Singapore to Darwin

Made it! We've been in Darwin 3 days now. Landed early hours of the 18th, it's took us a while to get used to it all. Our sleep pattern has been thrown out, especially staying up late talking to Mum. We've not been getting up until midday.

We did the Raffles thing while in Singapore. It was good fun. Huw and Brendon were not let into the main hotel, so we all went round to the Long Bar that everyone goes to for their Singapore Sling. It's okay, but the place everyone goes like I say. You do the tourist thing, order a bright pink cocktail while eating nuts and throwing the shells on the floor. After that Sam and I went to the Writers Bar in the hotel lobby. The rain was coming down hard by this time, so the setting was perfect. Another cocktail sat where all the great writers have knocked back a drink or two, and we went back to meet the guys. They were waiting in the courtyard bar. This time we partook of the equally famous Millon Dollar cocktail.

By now with 3 cocktails in 3 bars of the Raffles, having traveled through 3 countries in 3 weeks, we were feeling quite knackered. We made our way back to collect our bags from the hostel. It was soon 8.30pm and the taxi had arrived to take us to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Berndon and Huw, climbed in the taxi and started on the next leg of our journey. For me the journey home!

So here I am, back in the the bossom of my family after all these years. Only difference is it's 13+ years on and we are not in Hull anymore. Not seen much of Darwin so far. We headed into town today and Dad took us on a whirlwind tour around the port area. It's humid here, really humid. Without the air-con you can feel the air is permanently damp. It's rained on and off since we got here, so not really been the weather for exploring. Hey, we have 3 months here so no rush anyway. It's nice just to chill-out and not do anything after the past 5 months of madness. Taste a bit of my old family life, something I've not had for the past 13 years.

We do have to get on with applying for funding to get back to Laos. There is a job with Worldwide Concern that has come up that we will apply for. We are going to ask them to support us anyway. So tomorrow we will finally sit down and start sorting these things out. This is our opportunity of a life-time, and we cannot let it go by. Such an opportunity will never come up again.