Baby news and Singapore photos

Hi everyone. My first bit of news is the birth of our second
granddaughter, little India, last Thursday, by CS, which went
OK. Both mum and baby came out of hospital on Saturday, and
are very well. We've had lots of visitors as you can imagine,
so we've been busy looking after them as well. I'll post some
baby photos in my next post.

Well, I promised you some photos of Singapore from our stop-
overs on our trip to NZ, there and back. We were very lucky to
have the company of India's father, J., who showed us some of
the best sights and who looked after us well. J is Anglo-Indian
and was working in Singapore at the time -- he's in the Raffles
Long Bar photo below.

So the photos are of a shopping area near Madison's Hotel to
show you how clean these areas are ... all the shops & hotels
are air-conditioned, which is great. Sentosa Island is the
place to go if you like hot sunny beaches (which are artificial
by the way) and entertainment of various sorts. For those who
like gardens, the Botanic Gardens is a must-see -- beautifully
laid out and a pleasure to wander around (and a lovely posh
restaurant in the Ginger Gardens to visit at night -- the
Halia). Oh, the fabulous views from the top of the Swissotel -
the restaurant on the 71st floor is usually open for passing
visitors at about 3pm. Excellent restaurants on the riverside,
by the way. And the famous Raffles Hotel -- J took us into
the Long Bar for some atmosphere, and to try out their
cocktail, Singapore Sling (the pink drinks you'll see in the
background, which were too sweet for me). And we wandered
around Chinatown, which was very pretty, with its colourful
market stalls and temples. I think Singapore is a great place
for a short stay, and our flights with Singapore Airlines were
brilliant.