Days 26/27 - flying Amsterdam to Singapore, Singapore to Christchurch
We packed up & did a final check (or so we thought), then out of the Novotel Schiphol & caught the train to the airport. We have been through some big airports in our time, but this one is huge & so confusing – to the point that 4 or 5 staff pointed us in different directions to find the lounge and only one of them was vaguely correct. As it turned out – I wish we had never found it… But 30 mins later we were in the Privium Club Lounge West, which is the lounge that Singapore airlines use in Amsterdam. It was very dark & small - & I mean small, The check-in lady had said it was an invitation only lounge – I think that’s because it could only fit about 50 people tops in reality! Anyway we settled in for a quick breakfast. I was being good not having a cooked breakfast, so had cereal, strawberry yoghurt and some fresh cut fruit along with a smoothie drink Graeme saw - mango & lychee. It was sitting in a jug out on the counter & I sculled most of it before tasting it properly. It had a weird taste so I didn’t finish the last bit. Thought nothing of it… then we headed to the plane for the 13 hour flight to Singapore.
I watched a couple of movies back to back, then about 4hrs in I started to have some weird stitch like pains in my stomach & racing heart, which deteriorated into full blown food poisoning 🤢. It was pretty bad, was very sick and kept passing out (even so, the nurse in me was trying not to think about having my head on a public toilet seat lol!) Just tried to get through it quietly. When the staff noticed something was up they asked if I was alright… they were very good, but not much they could do other than give me airsick bags & charcoal tablets, but I couldn’t keep anything down.
We ended up getting wheelchair assistance through the terminal, which I was very grateful for. It was so hot in Singapore 33°C at 6:30 am when we landed. We got a taxi to the hotel and Graeme spoke to them as there was no way I could wait until 3 pm for our room to be ready. We did lose our higher grade room for a very strange internal facing room, but I had to lie down and was very grateful for the room no matter how it came!
We spent the 36 hours we were in Singapore, in the room. Poor Graeme didn’t get to see anything – is lucky we have been here a few times before. I was not well still the next day when it was time to check out as our hotel was fully booked, so we decided to get a day room at the Changi Airport hotel which is the Crowne Plaza. Oh my god, it was so lovely after the room we had had before, so we spent the 5 hrs just getting ourselves right side up and making sure we had everything packed. We had ripped all our suitcases apart as discovered that my little bag with some medication, earplugs, (which we had needed in the first Singapore hotel room!) & eye patches were all missing. I think the bag got rolled into the duvet at the Novotel in Amsterdam. I clearly remember zipping the bag up on the bed & I’m usually so careful.
They say things happen in 3’s & this trip, Graeme had hurt cartilage in his knee at the beginning of the trip & had a week on painkillers for that, then he was gifted Covid on the cruise, and then I had food poisoningt!
It was an uneventful 9 hour flight home & I felt marginally better, but didn’t eat or drink. We landed in Christchurch & Pam & Gordon - who kindly looked after had our two puppy dogs Pip & Paddy for the month, came & picked us up with the dogs packed up already in the back! Great friends are wonderful to see at this point 😊. Then we drove the 3 1/2 hrs home to Twizel, with a stop in Ashburton to pick up groceries I had ordered before we left Amsterdam.
We were pretty shattered by the time we got home, as it had been an overnight flight with no sleep, but felt good to be back until we went to get into bed to find our freshly made bed had mouse poop on our pillows & between the sheets, thru my bedside dresser, then later discovered they had been in the pantry & all around our electrical goods – we had had an infestation while we were away. We have since heard that this can happen in the area on the turn of the hot into cold season, if the house is empty. They had even got into my quick-eze chewable tablets, ripped open the packets, eaten them & dragged the paper into the bed. Three days and over 20 loads of washing & drying later, all the linen on all our beds & clothes in the drawers have been changed, just in case. Those 5 little suckers have since gone to mousey heaven!
Also, the pigeons had come in to roost in the outside trusses of the roof in the month we were away, so there were piles of pigeon poop on the concrete that had to be scraped off into a bucket & hosed away before we could let the dogs outside.
Oh, the other thing that had happened actually was that Laura our friend who have been kindly checking on our home when we were away, had gone round to turn the water pump & hot water cylinders back on, only to find water peeing out of one of the pipes – it had cracked. Thank God we didn’t come home to that as it would’ve completely flooded. Laura mopped up everything and got hold of us while we were still overseas & they got a plumber in to fix the cracked pipe -thank goodness for another great friend 😊. This is the reason we turn the water off when we go away, especially after having a pipe burst in Australia once & we woke to half the house flooded!
So that’s the next 3 things – what a few days it’s been! All the joys of travel I guess🥹😏.
1 comment:
There’s no answer to all that. Its all been said!!
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