j a m e s f o r s y t h ✡ n e t

It was great to see Mum in Singapore on her way through to Denmark. This is a picture of her and Asher at Gloria Jean’s (apostrophe?).

Asher enjoys having sushi train a lot. First, he likes trains. Second, he doesn’t mind eating plain rice.

This was in Singapore. My Mum and Ying were there as well. I’ll post more photos soon.

Here we are at Singapore airport, about to depart and go/come back to Australia.

If you’ve emailed me lately, apologies, I might not have received it. A large file from a previous student friend of mine was blocking my emails. Please resend.

We’ve just returned from an overnight stay in Singapore’s holiday island Sentosa. None of us brought bathers/togs/swimmers/swimming-costumes so we didn’t get wet, except when Asher fell over when he was running around one of those special water installations in which the water spurts out of the ground.

We went to the Underwater World where I found that the Chinese words for “stingray” and “jellyfish” that I’d be using up to now might not be the standard ones - mind you, whether Singaporean Mandarin is an indicator of usage in China itself is another question…. so please, if there are any Chinese readers out there, please tell me the words for these two creatures of the sea. Unfortunately I can’t type in Chinese using this computer.

I’m still without an easy way to post photos on here until we return to Melbourne.

We’re enjoying our time in Singapore visiting my in-laws and showing Asher around. He’s enjoying the roti prata.

This photo is actually from last time we were here, because I forgot to bring the adapter from the digital camera to the computer.

Right now we’re in an internet cafe, here is the only place we can actually easily access the web, so it’s not easy to keep this updated. I’ll try. Anyhow, on our return I’ll put up a few new pictures, not only from Singapore, but from the time just before we left.

Recently I met with Siti in Singapore. We have a mutual friend, Marco. It was great to get together. Siti has a funny-shaped van. It’s not quite a minibus.

In China minibuses are called 面包车 “bread-car”, because of their shape.

Yes, I’m now at Singapore airport waiting for my flight home to Melbourne. I didn’t get a chance for the whole day & 2 nights to have roti prata. Never mind, there’ll be plenty of opportunities in future visits to gain weight and cholesterol.

There are people getting foot massages. Honestly, some of the things people purchase or get done at airports seem really strange to me. It’d never occur to me to have a massage or a haircut or buy a litre of aftershave. Are these people just loaded with money or are they completely bonkers?

Speaking of money, I’m going to have to get used to paying a bit more for things when I get back to Melbourne. My last haircut was 6 RMB. My next will probably be $15. It doesn’t matter that much - wages are very different.

OK. My friend Peter came to Jinan to meet me and accompany me for a bit of a holiday now that I have finished my stint in Jinan. The above is a picture of us together with some old friends in Wuhan - Andy and Popo.

Right now I’m in Singapore. Peter has gone back to Beijing for a night because he couldn’t get exactly the same flights as me. I’m staying at my friend Marco’s place. Marco and I must have passed each other in the sky, because before I arrived he took off for Beijing himself. His parents, who happen to be staying here in Singapore, have made me feel really welcome at his apartment.

Right now it’s mid-morning and I’ve got a whole day in Singapore to loaf around. I’ll keep you posted about what I got/get up to. No intention to go shopping, other than perhaps to get a few more 汉子卡 for Asher.

I look forward to holidaying in Singapore again. I’ve posted a picture from the same evening on here before.

This is my family and my friend Marco.

God willing we’ll have an evening like this again in just a few months.

Well, right now it’s 6:00am Singapore time, 9:00am Melbourne time, if I haven’t miscalculated. I’ve just arrived here at Changi airport and I’m using one of the free internet computers. I had a long walk from another terminal (terminus?) and even stopped during that walk at another computer and answered an email.

Where I am right now overlooks the immigration desks where we usually enter when we enter here. So the terminal (terminus?) I arrived on is definitely different to our usual one.

The Singaporean national anthem is playing at the “Toast Box” (tusi gongfang(?) - i can’t get access to Chinese characters on this machine). I haven’t seen Toast Box in Singapore before. It may be a new chain.

It’s early morning here and many of the shops are just opening. I’ve got a bit of a wait.

A strange thing happened - I was upgraded to business class. Evidence in the form of a photo of me lounging around in my wide seat working on my vocab and swilling apple juice is pending. Singapore Air(lines?) business class is quite amazing. I still couldn’t sleep, though. Probably because Peter and I went to Hudson’s at Tullamarine. A big thanks to Peter for taking me to the airport.

Check out Singapore’s national anthem here.