Early start. If all went to plan, I was going to be at Melbourne Airport to meet my offspring at 12:30, assuming they made their connection in Sydney at 11:15. Being there at 12:30 meant flying out of Brisbane by 9am, as the flight is a little over two hours, and in summer there’s an ... [More]
Day two of my quick trip to Brisbane. Memo to myself: when in Queensland in summer, make sure the blinds/curtains are closed properly before going to bed. Given no daylight savings in the Sunshine State, you can expect the sunshine to come through the window at about 5am. I found myself awake at about 5:20, ... [More]
The plan was to head up to Queensland for a couple of days. For a short break, but also to visit my Dad’s memorial bench at UQ, and see my uncle Frank. I devised a plan to fly into the Gold Coast so that (given nobody else was coming) I could have a look at ... [More]
While I was in Singapore for my holiday, I had a good look at the MRT, and I wanted to specifically post about the MRT’s elevated sections. I’m not the only one to ponder a comparison to the proposed Dandenong line skyrail… Channel 9 recently featured this story, which is worth a look: .@andrew_lund speaks ... [More]
See also: my other posts from Singapore This post pulls together some things I saw on my on my holiday, together with information gleaned from a briefing with the Singapore Land Transport Authority (organised by chance courtesy of the Victorian Government when some of their people discovered they’d be in Singapore at the same time ... [More]
Our last day in Singapore. After breakfast we headed for the pool for a while. It was warming up but not too hot, and very nice in the water. Then a moment of panic. Where had I put my room door key card? It was in my bathers pocket, and… oh. There it is. On ... [More]
We awoke in the resort on Sentosa, with one more full day before heading back to chilly Melbourne. Breakfast buffet. I totally ate too much, and I didn’t even get to have an omelette (made fresh by chefs in the buffet area). But anyway, time to explore! Sentosa island has two cable car lines. One ... [More]
About a week before leaving for Singapore, I’d been in a meeting with some people from the Victorian government, talking rail tunnels and level crossing removals. I mentioned I was going, and asked what I should look at. Turned out they were about to send some of their people off overseas to exchange ideas with ... [More]
We were meeting my sister and her family (also in town for the wedding) to catch a shuttle bus to the Singapore Zoo for breakfast. Not just any breakfast – breakfast with the orangutans. Yep, you get to eat a buffet breakfast while apes frolic nearby. Have I mentioned that Singapore is the land of ... [More]
Our destination today was Little India, which we reached via MRT of course — the hotel is closest to City Hall station, but only slightly further to Clarke Quay, which is just a few stops from Little India. The Lonely Planet book we had recommended a specific walk, so we set out, admiring the historic ... [More]
All Singapore holiday posts. Click on pictures below to zoom. Our hotel booking didn’t include breakfast, and while I like a hotel buffet, we decided to look elsewhere for a morning feed. Being downtown, there should be plenty of options, and after some walking around we found a bakery in the Raffles Centre shopping mall ... [More]
(This post backdated. See all Singapore trip posts on this link) As I previously mentioned, we were invited to my cousin’s wedding in Singapore, so we decided to go for the week. Why Singapore? A distribution of family between Belgium, Singapore and Australia. It was very cold when setting out — only about 3 degrees ... [More]
A day (and night) in the countryside began by heading out of Melbourne in the car. I learnt a lesson on the way, somewhere near Sunshine: if you’re going to try and overtake (well, “undertake”) a truck on the left from a standing start, be at the front of the queue at the lights AND ... [More]
In a couple of months I’m going to Singapore for a week, for my cousin’s wedding. Any recommendations? Things to see and do? (The wedding itself is on Sentosa Island, at one of the resorts.) It’s been ages since I’ve been overseas. What’s the best way to organise mobile/data coverage? What’s the shopping like? Is ... [More]
Each time I travel (which isn’t often enough), I note the things that are different, and the things we can learn from. From my most recent short trip to Sydney, here are some notes — not an exhaustive study, but just some observations. Central Station is a rabbit warren compared to Flinders Street Station, though ... [More]
Posted 27/11/2015. Back-dated. The third and final day of my obsessively-blogged short trip to Sydney, and it was destined to be pretty geeky. After breakfast and checking out, we caught a train to Penshurst (changing at Wolli Creek, which I assume is a pretty new interchange station), then a walk in the sun to The ... [More]