e-Governance

The Australian Government websites are much more useful than UK Government sites. Australian sites are easy to follow, gives out the information in simple, concise and easy to read manner

I know this has nothing to with traveling, but I noticed this while I was in UK. I was looking for some information and I never could find the relevant information in UK government website.

Do I really like flying?

I was walking home today and saw a passenger plane flying a bit low. I missed flying.

After enduring long haul in the cramped economy class, I was surprised I still missed flying.

But, when I thought about it, it's not the flying I miss. Because, I fly only when I am going on holidays, I identify flying synonymously with holidays. It's the holidays I miss.

I forgot I am back in Melbourne...

I was walking towards the train station and when I was about 50 meters away, I saw the train to city just arriving at the station. Normally, I would have sprinted towards the station like Asafa Powell with a backpack. Today, I just didn't run. I casually walked to the station.

It only dawned on me that I am back in Melbourne -where we have an excuse for a public transport system-, when I heard the announcement, the next train -which is 15 minutes away- has been delayed by 5 minutes.

I just realised I was still on London mood. In London Tube, there is a train every 5 minutes. Actually that's an assumption. Because, only once, I had to wait for 5 minutes for a train, every other time I managed to catch a train within 2-3 minutes of stepping on to the platform. So, nobody actually runs to catch a train, even if they see their train pulling in to the station and nobody bothers checking the train time table. Because they know they will only have to wait for another few minutes.

3 thingds I hated about London

1. The obvious, the weather.
2. Driving in London means you have to forget the fact "the shortest distance between 2 points are a straight line". I got motion sickness couple of times when I was driven through the winding London streets and the constant stop-start due to the traffic.
   
3. Coffee. May be I didn't know where to find it, but I never managed to find a good cup of coffee in the month I spent in London. Ironically, the only place I had a half decent cup of coffee was, in a place called The Three Bells in Heathrow Airport as I was flying out of London.
   

Back home

Just landed in Melbourne and waiting for my ride home.

Taxi ride in Singapore

I caught a taxi to Changi Airport to catch the flight back to Melbourne. I was impressed with the professional attitude of the driver.

The taxi driver said the Singapore Airline flights leave from Terminal 3. As my ticket said I had to go to Terminal 2, I asked him to drop me off at T2. Taxi driver said "I really don't mean to contradict you. I will drop you off at Terminal 2, but I really must inform you that all Singapore Airline flights leave from T3. I just don't want to drop you off at T2 and drive off. If you miss the flight because you ended up in the wrong terminal it's not good for both of us". He agreed to drop me at T2 only after I assured him I know my way around Changi Airport, and I know how to catch the Sky Train from T2 to T3, if required.

He also knew about Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter and told me he was very upset when he heard about Steve Irwin's death. Has anyone around the world not heard of "The crocodile Hunter"?

Roaming around in Singapore

Had a busy day today....

Did some duty free shopping in Mustafa for my brother and a friend and had a heavy vegetarian lunch in Little India.

I had few options for the afternoon and I decided to visit Sentosa Island. Hopped on to the cable car at HarbourFront to Sentosa and immediately regretted not bringing my camera along, as the view from the cable car was spectacular. I missed Song of the Sea as it was sold out by the time I got to the counter, but went up the Sky Tower.

Finished the day off by having BBQ Stingray for dinner and washing it down with sugar cane and lime juice at Newton Circus.