoyable and interesting to watch the show and learn about how elephants have been used in the logging industry in Asian countries. After seeing the elephant show, we had lunch (large fruit cups for $3) and then we wandered around the monkey section.

Animals at the Zoo *

Time to ride an elephant for the bargain price of $8 for an adult and $4 for a child. Unfortunately Cameron didn't want to have a ride, but that didn't stop Nathan and I! The elephant had a very bony back and it's hide was tough and hair very coarse.



A highlight for the boys was the children's playground section of the Zoo. Here was a slightly grungy playground - but with a large shallow pool of water with fountains and squirters that the kids can play in. I took the boys shorts and shoes and socks off and they ran around in the water and had a great and refreshing time. Recommend taking bathers and a travellers towel (not that it took long for the boys legs and feet to dry anyway...)




Mark and Cameron went and saw Clone Wars at Great World City. Movies are only $7.50 per adult in Singapore.



* Animals at the Zoo
Papers and Embellishments from Spontaneous Delight Kit by Carrie Stephens
Template 16 Blog Freebie made by D˙nia
Fonts used: One Constant, Mom's Typewriter, and Pretty Baby

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Days 4 & 5

Monday 8th of September

Mark went off to work today. After having such a busy weekend, I thought the boys might appreciate not walking anywhere so we spent several hours down by the pool. After tea, we walked down to Clarke Quay where we watched the reverse bungee and saw the Autumn Festival colourful lantern display.

Lantern of a temple

Year of the Dog Lantern - 1970

Year of the Oxen Lantern - 1973

Year of the Snake Lantern - 2001

Year of the Sheep Lantern - 2003

Nathan was happy to have his photo taken next to "Darth Maul" Lantern - well that's who he thought it was anyway....

Tuesday 9th of September
We spent another quiet day by the pool today. When Mark got back we went to Great World City (another very nice shopping plaza 10 mins walk from hotel) and had tea at Jack's Place.

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 3

Saturday 6th of September - Father's Day
Breakfast in the Dining room again. Love the watermelon and pineapple here!
We went to Orchard Road today. Orchard Road is the main shopping district here in Singapore. First port of call was to the Forum Plaza - a plaza that mainly caters for children. You'll find children's stores of Ralph Lauren, Guess, DKNY, and others. Toys R Us is also there as well as a few other toy stores.

A posh hair salon for children.

This shop is all bathers for girls! Including Sea Folly.

After browsing at the Forum, we went to Lucky Plaza - Wall to wall shoppers! Cheap prices! A bit grotty, but certainly worth a visit as it is a good place to get some bargains. After looking around Lucky Plaza and lunch (at Macca's again!) we went across the road to another shopping center that was more like what we are used to.Orchard Road

Back to the hotel for an afternoon swim, then Mark took the boys to a supermarket and I had a nice rest with my book for an hour or so.

Singapore River

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 2

Saturday 6th of September
We all had the buffet breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. Apart from the usual western buffet breakfast items (cereal, fruit, toast, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles, french toast, pastries, baked beans etc...) you could also have lettuce, tomato, been shoots, cheese and crackers, ham, and then theres some items that I just could not stomach for breakfast - noodles, fried rice, fish, congee - which is a rice porridge type thing with pickled and/or dried stuff that you can sprinkle on top, steamed bun - filled with a bean paste, soup - usually a fish one, and other menu items that I would be happier eating later in the day.

After breakfast, we headed over to Suntec City for a browse through the shopping center there. Shops don't usually open until 10am in Singapore, but we found on this day that most shops didn't open until midday! Shops are open until late in the evening. We shopped for a few bits and pieces that we needed and browsed through some toy stores - where we watched some kids who were competing in a rubics cube competition - one handed!


After having a look in a toy shop that sells allsorts of Star Wars Collectables and a general browse, we tried to find something that the boys might like for lunch. Food courts are difficult to find in shopping centers in Singpore, there are take away outlets for various foods, but very few places to sit down to eat them. Hot chips are only found at Macca's. I bought the boys a sandwich, but it ended up being toasted so they wouldn't have a bar of it, so they went without lunch and we caught a taxi back to the hotel where we spent time in the pool for the afternoon.

After the swim, we got changed and caught a taxi to the Night Safari. Before going into the Night Safari Park, we tried to take some photos of the boys, after the first good one with the crocodile, they were getting tired and grumpy so they would not cooperate with any more smiles. After getting KFC for tea (potato and gravy is included in their meals, not chips like here- you can order them separately) we browsed the shops at the zoo (including one that you can have your feet nibbled by little tiny fish to remove the dead skin cells from your feet! I think that would have tickled!)


We bought these really cute hats for the boys and they were very excited about them, not that you can tell from the photos!

We saw "Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh My!" and bats, quite a few different species of deer, bats, cats, and other wild safari animals. It was really good, but wouldn't recommend to families with young children (especially the day after we got into Singapore and they were still operating on Melbourne time! What were we thinking? It would have been better to have waited until the following friday evening...) Nathan fell asleep on the 2nd stage of the tram ride, so we didn't get to go on the second walk where you can see more of the animals. The boys slept most of the way back to the hotel.

Diary of our trip to Singapore - Day 1

Friday 5th of September

After a long flight we arrived at Changi Airport - what a huge airport! Relieved to see Mark already waiting for us outside customs. Unlike Melbourne Airport, at Changi Airport you can see through a long wall of windows into the customs area. I was very impressed with Singapore from the very first. The airport was very clean and spacious, the roads and roadside gardens were presented very well. I guess being in the tropics, it's easy to have such lush greenery, but even so, it was all very well manicured and looked after. It was rare to see anything overgrown.


After arriving at the hotel (the Furama Riverfront Hotel in Havelock Road) we headed over to Clarke Quay on foot for some tea - we thought being the first night we'd better choose something that the boys would be happy with so we had McDonalds. Unfortunatly they don't have the range of menu items that we can choose from here. But you can get green tea on tap there!

After tea, we wandered around Clarke Quay and then walked back to the hotel.

Our Flight to Singapore

On Friday the 5th of September, Cameron, Nathan and I flew out of Melbourne on a Singapore Airlines flight bound for Singapore. We were finally going to see the country / city that Mark has been visiting on and off for the past several months for work. The boys were very excited to be going on an aeroplane at last. I sat between them and was mentally exhausted when we arrived in Singapore.

"What does this do?"
"What does that do?"
"What's that for?"
"What's the life jacket for?"
"When does the plane take off?"
"When can we watch a movie?"
"I can see Sunbury!"
"I don't like this food."
"How do I change the channel?"
"I want to play a game."
"I want to watch something else."
"I need to go to the toilet!"
"I can see another country!!!!" - we were only one hour into the flight.
"When are we going to get there?"
"I want to sit by the window!!!"
"I need to go to the toilet!"
"I need to go to the toilet!" - half way through the meal, said by Cameron who was sitting next to the window!
"I need to go to the toilet again!"
"When are we going to get there?"
"I need to go to the toilet!"
"I can see another country!" - well this time it was true....
"I can see China and Russia!" - pretty impressed with Cameron's knowledge of other countries in the area, however, he'd have to have pretty good eyesight, or be in a rocket to see them both!
"Is this Singapore?"
"When can we get off the plane?"

On the flight home, Mark sat between the two boys, and after 10 minutes into the flight he commented on the boys chatter. I smiled and said that I had 8 hours of that on the flight over so get used to it. Lucky for Mark, we were coming home on a flight during the night so the boys slept through most of it.