Happy New Year

The lovely C and I welcomed in 2012 chez our  friends Ann Marie and Nigel here in Singapore.  It was a positive hootenanny of a Hogmanay, with loads of Scottish guests, gorgeous food, delicious drinks, dancing, singing and a fabulous view of the fireworks at midnight.  I know that the lovely Ann Marie reads the blog, so I'd like to say thank you again for the most splendid evening.  Well, I say evening, but what I really mean is evening, night and wee small hours, since it was 4.30 before my head touched the pillow.  Needless to say, the 1st of January was spent in quiet contemplation..........

A couple of days later, we went off to Kuala Lumpur, to catch up with friends from the UK who were stopping over there en route to Australia.  It was Chris's first trip, although I had been there a couple of times before, but always for work, so this was my first time as a tourist.  We stayed in The Traders Hotel, right by the Twin Towers, seen here by night.  The view is from the wonderful Sky Bar on the 33rd floor - a must to visit if you find yourself in KL and are partial to heights!


It's a funny place is KL - a very modern city with just a few touches of antiquity.  I suppose you can say the same of Singapore, but it feels quite different.  KL is a popular destination with Singapore residents, with lots of cheap flights (although you can pay the same in taxi fares as you do for an air ticket as the budget terminal is about 60 kilometres from the city centre) and regular and frequent coach services from the centre of Singapore.


It's been a bit of a movie fest since we got back to Singapore - we saw Horrible Bosses and Johnny English at the Tanglin Club and Sherlock Holmes and the US version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at our local movie theatre.  I don't remember ever laughing so much at a film as I did at Rowan Atkinson's antics and both Chris and I were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the Dragon Tattoo re-make, having read the book, watched the original film and bought the set of three on DVD.  By some strange coincidence, the actress who played Lisbeth Salander in the original Scandivegian version had a role in the new Sherlock Holmes movie as well - minus the facial piercings, obviously.  If I were to haiku this movie I would say:


Moral bankruptcy
threatens Sweden. Our heroes
triumph, win the day.