Tuesday 27 December 2016

Xmas and New Year in Singapore. Part 1. Getting there.

Even though I have been on my travels a little while, I have not been blogging so far. I realise from my previous early blogs I have been making life very hard for Timbo, so I think it is fair both he and I should have a little break.

On Wednesday 21st December Timbo finally got round to delivering the chocolates he bought in Zürich to our lovely neighbours. It took me a lot of nagging to get him to do that, I can tell you. Once they were safely delivered we made our way to the airport. Although the flight we were on was at the same time of day as before, when we went on our trip to Venice, there were not as many people in the airport, and this time no shouty people in security which made Timbo much happier.

We got to Zurich and unpacked a little. Timbo decided he wanted to treat me to the new First Class lounge so we went and upgraded the flight to Singapore. Timbo had vouchers to allow him to do this. I am so lucky to have such a caring grown up.

We then went to meet lovely Heidi at Tibits in Winterthur as she was not feeling well. We had a good meal and chat, but I let Timbo do most of the talking, which is not that difficult, to be honest. We got back and Timbo looked in at the Orrell Füssli bookshop at the airport and bought a short Wallander story by Henning Mankel.

On Thursday morning, Timbo took advantage of the free wifi to upload stuff to the cloud. He is getting quite good at it. We are both learning about the cloud and stuff like that at the same time. You may be surprised to know that even though I am an amazing Bärli I do not yet know everything. I am still very young.

He finished packing and we checked out. He then spent about an hour texting while I was left twiddling my claws. We popped into a couple of shops in Zurich, Ganz Photo in Timbo's favourite street in Zurich and Musik Hug, where Timbo bought some printed music. We met Heidi for coffee at the Hotel Central Plaza, then back to pick up the luggage, check in at the special First Class check in and go to the new First Class Lounge.

Before we got to the lounge, Timbo was asked to show the security people in Zurich what he had in one bag. He has two special cameras with him this time and he has brought two lenses for each of them. One of them is going to be mine when I am more expert, and I am already getting much better. The security people were very nice to him. Timbo says they are some of the best people and always friendly. After the trauma was over, he bought some chocolate as therapy from the Sprüngli shop. Lovely special chocolates for us to share with Special K. Chocolate is a therapy for sharing.

We then went to the First Class lounge. Now, if you ask the people very nicely in the Terminal A First Class lounge they will drive you over to the long haul terminal. Which Timbo did. We were taken down in the lift and a man checked Timbo's passport. This is an exclusive special place for First Class passengers, but I think it is also used for people with very short connection times, as sometimes planes do not arrive on time for different reasons. It is very good that us First Class passengers share our special area for these people wth special needs.

Inside my First Class Ride across the Airport
Outside my First Class Ride across the Airport

I cannot begin to tell you how utterly fabulous this new lounge is. The best I can do is to provide you with a hyper link to a website where a lucky person gets to review loads of things about flying in the best comfort possible, the lucky devil. Timbo has left a comment and mentioned me. Not sure I like that. I am a shy young Bärli, after all.
 
Me and my champagne (1)
Me and my champagne (2)
I can hold my drink, you know.
decided we needed to relax and take things slowly. We ordered some food, and a glass of pink champagne to go with it. Timbo was rather rude about me on Facebook. I hope you will all tell him off for being so bad to me.
The Goose (1)
The Goose (1)
The crème brûlée (1)
The crème brûlée (2)
In next to no time the three or so hours we were there had sped by and it was time to board the plane, this time it was one of the old A340-300 planes. As I have already blogged about how wonderful it is in Swiss First Class, I will not do it again. All I will say is the man who looked after us is from Winterthur, and Timbo asked the lady who worked with him if he could have a few of the special Swiss Xmas chocolates for Special K. As we were in First Class we get posh Sprüngli chocolates, not the usual ones, which are delicious, which is why he had to make this special request.

