We had a marketing conference with our Asian Pacific region in Singapore last week. We arrived on Sunday night and I shared a room with my friend Di. Monday was a day-off for the Aussies and I did an amazing shopping spree in the morning (Orchard road trees nicely decorated), I've bought half a suitcase in 3 hours (Far East Plaza shopping mall, basement for cool & different stuff). At 2pm we went for lunch with the team, followed by a touristy boatride (see lion & angels), continued with some Singaporian Sling cocktails at Raffles (at the Long Bar - way too sweet for my taste buds) and we had a fantastic chilli crab dinner in one of the local restaurants (No Sign Board resto) where we seemed to be the only tourists... The conference itself was a great experience, if anything to see all the local differences in people - I now could nearly put a nationality on each face (and some character traits), whereas before I wouldnt have been able to. We had 2 great sessions during the week and Peter Fisk (book Marketing Genius) was the most inspiring. I would highly recommend his book for all marketeers among us (even though I still have to read it myself now).
On Wednesday night we had Lynette's hen's night, a great night out with all our Aussie collegues. And whilst one was about to get married, my friend Di got proposed! Darren arrived on Friday night as a total surprise (not for me, ;-)) and they decided to stay on for the weekend, where Darren proposed on Saturday night (whilst Lynette was saying 'Yes, I do').
The last night we went to little India and had great low-fi dinner at Banana Leaf Apolo where food is served on real banana leaves and eaten with hands (they do have forks!). We then checked out Mustafa Shopping Centre (11pm) - which was an unbelievable experience. For anyone who stops by in Singapore, I would strongly recommend to come with half a suitcase and pass by Mustafa. It is a 24/7 huge supermarket/bazar where you can buy anything from jewelry, watches, sports gear, baby clothes, suitcases, handbags, china ware, home decoration, hifi/technology/mobiles/ for significantly less money and huge choice. Make sure you have at least half a day to spend there, I was very sad to leave at 12.30am, my flight the next morning was calling me...
As much as I loved the shopping, it was really disappointing that there is not a lot of other things to do. And all new buildings under construction were to my greatest disbelief even more new shopping malls.
At the airport back in Sydney it was a very special and unique moment - our little family happily reunited. A smile and hug from Juleen, a kiss from daddy, a little tear of happiness from mummy.
