Christmas Eve dawned in some sympathy with Great Britain, as the sky was black and the rain poured down. We had planned to go out shopping but the rain rather held us back. David was working from home and we sat around and read and wrote our diary and the blog.
The plan had been that we were going back to the butcher's to buy some sausages to turn into cold sausages on sticks as a little Christmas treat. At about eleven thirty the sky cleared and off we set,through the last few drops of rain, to make our journey. The sausages were purchased at the cost of ten pounds for about 12 which gives you an idea of the cost of western produce here. However, we were pleased and we then set off to the supermarket to do those last bits of shopping which mysteriously had eluded the tour manager. We met David on his way back from having his hair cut and the three of us went for Christmas Eve lunch.
I had chop chop crispy chicken noodles and Rosemarie had rickshaw duck which makes it quite unlike any other Christmas Eve lunch we have had before. The very bad news was that it was clear that Rosemarie was coming down with a heavy cold, so that rather put a damper on things.
In the afternoon David went out to do a few things and we hastily wrapped presents and cooked sausages, all in all a bit like being at home albeit in a temperature of thirty degrees plus.
There is little to write about the area around David's flat, which appears to consist mainly of high rise buildings. The riverside about a hundred yards away is very pleasant  but is also extremely commercial, full of cafes and wine bar/restaurants. The walk to the butchers, slightly up hill, goes past a Chinese temple, set back from the road, scarlet and red beaming in the modernity around it. There are a few terraced buildings there with a five foot frontage as required by the original planners, but then these quickly give way again to high rise apartments. Singapore, has now reached the state where it has to protect some of its original buildings from the developers and to its credit it is trying to do that.
In the evening we had booked to go to a restaurant for a meal, which we enjoyed, and which was made all the more pleasant by the gift of a free bottle of wine. We sat around until midnight, wished each other a Merry Christmas and retired to our beds.