Homeward Bound

So after a good (but short) nights sleep I was up and out early on my last day in Singapore. As part of my room rate breakfast was included. Breakfast buffets are always an interesting spectacle, especially in Asia. You can marvel at how much people try and cram on to their plates and also what totally 'inappropriate' food combinations people make. I think on this occasion I did pretty well as I had a plate which had scrambled eggs, teriyaki salmon and dim sum on it. This was accompanied by a couple of mini Danish pastries (on their own plate) and a decent sized bowl of fruit -- they do say that breakfast is the most importan tmeal of the day!

I walked off my breakfast binge with a quick hike from the Pan Pacific to the Orchard Road MRT station, I then caught the train back to City Hall.

I left my hotel and headed to the airport for my flight home at about 10.30am.

Once at Changi I killed a bit of time in the SATS 'Premier' Lounge which was totally rubbish and the only benefit was that there was free booze (a bit early for me) and some food (but I was pretty stuffed). Not a patch on the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow. Unfortunately mere 'Elite Golds' aren't allowed to use the real Singapore Airlines business class lounge in Singapore.

I timed my move to the gate area a bit late and literally walked through security and straight on to the plane. I expected other people to be sat next to me in the exit row, but the seats were free for the time being. Unfortunately they didn't stay that way as some Australian bloke moved from a few rows behind me and sat next to me. He then tried to monopolise the armrest -- I wasn't completely happy, but fortunately the elbow dueling over the armrest ended in some kind of equitable truce.

The rest of the flight was largely as dull as normal. We did have an announcement asking if there were any doctors etc. onboard when we were somewhere over Afghanistan. I had visions of us having to make an emergency landing at some hell hole airport in that neck of the wood. Thankfully it didn't come to that. I wasn't surprised that one of the passengers needed medical assistance since there seemed to be a higher than average number of overweight old duffers onboard!

Heathrow seemed suspiciously quiet when we got off the plane. We did have a mega trek to get to immigration. I bypassed the long queue by using the IRIS 'lane'. This is the first time it's actually paid off, as normally I'd still have to wait ages for my bags to appear on the luggage reclaim belt -- but not this time. My bag was actually on the carousel when I got into the baggage hall! I was out of the airport about 15 minutes after the plane parked at the gate, surely some kind of record?

All that was remained was the blast up the M40 home.