Morrie (hubby) made a promise to me some years ago that if we ever had the money he would treat me to a holiday in Ireland so I could relive childhood memories and dreams and show him where I grew up in England. He kept his promise. In May 2001 we embarked on our holiday of a lifetime
I was sitting contemplating what to leave out of this journal, then thought what the heck. I will just write what was recorded and anymore that i recall along the way. I hope you all enjoy my memories as much as we did in creating them....

Monday 14th May 2001
Got last minute packing done. I Phoned and complained to the company that was building our carport, upset that it was not completed as promised before we left. It wasn't completed when we got home either, but that's an ongoing saga
Joyce, (friend and neighbour) came over to check out the birds & garden  for any last minute instructions. Jessie our dog was taken to (daughter)  Donna's. Kitchen cupboards were cleaned out earlier in the week only I didn't realize Morrie had cleaned them out so thoroughly. he left nothing in the pantry - got rid of all the canned goods - everything!!!!!!!! took me years to collect that lot. lol
We had a very pleasant afternoon tea with Joyce, Margaret, Doreen and Marnie.
They all complained loudly about me taking off for so long. they wern't quite sure how their computers were going to cope with their unguided meanderings. I didn't worry tooo much I knew they wouldn't do their homework (S)
Sue, (friend) then dropped by for a late cuppa to say goodbye and wish us a safe journey. We went to Donna & Andys for tea, except they had forgotten we were invited. They dug out a lasagna from the freezer and we had a great farewell meal. .
We phoned Sean & Tyrone (sons) to say cheerio, then Mum in Ireland to say we were ready to leave and would see her Friday. 

5.00am. Wakeup call 
5.30am. Donna arrived,  drove to airport, it was freezing in her car, thank god I wore my trackies.Arrived in good time so took Jaydon (grandson) to see planes in viewing area. Wandered around duty free after we said tearful goodbyes to Donna and jaydon. he wasn't impressed that he wasn't going with us.
Made a couple of cheerio phone calls whilst we were waiting to board. The take off was good, we had a window seat, but over the wing. breakfast was good potato cake, mushrooms & tomato's, yogurt & fruit.
There were not many people on board this flight to Singapore and it passed uneventfully. We arrived on time.
Singapore deserves its name as Garden City. it really is beautiful and clean though somewhat sterile and I don't think the people are as friendly as Bali or even Bangkok. 

I spent most of my time making sure Morrie didn't litter with his lifesaver paper & didn't swear. I drew the line at checking wether he flushed the toilet though. lol (S$1000 fines)
 

On the way to the hotel it was explained to us that the flowers and plants along the middle of the highway were all in planters that could be removed very quickly and the highway turned into a runway for the Airforce, should the need aver arise

1.30pm Checked into Garden Hotel. Got ourselves settled, had a quick cuppa then took off to see a little of Singapore, we took the 2.00pm shuttle bus  to Orchard Road or so we thought, we actually got off at Scotts road and walked & walked & walked not realising we were going in the wrong direction!!! guess what- we were lost. lol. We finally hailed a taxi to take us to the Funin Center which was 7 floors all computer related goodies. After a few floors though we'd had enough, they all began to look the same.
 

so another taxi took us to ...
China Town with all its quaint old Chinese houses still standing and hawkers plying their wares, we ere getting hungry so wandered around streets looking for somewhere likely to eat. We found ourselves in the local eatery. We didn't sample the food which was totally unrecogonisable to us didn't smell too good and looked even worse, the surroundings were not much better, so we got ourselves out of there smartly and after a hard time finally got a cab to take us back to our hotel where we ordered fried rice. dare I say we then went to bed as we were exhausted, it was 12.30am not tooo early.
 
 

Wednesday 16th May 2001
8.30 We went across the road from our Hotel to the Castle Inn Restaurant for an English breakfast ( sorry folks I couldn't face rice for brekky) It was a Tudor style cottage the food was very nice & priced well. There was a very uptight Englishman complaining cos his tomato was not cooked right, he sent it back at least 3 times cos he wanted it cooked without the skin, I think the staff were getting close to skinning him. Had a lazy morning as we had to check out at
10.00am. Our driver picked us up and transfered us to the airport for our flight to Bangkok