Travelers in Training

It was with relief that I discovered yesterday that it is not just me who is responsible for amusing mistakes in the general vicinity of aeroplanes.  Whilst pottering around the Singapore Palace playing at being housewife, my iPad mini made a little noise to inform me that I had a message.  Despite being in love with my iPad mini, which shall henceforth be baptised MiniPad, I am not addicted to technology, and so ignored it and carried on sewing my napkins of assorted Japanese silk (I kid you not).  When, two hours later, I did look at my messages, I discovered that my friend Slender Laurel was stuck in Changi Airport having missed a transferring flight to Brisbane.  Luckily, Changi is a paradise for transit passengers, and there is free internet which enabled her to make a desperate plea for me to rescue her before she began to cry.

Of course, I acted immediately.  Throwing down the half-finished silk napkin (which is now likely never to be finished - I am a better superhero than I am housewife, though post-feminism would say the two are not mutually exclusive), I typed furiously back with instructions as to how to get to the Singapore Palace, complete with landmarks of 'red cars' and 'intersections' and sat staring at the screen in nail biting tension.  Poor Slender Laurel!  She was out there all alone in retail and orchid garden heaven!  Refresh. Wait five minutes. Refresh. 

An hour went by.  Two hours.  I heard nothing.

Then, suddenly, the little Facebook message bingly bing bong beeped and it was Slender Laurel saying she was getting in a taxi to my humble abode.  Hoorah!  I prepared the gin. 

Obviously, situations like this demonstrate that I am now at the vertex of my travel awesomeness as I now have the ability - in person or through close relatives - to rescue friends in distress in no less than three countries in the world. Cool. 

Slender Laurel's visit was fleeting as she managed to get all her flights sorted by the following morning, so we said goodbye:

 (This is a to-scale photo - Frenchie is genuinely hobbit sized)... And then I spent the whole day with these: 

... to try and salvage some form of MA dissertation, and then Frenchie announced he had to go to Darwin for two days on business. 

I cried.  He bought me a ticket to Darwin, and here we are: 

Spontaneous travel, yay!

Australia, here we come!