Before moving to Singapore I worried about loads of
things, but mostly my shy nature and ability to make friends when I would be
totally new. I needn’t have worried, and
although I have heard of lots of scenarios where the trailing spouse is left
depressed by their new home I was unbelievably lucky to meet loads of friendly
people and make a lot of friends.
 |
| afternoon tea overlooking Marina Bay |
However, every bank holiday, and there are a few, as
well as every summer and Christmas holiday it became impossible to make plans
as everyone cleared out. So Bank
holidays/long weekends were a great time to go adventuring and get off the
island.
Bank holidays in the UK may be less glamourous but I
was ready to celebrate the last one of the year. In Scotland we get Hogmanay instead of a day
in late summer so this was officially my second August bank holiday ever to
make use of.
 |
| The Hickory Inn |
The big plans included going swimming in Exmouth,
visiting Darts Farm, going to Soup Stock at Knightshayes and attending Party in
the Park in Tiverton. We duly celebrated
International Dog Day on Friday by taking our sweet little Daisy out with us to
The Hickory Inn which is in the next village over from us as they are dog
friendly.
 |
| Daisy choosing Dinner |
However our weekend went decidedly downhill
afterwards when on Saturday morning I opened the washing machine to an
outpouring of water. Then whilst mopping
up the spill and attempting to drain the machine the handle broke off and
locked it shut. We quickly figured out
that it looked like the dishwasher had pumped dirty water into the washing
machine as it had filled up of its own volition at some point, so Mark went off
to book a repair whilst I surveyed the scene.
Now in hindsight I can see that although my pile of
dirty clothes was the closest thing to initially
mop up the water, it wasn’t the smartest move.
I would happily have thrown out some old towels that we wouldn’t be able
to wash and dry, but now we had to get our work clothes into a washing machine
pronto.
We tried 2 laundrettes before we found a clean,
airy, large one, unfortunately it wasn’t manned, but there was a helpful
American woman who had recently relocated to Devon who showed us the ropes. Oh
lovely expats!
Soon enough we had a pile of soft, fluffy, clean, folded
laundry ready to take home. I’d never
quite understood why Elspeth Thomson in one of my favourite books ever, The
Wonderful Weekend Book, suggested that ‘laundromats were far superior to having
your own washer/drier’, however although I wouldn’t go as far as to agree, it
was quite nice to get everything done in less than an hour.
I'm pretty sure the moral of the story is that
chores shouldn’t be done on a Bank Holiday weekend, and the only option is to
go traveling. Oh and if you didn’t
celebrate International Dog Day you’ve a lot of making up to do with your four
legged friend.
 |
| A 'dogs dinner' |
