Walked down to the river today, for a nice lunch (thanks, Lynn, for the tip). As you walk about you can’t help but notice how upbeat and optimistic it all is. Employment doesn’t seem to be a problem; our hotel was seriously overstaffed, by UK standards, with about 4 employees for every guest. Every time you stand still someone comes up and offers to help you, which can get wearing after a while.

Great chrome and glass offices and malls are everywhere, all with escalators and water features. Sometimes their USP is unclear, though exclamation marks predominate. One I particularly liked was called the fx:1 academy, whose speciality was ‘abundance management’. Their slogans included ‘Adapt Optimal Trading Habits!’, ‘Lock In Profits Consistently!’ and – my favourite – ‘Earn Precious Pips!’ I wonder what it all means.

Everyone says Singapore is very clean, and it is. Street sweepers operate from cycle-powered rickshaws, with their brooms and bags of collected rubbish in the back. The ethnic mix of the place seems to be Chinese and Malays, with some Indians, but you notice that the lads on the rickshaws are none of these.

Back to the hotel to pack and wait for the taxi back to the airport, then to Perth.

Singapore is very modern, clean and bustly; skyscrapers, parks, expensive German cars. All the signage, without exception, is in English, and they drive on the left. It is also oppressively hot (30+ degrees), and humid with it.

The thing to do in Singapore is to visit Raffles Hotel, and especially the Long Bar, which is a haven of cool away from the heat and bustle. You can have a Singapore Sling, if that’s your tipple, but we discovered they did a very nice cranberry juice at an absolutely reasonable $11 (£5.50). A snip, I think you’ll agree. I have enclosed a picture of Mrs A in said Long bar. The other thing you have to do is to throw your monkey nut shells on the floor. There is a huge bowl of these nuts on every table, and the tradition is to chuck the shells on the floor. Naturally, being Brits, chucking our detritus on the ground is second nature, so we were able to join in with enthusiasm.

More tomorrow, perhaps.

Late leaving Heathrow owing to electrical fault. The engineers eventually resorted to the time-honoured tactic of turning the plane off, and switching it back on again. This worked a treat and we took off a mere two hours late

We’re travelling Premium Economy, which seems quite nice. For example when the meal comes round you get a tiny tablecloth, and coffee from an actual cafetiere. We considered flying business class, but it would have added £4000 to the cost, a ridiculous percentage of the whole price. As it happens we will be airborne for around 40 hours over the whole trip, so the maths is quite easy; five hours into the flight I am happily thinking what to do with the £500 I just saved.

Arrived Singapore, airport transfer worked perfectly, hotel very posh, Singapore appears a fine, clean city. Shower first, then explore - more later

Picked up all our tickets, itineraries and vouchers today. This makes it seem more real somehow.

Glenda phoned this morning to say that their neighbours have offered us the use of a holiday flat on their land while we're in Bateman's Bay. They keep this for their own visiting relatives. We will take them up on this offer - staying at Glenda's would be great but she and Trevor already have two of their grandchildren living with them so it's probably for the best.

Only a few days now....

Pat's broken her wrist, slipping on the ice down in Worthing (along with a goodly proportion of the rest of Worthing and surrounding area, judging by the scenes in A&E). She had to return a couple of days later to have it manipulated under anaesthetic, and replastered.

She'll be in paster for 6 weeks, ie to the beginning of February, so we should be OK... fingers crossed!

Jolene from Flight Centre phoned - San Francisco hotel Chancellor now booked.

Visas sorted: you don't need one for Singapore; we've got eVisitors for Australia; and for USA we're eligible under their Visa waiver scheme (had to promise not to overthrow the government though).

I think the only bureaucratic thing left to do now is to get an international driving permit, and you can only do that within three months of leaving the country, so nothing to do for a while....

All going smoothly

Jolene from Flight Centre phoned today, on return from her hols. Everything - flights, transfers, accommodation and car hire - is booked. The sole exception is the Chancellor Hotel in San Francisco, where she can't get next year's rates yet. She'll try every couple of weeks.

We want to stay at the Chancellor on the recommendation of Todd and Kenzie, who have provided us with an insider's knowledge of things to do there - and not to do.

You don't need a visa to get into Singapore, and for Australia you can get an e-visitor, which replaces the previous non-visa arrangement. For the USA there is a visa waiver scheme, but it seems quite a lot of fuss and bother. Need to look into this.....

More exciting developments soon.