The Dougans' Blog

Well we’ve been in Australia for a week now and we’ve had a few emails asking how we’re getting on so thought it might be best to put a blog up to update everyone on how things are going.

Before I do that, I’ll complete the Singapore story. I last blogged on Thursday of last week which left us with Friday and Saturday before we left. On Friday we decided to take a taxi to Sentosa Island and visit Underwater World which Noah absolutely loved. It was just big enough for him to see around without getting bored. He did have an encounter with a Stingray at the side of a pool as he looked in… the Stingray decided to splash him! Noah just laughed. As we left Underwater World the rain started… this was one tropical downpour. We hailed a taxi to get us back to the taxi and in the time it took me to fold the pram down and put it in the boot of the taxi I was soaked to the skin! We spent the afternoon back at the hotel relaxing and decided to go in hunt of some night markets in the evening. It would appear that the receptionist at the hotel gave us some poor advice and we ended up at a pretty awful market… smells, sights, sounds were horrible. Didn’t last long before we headed back to the hotel and out to dinner to our new favourite Singaporean restaurant (see our last blog for more about this). I had Beef Hor Fun and Anna had Beef Mee (a bit like Beef Hor Fun but with different noodles).

Since our flight on Saturday wasn’t until late in the evening we had some time to do some last minute sight seeing in Singapore. We decided to make use of the boarding passes that we had from the London to Singapore leg of our flight and get a discount on the SIA hop on bus which we all enjoyed. We then left the hotel about 3pm heading for the airport. Got checked in (only 0.5kg over our allowance… all that stressing wasn’t worth it) and then headed through to departures to grab some dinner and have a wander around before our flight.

We boarded the Singapore Airlines A380 a little late after the runway had to be cleared to allow Air Force One with President Obama onboard to land. The A380 experience was nothing special. The aircraft itself was quieter and a little smoother but the experience itself was pretty average. Service was not as good as that which we had received on the B777 a few days earlier. It was nice to fly on the A380 but I won’t go out of my way to get on one again… in fact I’d rather fly a 777, I think.

We landed in Sydney on time at about 7.30am on Sunday 15th Nov., and were greeted by all of Anna’s family. A bit of a strange and surreal experience this time since this was not just a holiday!

Anyway we’ve spent the last week organising various pieces of paper, getting our NSW Driver’s License, opening a bank account, sorting out Medicare and arranging ante-natal care for Anna. We’ve also spent lots of time in the pool trying to hide from the heat! I had a bit of an informal job interview on Friday which could turn out to be something… we’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll keep you up to date on that one…

Today we had the annual family Christmas Dinner with Anna’s family. (First one Anna has been to in 7 years). It was lots of fun except the weather has been incredibly hot today. Ridiculously so. After lunch/dinner when we left the hotel the thermometer in the car said….

It does say 46 degrees Celsius. I don’t think it was quite that hot but certainly into the 40s! We came back from the hotel and headed straight to the pool. The heat today has been too much. I am sure that today has been the hottest weather I have ever experienced! I also experienced, for the first time, hot wind. Driving hot wind. It’s like standing under a blow heater except it is all around you. It is 9.30pm just now and is still incredibly hot. So hot, in fact, that when I brushed my teeth a few minutes ago the toothpaste was really hot! Very strange… I guess I’ll get used to it?

Noah doesn’t seem to be phased by the heat and has his first proper swimming lesson tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes. I’ll try and post some pictures of that.

Anyway time to crank up the A/C and head to bed!

Love,
A, A & N (+ Bump)