Not finished yet!

CHANGI AIRPORT - TERMINAL 1, SINGAPORE - 2nd December 2009

It has transpired that Singapore's Changi Airport features dozens of free internet access computer terminals and, with an hour and a half to wait till QF10 begins boarding, who am I to say no to such generosity?

Sharp readers may have perceived a degree of rush in my blog from a couple of hours back. I was supposed to meet Billy - another Londoner from the Prince of Wales who's flying on a flight to Sydney 10 minutes before mine - at 4.30pm to head off, but what with all the excitement of writing about tasty food I ended up running a fashionable 15 minutes late, and probably failed to "fill in all the gaps" I wanted. Ironically, I now cannot remember what I wanted to write about then...

However, since then we took Singapore's excellent MRT subway system straight to Changi Airport and had the fun of immigration and security. I've had a fairly colourful history of banter with airport-officials in the past - it'll be a long time before I forget the last time I flew home from New York JFK. My 15-year-old self was taken to one side away from my parents to have my bags "chemically tested" (God knows...) and searched. On my way out from Heathrow, I'd picked up a book in duty free called "Why Do People Hate America", and it was sod's law that the first thing this angry-looking security official sees as he opens up my bag is a huge image of the Star Spangled Banner up in flames. I wouldn't have been wholly surprised if I'd been shipped off to Guantanemo...

Anyway, immigration here in Changi involved an interesting interrogation from the border control woman. "What's your name?", "Why are you going to Australia?", "When are you going back to London?" are all fairly run-of-the-mill questions, but it was when she asked "Have you started preparing for Christmas yet?" that I started wondering what was her game. Our little chit chat then shifted onto my passport photo - "Ooooh you were young in this photo! When was it taken? How old were you? How old are you now?". She might as well have asked for a date.

The PCs here run on a 15 minute timer so that people don't hog the machines, and I have 50 seconds left. So, and this time it's for real, that's it till Australia!