Photo by Trevor Sharot. copyright.
Changi airport in Singapore has a resting lounge in each terminal. Some upright padded chairs but also long banquettes where you can put your feet up and lie down.
Fewer people and no crowds surging past so less danger of losing luggage.
Just google where can I sleep and your airport name. You might find budget hotels and those which rent out rooms for only a few hours, day, or night. Or lounges where you can doze, like this one.
Useful Websites and Information
Read more by clicking the look inside on the book by Angela Lansbury
https://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-English-alliteration-assonance/dp/1675046840
My family member was looking for a Starbucks for a coffee in Changi airport.
He pointed out something interesting. Starbucks is landside, at arrival. So when you get off and are waiting to be collected you can have a coffee.
He was looking at the restaurant area, which is usually upstairs on the terrace. Beyond the restaurants he found a Monet exhibition.
Claude Monet
Not originals but nonetheless very interesting. Paintings showed the different seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Plus Monet's comments. Although he is best known for his paintings of his garden, with the bridge over the water and the lily flowers floating, he painted many more subjects.
The big surprise to me when I saw a Monet at the art gallery in Switzerland, was the size of it. The painting stretched wall to wall. I don't know how he painted it. He either had a huge studio, or did it in sections.
-Monet.jpg)
Cats
Beyond that was another exhibition which would appeal to children. cats. Cats with clothes expressions like human beings. The artist is Louis Wain.
The largest collection of Claude Monet's impressionist paintings is in Paris, France. But you will find his paintings everywhere, from Boston to Buffalo and Washington DC and San Francisco in the USA, Tokyo in Japan, Cairo in Egypt, Switzerland, and many other countries.
Louis Wain led an extraordinary life, with touches of tragedy, and financial ups and downs, illness and mental illness in the family. He is credited with making cats popular as pets.
Useful Websites
https://www.changiairport.com/en/discover/events-at-changi/monet.html
Spacious arrivals hall at Changi airport.. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Heathrow
You are supposed to dress for your destination, so leaving chilly London for sunny Singapore you should dress in light clothes. However, there is a howling gale between the taxi set down, for which there is a charge, and the walkway to the terminal entrance. They should glass it in.
Heathrow Airport Check-in
People were not social distancing. Despite this, everything went well with Singapore Airlines check-in.
Heathrow Airport Public Toilets
Good. I like the way the Ladies has a Z-walk around the entrance barrier, privacy provided, with no door handle.
Walking
After the check-iin and security, I counted six walkways and escalators.
The Airline Lounge
In the Silver Kris Business Lounge, great food and juices. The near the buffet tables are at sensible table height for eating.
Around the corner is a bar serving alcohol, with a barman, and I found Prosecco.
My favourite foods included hot food, rice, potatoes, chicken.
On the cold side were, salads, apples, chocolate cake with orange, large biscuits. Sandwiches of two types, including chopped chicken.
The Singapore Airline Lounge Toilets
Since Covid, and recession, and fuel price increases, the free things have gone.
On Board Singapore Airlines
On Board Snacks
I did not like the peas and crackers. Firstly, I was afraid of breaking my teeth biting them. They are too salty. They are too spicy. I prefer peanuts, nuts, or raisins.
Food
The food was good overall. My fish meal at the first meal was not heated through. I managed.
Drink
In-Flight Films
Film About Mandela
I watched a film about Mandela. I enjoyed the African singing, and the speech he gave later.
Korean Film - The Handmaid
I watched The Handmaid, set in Japan-controlled Korea in the 1930s.
(I thought it was going to be a different similarly titled, The Handmaid's Tale, written by a Canadian author. The plot is set in the future where women in special clothing are breeding for a dominant male class.)
The Handmaid's plot indeed has twists. It also has the most pornographic material I have ever seen on a family flight. Lesbian scenes include full nakedness of both women entwined, and orgasms, and sex toys. Plus readings of Sadistic stories and violent scenes showing blood.
