Chapter two involves significant retail therapy.

Gina and I saw the family off to school and work this morning, and then we caught the bus in to Orchard Rd together. Gina was off to meet someone to help her break in to publishing in Singapore, and I was scouting out some of my favourite shops. First stop was Paragon, an up-market arcade which was Paradise when I was last here about 15 years ago, and still is. Shops don't open until 10am or later here, and we'd got in to town at about 9.15 so we had plenty of time to window shop in the literal sense. Gina and I worked out what outfits I should buy at Armani Exchange, and also scouted out the locations of a few other favourites, Banana Republic and Muji. Gina then went off to meet her publishing contact, and I went to look for a cafe for a coffee and a pastry.

That was a bit more of a mission than I expected - lots of Asian options were in the area I was scouting through, but nothing French like I was hoping for. One near possibility was a rather over the top Swiss Cafe/Restaurant/Food hall called Marche. The staircase down to the main portion of the shop was lined with an hilarious pseudo-Swiss scene with animatronic sheep, goats and a St Bernard!! The pastries and coffee were available, but the seating area was still closed, so I ended up across the road at Coffee Connoisseurs in Penakan Place. This is a lovely portion of colonial-era Singapore that I remember from my last visit 15 years ago - great to come across it again.

By then all my favourite shops had opened.... I checked out the stock (lust!!) and the prices (shock!!), and decided that I should leave the more expensive purchases to another day when I had my passport on me to do some duty free shoppings, claimimng the GST back on my departure. Another chance encounter of an old favourite - Giordano which sells cheap my nice cotton clothing, and the first purchases of the day were a pair of chinos, a belt and a t-shirt.

I've been meaning to replace my tatty old wallet for a while now - the brown leather Fossil wallet was purchased in Honolulu about 15 years back and was getting to the end of it's usable life. Tangs had a great selection, but nothing quite right. A fruitless search of several other stores killed some time, but then I chanced across a Fossil store, stocked full of their wonderful watches, leather-wear and wallets.... goal realised, and at a good price.

Gina and I met up for lunch in the food hall at a new futuristic shopping mall called Ion, where I had a very cheap, tasty and filling Malaysian mutton murtabak. That was two thin crepes with a finely chopped layer of mutton and onions in the middle. Gina then went off to do some parenting at Olivia and Isabella's school and I explored more shops. Another discovery was Uniqlo - a Japanese clothing store with some great clothes at reasonable prices. I got a great sweater - and a weather-proof jacket to help keep me warm and dry when I head north to Barcelona and Venice. Weather forecasts show that daytime temperatures are only just starting to reach double digits, which is going to be a shock after steamy Singapore!

Time for more food - as Gina and Isabella met up with me after school, and we had afternoon tea at an ice-cream parlour. All the usual favourites, plus some Asian specialties like Red Bean, spicey Chocolate, Green Tea etc. Then, home to do homework and unpack shopping, and out again for dinner in Holland Village, meeting up with Mike on his way home from the office. So, no Culture today, but a thousand and one ways to observe and enjoy Singaporean culture during the day!