Singapore day six Friday 18/11/11

Last day of the holiday, last day of warmth, so it's packing, rather complicated as we will need to change at the airport, and also need to juggle thw weight distribution between bags. Anyway, checked out of the hotel, leaving our luggage in their care. Set off for Mustafa's Serangoon centre to see if we get any inspiration for shopping. Moved on to City Square mall for a morning coffee, then Carol decided she really was running out of time for a hair do before Saturday night's dinner so we found a salon and agreed to meet an hour later. Smart streamlined hair and we head upstairs for lunch. My chicken mysteriously morphs into pork but otherwise ok and cheap! On the MRT down to Marina Bay again and mooch around having a tea overlooking the bay. Looks like rain but we decide to go to the flower dome which was part of the entry ticket to the orchid show. Convoluted route gets us along bridges over roads, expressways and the hotel lobby then into a brand new gardens area which is just open for the week as a preview. We get into the dome and it is laid out withgardens representing various areas of the world, just like Wisley glass house but on a much grander scale, at least five times as big. They seem to do everything here on a grand scale now. We wait for the well timed rain to stop and then retrace our steps and get a sandwich in the food hall. Finally we brave the rushhour back to the hotel, collecting our credit from the MRT pass on the way. The hotel tries to book us a taxi but after a long automated process it finally says no taxis available! I nip round the corner and eventually grab one, a rather dodgy looking one, and load up the luggage. After a few hundred yards we come to a halt and then it is a slow stop start crawl to the expresswayb ut in the end we get there about the time I'd planned. Get changed before checkin to increase our chance of an upgrade but no luck, we are stuffed down the back. Changi airport is rather unusual in that security is at the gate rather than before departure lounge so you canot purchase any drinks to take aboard as you can at most airports - we fell foul of this and had to abandon our water. The 13:30 hours of the flight seemed to pas relatively quickly with dinner and breakfast prior to our early arrival at 4:40 am. Long queues through UK Border Agency - for some reason the ePassport desks were not working. Carols baggage was not on the carousel when we arrived and we were getting woried but when the crowds thinned out we saw that it had fallen off and was just lying on the floor looking lost. Judi and Freddie soon arrived to collect us and take us home to a nice warm house and a pile of mail! Cup of tea and a quick sort out of the mail and then to bed to recover enough for the yacht club dinner  tonight. So ends the holiday of a lifetime.