Singapore transit

After what was hopefully going to be the last buffet breakfast we’ll see for a while, we made the most of our 12:00pm checkout by massages for one and pedicures/manicures for the other. A final shopping collection and a rushed pack up and it was off to airport. We were told an hour, it took 20 minutes and as such we were there even before the check in counter was opened. As it turned out we couldn’t find a shipping container to get all the stuff home, so we decided to put it on the plane as luggage instead. Web site quoted price for over allocation was $2 per kilo. Check-in counter price quoted was $35 US per kilo. As we were collectively more than $10 kg over we were looking at pretty much wiping out the entire cost benefit of getting all this stuff cheaply in the first place. Luckily were not the first people to have experienced this and the advice given and the service offered was spot on.

So we took our bags off the belt, trundled over to the guy that has a large plastic wrap machine and we opened up the cases, removed 9 kilos of strategically weighed and sized items. Mr Cling(wrap) then spun them up, made a handy carry handle and off we went. We still had a ridiculous amount of cabin baggage that had to be consolidated but we figured it out, mostly in a relaxed calm mood. We had plenty of time and we’d just saved a bucket load of money (or conversely - we had just avoided spending yet more). The hop to Singapore seemed quite fast and we spent our 3 hour transit time in the (very expensive after Vietnam) bar on the roof of the airport. It would be an idealic setting if it wasn’t for all those loud planes taking off and landing all the time. The last leg home was OK. Not happy about having our Pineapple Jam taken off us at the gate lounge in Singapore (it was more than 100mg apparently – the more plausible theory is this how this particular lady does her weekly grocery shopping. Cheaper than Aldi. No sleep as such (why do people insist on taking babies on planes?). We did however have a smooth path through Tullamarine (relative to previous experiences that is). Minimal traffic delays and managed to be knocking on the front door by 7:30am. Early enough to say hello to the stay-at-homes before they headed of for another day compulsory learning.

So now all we have to do figure out where to put all this stuff that we haggled, sweated, toiled, tweaked, packed, moved, carried, repacked and paid for. And deal with the thousand odd photos as well.