We had decided to walk the Mangram trial up Mount Faber, the second highest hill in Singapore, so after breakfast we set off by walking to Clake Quay and catching a train to Harbour front, just outside the station the trail is clearly signposted and goes straight uphill. As the temperature was quite high we were all struggling a bit with the hundreds of steps on the way up, but once we had reached the summit the walk was well worth it. Mount Faber, is a protected park, and the path through it is clearly cut through jungle, with several boards wearing you what to do if you encounter wild monkeys.
At the top, in one direction you look out to sea over the strait betweenSingapore and Sentosa island in the other direction you look back to the central business district  with several skyscrapers and housing blocks.
Our first task was to find a bridge called Henderson Waves which joins Mount Faber to anther park and which is part of a nine kilometre trail. This proved slightly more elusive than one might have thought but when we found it, it is a wonderful piece of architecture and design, spanning a road seventy or eighty metres below. It is called the Waves because of its undulating design. One side looks like waves rolling in from the ocean.
After this we walked back to the summit to catch the cable car  down into Harbour Front, a fantastic experience, I never tire of riding in cable cars. The task ahead of us at Harbour Front was to find a shop which sold frying pans, as David did not have one. We could have chosen a slightly better day, bearing in mind that this was the last Sunday before Christmas, but braving the kamakaze crowds we sallied forth into the shopping mall.
We explored the ground floor of a local shop only to find out that kitchenware was on the second floor. We also discovered that the only way up was to plunge ourselves back into the melee out side and find the escalator to the second floor.
Having fought our way gallantly through the Christmas shop, we found the kitchenware department and then began to look at frying pans. Customer service in Singapore is good, in that, as soon as you look at something a salesperson is there trying to sell it to you. The one who chose us was not going to take no for any sort of an answer. David explained he wanted a larger pan than the one that was on display, she assured us she had a larger one in the store and went off to fetch it . When she returned it was with exactly the same sized one that was on display. David pointed out it wasn't any bigger and she agreed saying that she didn't have a larger one. David likes to persist, in what appears to us to be rather pointless discussions, as there is no apparent logic in the ensuing conversation. However, we eventually bought a pan he liked and a baking tray for the tour manager's proposed sausage rolls and headed off back through the maelstrom to find a quiet bar beside the river, where we enjoyed a couple of beers before heading for home. The romance of river traffic isn't quite dead, although they were no small fishing craft, there were several ferries and two large passenger liners, one of which left whilst we were having our beer. You do find yourself wondering where it was heading. They are majestic things to watch as they slip their moorings.
A train ride and a walk home form Clarke Quay led to the use of the frying pan to cook steaks and a pleasant meal. All in all a very interesting day.