Wednesday 23 January 2008 - A Quest for a Singapore Sling

After a very pleasant evening with Birthday Boy and Night Bird, plus the Pacific Ramblers, who had returned just a little before schedule after a wonderful trip, we were duly dispatched on our own mission, Night Bird insisting on us sending proof that a Singapore Sling can still be obtained at Raffles. And so we hit the road and found our way via the Singapore Botanic Gardens (the Orchid Garden is one of The Dishy Pharmacist's favourite places) to a metro station at Raffles Place. Pretty good, we thought. But Raffles Hotel was nowhere to be seen, so we had a nice walk beside the Singapore River to our hotel.
Soon we were showered and clean and on our way, on foot to avoid any navigation errors, for a second attempt at our quest. Readers conversant with my navigation skills may be surprised to discover that success rewarded our perseverance and we were soon crunching over the monkey nut shells that carpet the floor of The Long Bar. Sue enjoyed the Sling whilst I slurped a beer in front of a gallery of pecking pigeons, hoovering up the copious monkey nut remnants. The place was full of people doing the same as us, at great expense - a nice little industry for the locals.
We soon had to curtail our visit in order to seek out Mark and Janet and Katie at their nearby condominium. (Caroline was away on a trip.) They were in tremendous form, now 2/3 of the way through Mark's two+ year assignment. Janet is enjoying teaching at an English school with 2000 pupils. There is a paucity of countryside here but all except Mark enjoy the retail therapy - available in profusion.
Mark then accompanied us back down to Clarke Quay, where he treated us to a lovely seafood meal. Thank you Mark, it was really good to see you all and find you enjoying life so much.
It was just a short stroll back to our hotel and an excellent kip, having got quite a bit in arrears in that department.