September...

September in Singapore is Formula 1 and the world’s only night race! We have to confess that we had not realised how much else is included in the price of the tickets beyond the opportunity to be stuck in a concrete echo chamber (stair well) with an 8 year old who has her hands over her ears and a brave expression on her face as what sounds like a squadron of fighter jets flies through your head! Must remember to take a different route to the loo next year...

There were a whole series of artistes performing including Linkin Park (who?), Rick Astley (never gonna give you up...) and Shakira.  Yasmin was absolutely insistent that we had to see Columbian blonde Shakira although she had pretty much fallen asleep after the third song (Yasmin that is). So unluckily for father we had to make an early exit, which at least had the advantage of us finding a taxi rank with no queue and plenty of empty cabs. It was certainly an excellent weekend and we will be looking to get next year’s tickets sorted as soon as possible.

We are currently in the right time-zone for the Rugby World Cup although it seems the French are getting the British Isles back for the Brits spending the last 1000 years annoying them (Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Mers-el-Kebir, Maggie’s EU rebate and all that). Next up is the Singapore Rugby Sevens in November.

Also in September we attended the Corporate Family Day held on the Indonesian island of Bintan, about 45 minutes ferry ride from Singapore’s Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. We had nice sunny weather for most of the weekend starting on Friday afternoon, successfully negotiated the usual silly games in the name of team-building, and then stayed on for Saturday and Sunday whilst most went home.

We took a boat tour into the mangrove swamps where we saw mangrove snakes, amongst other interesting flora and fauna, and spent a couple of hours kayaking around the bay on which the resort is located. Yasmin took to the kayaking like a natural and paddled for the whole time somewhat surprising her father. Turns out she has done a lot of kayaking on the Wii, and it certainly showed!

Julian has had South Asia added to his portfolio of responsibilities at work and so will be including India in his travels in future.