Timbo was most surprised and delighted when, instead of a small loose Bärli pawful, he was given a nicely packaged human fistful of chocolates. Thank you, Swiss. You have made a little extra magic happen again at 35,000 feet above the earth.

Special K's Surprise
Our plane docked at around 18.20. It was not too far from the passport control so we passed through quickly. Unfortunately the number of big planes arriving at the same time and the volume of passengers meant the luggage took longer than usual to arrive on the carousel. I think Changi airport wanted to prove that they are only human after all and can have hiccoughs in the otherwise normal smooth operation Timbo has experienced.

Special K was not able to meet us so we made our way to the hotel. He came to join us later but he was caught up in a heavy downpour. At this time of year when it rains it does not last long but it falls heavily. We went out to collect him as we had an umbrella. We said hello and hugged each other. Special K was very happy to see me I could tell, so I gave him an extra special as humungously big a Bärli hug I could manage. He and Timbo chatted about things and smiled and hugged and I joined in for more hugs. In fact, there were so many hugs we were all squashing each other.

We went out for a while once it had stopped raining heavily. Timbo bought some little inessential supplies from Muji in the Paragon Mall. Soon it was time to say goodnight to Special K and he went home and we all went to bed tired and happy. It is lovely to see bestest friends again.

Wednesday 7 December 2016

Italian Tradition, A Family Tradition, And The Organic Archers


They stayed at a hotel not that far from the Rialto, it is so secret you need to know to walk into that tiny set of little alleys to find it.

On Xmas morning, instead of the usual breakfast, they were given something different. They thought it was like bit like a brioche in taste and texture. They were only given it for that breakfast.

Years passed and being humans they forgot all about it. Then one year a supermarket had boxes with pictures on it and they thought this was what they had all those years ago. They bought it and we're pleased to find out it was. Now Timbo does not remember if this happened before or after they started their more recent Xmas trips to Italy. He says it is not important. What is important is that they discovered it was called panettone and was special to Xmas time.

So every December, they started to have their own very special not Advent weekend breakfast which included all sorts of panettone. They did not like the one with sugar on it. They tried a chocolate one but Timbo said that it was all wrong, like Coco Pops. The one they liked the best has tons and tons of delicious scrummy candied fruit. That, Timbo says, was the proper one for us and we stuck to it.
 
Now even though Timbo doesn't have his bestest any longer he still likes to keep up this tradition and has done so every year. The panettone people make little ones and although it is not the weekend, we had one to share this morning. (Do not tell Timbo I sneaked another panettone into the shopping when he was not looking. I hope we have it again tomorrow.)

The PatandTony we had this morning (1).

The PatandTony we had this morning (2).
So this Italian tradition became a tradition for Laing and Timbo.

What on earth has this to do with "The Organic Archers"? I cannot hear you cry.

Well, every Sunday, Laing and Timbo used to listen to the omnibus edition of The Archers. If you do not know what that is I will have to tell you as you obviously are not British nor users of Google nor Wikipedia. It is a daily soap opera on the radio, that used to be, according to Timbo, "an everyday story of country folk" about the (I love this word Timbo just taught me) eponymous family. He says he remembers Dan and Doris and when Phil was a mere whippersnapper and cocky to boot. Well, the Archer family grew bigger and bigger over the years. Trust me, Timbo has collected a lot of years. The programme reflects farming concerns (allegedly, according to Timbo) and that included organic farming.

Phew, I have now got that out the way.

Back to where I started. Every Sunday, they used to listen to the omnibus edition of The Archers. Just by chance they were tucking into their panettone when the organic farmers came into that week's episode. Archers fans, Timbo assures me, are already there, which I presume is Ambridge, which where the Archers Live. The organic Archers are Pat and Tony and after that they would refer to panettone as Pat and Tony.

I love Timbo. He is really mad. I think Laing was mad too. I like this mad.

I wonder, do any of you have Xmas traditions? Do any of you have silly names for things, no matter how long winded the reason? Were Laing and Timbo the only mad two mad people in the world, because Timbo feels lonely without his bestest.