Chapter Three involves significant spending.

Yesterday I did a big reconnoitre along Orchard Rd, working out what I wanted to buy - today was the actual shopping day. Gina and I caught the bus in to town, sharing the trip with the lovely French woman who is Gina's ballet teacher. Don't worry - Gina isn't planning a new career on the stage, it's a way to keep fit and limber!

Once again we called in to Paragon and started the spending frenzy in Muji, Gina helping me decide on several items of apparrel, and also bought several items for her home. I was peeved to discover that the advice I'd been given on tax-back shopping at the Armani store yesterday was incorrect - I didn't need to produce my passport every time I made a purchase after all, so I could have done some of my shopping yesterday - although of course the assistance and good taste provided by Gina was invaluable! Uniqlo provided me with a few more shirts, and Gina bought a shirt for Mike after admiring the one I picked up yesterday. I was also pleased to find G2000, a great clothing store I'd been familiar with in Hong Kong. I'd bought a few pairs of black trousers for work that lasted very well, despite the hard wear and tear that my waitering work inflicted upon them, so I'm planning on returning for a few more quality items.

Lunch was eaten at Marche, the astonishing Swiss theme-park/restaurant that I've written about earlier. When I called in the day before it was just being set up for the day, but Gina and I called in when food service was in full swing. It is probably easiest to describe as a food hall, except that instead of a variety of ethnic cuisines, each stall sold a particular aspect of Swiss-themed food. There was a soup stand, a salad stand, a rosti stand and so on. I was very brave and got a rosti with a chicken and escargot sausage! The sausage was very tasty, and the snails were not discernible. We checked out a few more shops, and then caught the bus back home - time for afternoon tea, sorting out my shopping, and packing ready for the flight to Barcelona. The BBC weather reports have been rather worrying for both Barcelona and Venice, with temperatures in the single digits, so our shopping had been planned with layering of clothing in mind, and everything light and summery was unloaded and held at Pine Grove for my return.

After dinner, it was time for a bit of TV before catching the taxi out to the futuristic Changi airport and on to the next stage of the trip.