The Singapore Fling

Day 0 – A very un-eventful day transit after saying farewell to the Bennetts, Mansfields and Felicty and Jan at Sydney Airport. A day of travelling ended with us checking into Studio M apartments in Singapore, dinner and the Manchester derby just around the corner at “Stacked” bar for some dim sum. Two pieces of advice for those playing along at home, If you ever get the chance to fly on the A380s, do it, they are awesome, and, never pay for transfers in Singapore, cabs are way too cheap to bother!

Relaxing at Studio M

Day 1 – Not wanting to waste time on the first day of our trip we arose early to make the most of the day. Unfortunately it started with the sad news of Katrina’s grand father passing away and our thoughts were (and still are) definitely back in Kotara with the extended Mansfield family on this morning. Breakfast at the café at studio M provided a French style coffee and bread to get us on our way and this would become a stable for the next 3 days. On beginning our walk down the River we realised that our attempt to start early was most probably wasted as like a lot of Asian cultures it’s a start late finish late attitude with not much open before 10. By the time we’d walked the length of the River, down to the now famous, Marina Bay Sands we were exhausted in the stifling heat and humidity. Deciding to eat like the locals we wandered down to Chinatown for some ‘Chicken and Rice’ at the Maxwell Food Markets Hawkers centre. Got to say, the food was awesome, the chilli was hot and at 3.50 SGD for a meal, un beatable value that I don’t think will get repeated for the remainder of this trip! After the sapping heat it was nice to spend the afternoon by the pool at the hotel before meeting Katrina’s (ex-)work colleague, Simone Stokes, out in the ‘burbs’ for some local chilli crab and fish head soup.

Chicken and Rice from the Maxwell Hawker's centre

Katrina at Marina Bay Sands

Day 2 – Was our big day and probably too much given the heat and humidity. We went to Santosa Island to sample the (kids) activities. The cable car over to the island is an impressive view, a few Queenstown inspired luge trips down the hill to the beach and an ill informed attempt at riding a stationary wave at the FLO-RIDER resulting in a few too many bumps and bruises which we are both still paying for. The afternoon was much more relaxing with cocktails of the day, satay sticks and chips on the menu by the beach at Santosa. From there it was on to enjoy the view from Marina Bay Sands. Some handy advice from Simone meant that we waved the 20 SGD fee to get up the top by giving the commitment to have a cocktail at Ku-De-ta. Of course the cocktails are 20 SGD a pop, but hey you get the view and the drink, rather than just the view! We must say it is an impressive view of the city and a great place to watch the sunset and enjoy a drink, albeit a very expensive one. From there it was off to the famous Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo, intermittent rain had increased the humidity from 110%, to 10000000%... Our advice is to just leave it at the Tram ride, the walking trails at the end of an already massive day proving way too much! By the time we got back to the city we only had the energy for a late Indian dinner on Deephavali eve, which was awesome food at Clarke Quay.

On the cable car to Santosa

Luge - Santosa Style

Sky Ride back up from bottom of Luge

The infamous FLORIDER in action!

Cocktails at top of Marina Bay Sands, Ku De Ta

The Fullerton as viewed from Ku De Ta

Day 3 – Our final day was rewarded with a sleep in and a late check out in the knowledge that out flight was not until 1am the next morning. Heading up to Orchard Road to do some window shopping was made more difficult by on-going intermittent rain all day. Giving up on the shopping idea when we have no room to pack anything we headed to the Newton Circus Hawkers market late in the afternoon. We got there at opening and it was pretty much just the shop owners cooking themselves dinner. Can confirm that it is the tourist Hawkers centre with prices being more than the Maxwell and the food no better! Off to Raffles for the very tourist driven Singapore Sling, whilst the free peanuts is a nice touch, the shells on the floor doesn’t really make sense when it’s a tile floor (Katrina reliably tells me that the tradition comes from having wooden floors which enjoy the oil that the peanut shells release when crushed into the floor). With big plans of going out for another drink at one of the rooftop bars before leaving shelved due to FLORIDER based injuries we retired back to Studio M for some drinks and dinner before heading to the airport to check in early and try the ‘we’re on our honeymoon’ for a free upgrade trick. It didn’t work and after enjoying some remedial massage we boarded our 12 and a half hour flight to Zurich early on Day 4.

