With family in Singapore
Yesterday was spent with family, including my aunt. And I didn’t hear from Pat and Fiona, meaning that they must have got on their standby flight to Auckland.
As for me, I fly out tonight. I had the day to kill. Mum and step-dad took me to East Coast beach for a swim around 110. For a city-state, the beach and the sea was pretty good. It was only let down by the numerous ships waiting in the not-so-distance.
We took a late simple lunch from the shops behind the house. I then gave Mum a massage and applied some cupping to her shoulder area. I mentioned that I was a mortar and pestle for my cooking and step-dad forced a spare one on me. It was a large one that had been used by his family for years.
They packed it nicely for me and we departed for the airport around 1800.
Flying back to Auckland
I managed to get a boarding pass immediately from the counter despite being on standby. When asked what was in the box, I took care not to say “mortar and pestle” in case someone misunderstood it as a weapon. I said “you know, the stone thing, tumbuk tumbuk halia dan bawang” to the Malay check-in agent. She replied “oh, batu lesung”. I said “ya”.
Now that I was rid of my luggage, I went to the airport staff cafeteria with Mum and step-dad. We had a snack there, to get my fix of local food before heading back to New Zealand.
I waved goodbye to my family and went airside. I got my GST refund of SGD11 in cash as opposed to supposedly 2 months later on credit card.
At the boarding gate, staff in Singapore Airlines security staff (with police-like uniforms) checked passports and stamped each boarding pass “Forgery Detection; Checked”.
The Air New Zealand flight, departing at 2025, was nearly full and I was seated very near the back, having the row of three to myself. I chatted to a retired British couple who told me they were meant to fly last night. But they got stuck in Kota Kinabalu when an AirAsia went off the runway there. I suppose they may have allowed Pat and Fiona to get on last night.