Happy 40th Birthday Matt

We celebrated Matt's Birthday with a picnic in the gardens with a few friends and were forutnate to have Andy here for the day to help celebrate. Here's to the next decade of fun. I predict in about 10 years Matt might even look 40! Thanks for all the prezzies and best wishes from home.

A room with a view

I've been travelling the past three weeks and there has been a real variety of views from my hotel window.

First, I was speaking at a HP Partners conference in Sanya on Hainan Island at the south of China.  You don't really think of tropical island when you think of China but it was very hot and the Mandarin Oriental was a really beautiful five star resort.  I also spent two nights in Hong Kong near the airport but didn't take any photos out the window.

Week 2 saw me back in China after a day and a half at home.  This time to attend some planning meetings in Shanghai.  The taxi trip from the airport to the hotel was scary, doing 150km down the freeway with no seatbelts! The Grand Hyatt is in JinMao tower in the finance district and my room had a great view from level 67.  It was a pretty full week but I did have one evening to myself where I walked down to the river and enjoyed dinner while ships, ferries and barges cruised past.

Week 3 was a shorter one.  I didn't fly out to India until Tuesday night which gave me a few days to enjoy Christine's visit.  First stop in India was the Fortune Select Hotel in Gurgaon, which is outside New Delhi. My view from level 6 was of the metro station and nearby offices. I was involved in delivering a training class and we were there the day that a bomb went off at the High Court, killing 12 people.  A bit scary to hear about but not close to where we were.  That night there was a magnitude 4 earthquake but I didn't feel that either.

From Delhi I flew down to Bangalore to stay at the Fortune JP Cosmos.  Bit better standard than the Delhi hotel but neither could match either my China rooms or views.  After delivering our training day on the Friday, we flew out Friday night, arriving home in Singapore at 6am the next morning.

Ancestral Graves to High Tea

 Mum's visit has had lots of highlight. We've been to Swan lake on Ice, dined at a hawker centre, found my great great Uncle's grave at Kranji War Cemetery, visited Little India, Arab Street, the Botanic Gardens, Orchard Road shops, checked out Raffles Hotel in the colonial district and been for a few swims in the pool.

Today we watched the girls run in their Cross Country at MacRitchie Reservoir. Alice came first in her age group and Felicity cam second in her age group. Both were delighted with their achievement. I've enjoyed spending a week with Mum and our last thing to do is High Tea at Goodwood park. Then  she hops on a plane and tomorrow I start work full time as the MarComm / Membership Manager at the Australian Chamber of Business. So no more playing for me...

Family Time

We've enjoyed visits from Andy again and Tricia and now Mum is here to stay for a week. It's been nice having the family drop by as Matt has had a lot of travel to Hong Kong and Sanya two weeks ago, Shanghai last week and it will Bangalore and Delhi this week. Luckily we get to see him on the weekends.

Mum and I had a day of coffees, and pedicures and shopping and School pick up and drop offs on Friday. After experiencing the expat wife side of Singapore, we went wild yesterday by bike riding around Pulau Ubin and then headed off to the Night Safari. Today is more civilised once again with a trip to Marina Bay Sands for the Swan Lake on Ice Show.

Happy Father's Day to Dad and Bruce and all the other Dads.