Singapore Sling??

Day 4 – Still on-going and the location of composition of this blog here in Athens still in transit! The flight to Zurich turned out to be great, with not only Singapore Airlines changing their movies in the last 3 days, but a low attendance on an A380 meaning Katrina and I got three seats each and managed to fit in some serious sleep. A quick hop on Swiss Air to Athens (two hours) and arrived early for our flight to Santorini. Excited by the prospect of the 15:00 flight instead of the 17:45 flight, this was soon quashed by the friendly ladies at Olympic Air informing us it would be at extra 132 EUR for that particular pleasure. Not all bad though, sitting here at “The Olive Tree” (definitely named for the tourists) enjoying a salad, coffee and some wireless inter web. A few days of real Honeymooning ahead for us relaxing on a Greek island, hopefully hovering around the 20 degC mark. Can’t wait!

All our Love, Mark and Katrina

(click on photos to view full size :) :) )

The first and Final Jets Post for the Year!

That's right folks, the Sometimes Football Soapbox is back and this year will really live up to the name of sometimes Football! (but more on that later)

To the first round of the Jets campaign for the year. Unable to make it up to Newcastle, Lee and I watched from the comfort of Quest North Ryde. My memory fails me on the details but I distinctly remember Griffo's brilliant free kick (would've won me a substantial amount of money if Heart hadn't already scored!) and his follow up probably of equal quality but from open play. It was refreshing to see the passing game we love so much finally producing some goals rather than the last few years of playing well with no final product. The second half was more of the same and I honestly believe the Jets deserved their win but agree that the nature of the winner was more than a little fortuitous. I don't think we have a new crowd favourite like Song, in Byun but at least the enthusiasm and excitement is there, not sure whether you can claim that goal though mate...

Overall round 1 was a solid performance and showed the work of a long off season. Which at the risk of inciting some anger can only be credit to Cullina Snr. Regardless of your feelings on the matter the performance in round 1 could of only been his (and the players) doing. Players don't organise themselves that way in 4 days, and there was no way Craig Deans could've developed that understanding off the bat! I am one (of a minority?) that is sad to see Branko go. We most likely will never know the full story but you can reasonably assume that it had something to do with knowledge of Jason's injury. I wish the Cullina's all the best, and Jason in particular a speedy recovery, it would be sad to see such a great career ended on these terms.

If round 1 was solid, round 2 was as a soft as the extra kilos I've piled on since the wedding (no I won't try and convince you they're muscle tone). I don't buy in to the whole a trip to Wellington is hard so it's OK argument. I'm sure if I turned up to work and under performed a comment like "It's a long drive through traffic to Botany" wouldn't go down well with the manager! I will premise this by noting that I'm not a huge Craig Deans fan, but don't for a minute consider it coach bashing. HOWEVER, when you trade in one of your defensive midfielders for an attacking option further up the pitch, leave your back four as exposed as the Jets were, AND not produce any attack of meaning or quality, you've got to admit defeat and reshuffle. Wehrman worked hard and was probably the best player in gold (sorry memory lapse, in blue and red) out there, but what he provides in commitment and strength he unfortunately gives up in pace. He was over run all day and unable to provide adequate cover to the back four. Additionally the more attack minded players up the pitch gave up the ball to easily to compound this problem. I cannot for the life of me figure out how Kantarovski wasn't pulled back to help screen the back line. It wouldn't of helped the attacking stocks, but lets be honest the attack wasn't solid all day anyway, but may of shored up the chances that kept flowing from the Phoenix midfield.

Against the Mariners this weekend another performance like the one across the ditch on Sunday will be crucified by the Jets faithful. A lot has already been written this week about the players not being 'up for it' only they can answer those comments. All I would ad is that if your not up for the F3 Derby, you're going to struggle all season... Good luck this weekend Jets, Round 1 showed what you were capable of, Round 2 showed a performance not to be repeated, I'm sure the challenge of the Mariners will bring out the best in you all!

ASIDE: as alluded to above, the Soapbox will be dedicated to holiday travels for the rest of the 2011 year. I would appreciate somebody posting the Jets results as replies to our travel posts if they don't mind. Starting this weekend as we will be en route to Singapore during the game. Stay tuned...