Plus a snake as a barrier to escape.
And a nasty, multi-armed octopus.
I went back onto Wikipedia to clarify the plots of the two books. This film (Americans say movie) had some flashback memory scenes which confused me. I did not know what was real and what was fear or wishful thinking.
I managed to watch through to the end. The two lead actresses are so watchable that I could watch it all over again. I can see why it won awards, although I am surprised it was not censored for a plane.
The Korean film which I saw was based on the book, Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters, set in Victorian England.
Toilets
How to improve toilets.
Toilets are not co-ordinated. You could have a quick toilet for people who only want to be a minute so they don't queue behind three people who want ten minutes to change clothes.
You could also show if another toilet nearby is empty.
You could provide drinking water in sealed small containers for people who want to clean teeth.
The toilet drawers for combs are empty. Either fill the drawer or put a sticker over the sign. You waste time and delay others looking for things which are not there and delaying others.
It would help to have a signal to staff if the basin is blocked or the hand basin paper disposal is full.
What is good in toilets?
Toilet seat covers.
Moisturizer.
Landing
I think that the staff, either the plane staff or the cleaners, should do a sweep of the aircraft for lost property in the overhead lockers and the floor.
Changi Airport Arrival Toilets
Wonderful cubicles with some toilets offering built in bidets enabling you to freshen up.
Feedback To Singapore Airlines
If you want to give feedback to the airline, you can ask for a feedback form, but they are likely to suggest you can go online.
Every now and then you are sent a feedback form. The website will ask if you have a Krisflyer number.
Feedback to Airports
At Heathrow I picked up a feedback form on border control.
Useful Websites
Films on Singapore Airlines
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/flying-withus/entertainment/movies/
https://www.changiairport.com/
https://www.singaporeair.com/feedback-form/
https://www.heathrow.com/contact-us/online
https://feedback.changiairport.com/index.html#/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation
More details on the films in the next post. I have several blogs. Please share links to your favourite blog and posts.
Singapore Airlines' new lounges are now open in Changi Airport, Singapore. Each class of traveller will have a different lounge. No more crowding. Much roomier and better.
On board, an Airliner from Changi to London, Heathrow was still serving the second meal earlier in the flight. But before you get cross, there is more good news.
Also see a special offer on extra airmiles for flights in the near future if you are a Krisflyer member.
Singapore's Views Of And From Marina Bay Sands
My son and his fiancee (now his wife) went to the Marina bay Sands hotel for a drink with a view from the top. They loved the view so much they checked in for a night and enjoyed hours in and beside the Infinity pool overlooking Singapore. You can admire Marina Bay Sands, like a giant set of three cricket stumps, from the downtown area of the city.
Or buy a ticket to the top where your voucher buys you most of a cocktail or a pizza per person. We did that one New Year's Day.
Airport Waterfall
The airport, Changi Airport. itself has a giant waterfall in the centre of a mall linked to the terminal buildings by a walkway. When Covid-19 restrictions end, the shops and restaurants and mall and waterfall will be back, re-opened for you to enjoy.
For gardens which are seasonally decorated and a giant waterfall with zigzagging walkways, go to Gardens By The Bay.
Gardens By The Bay
For free you can take the waterside walk passing plants with plaques.
Another free place is the Botanical Gardens.
Now the opportunity is to go jogging along trails around the countryside, the beaches, the jungles. Bicycle trails are opening. My husband hired a hybrid bike for on road and off road, and hired a camera.
Useful Websites
https://www.visitsingapore.com/see-do-singapore/nature-wildlife/parks-gardens/gardens-by-the-bay/
https://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en.html
wikipedia
wikicommons
wikitravel
wikivoyage
tripadvisor
Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.
Singapore flag.
The bidet toilet is one of the wonders of Changi airport and some hotels and shopping centres in Singapore and increasingly all over the Far East including some office buildings. Look for the cubicle containing the one toilet which acts like a bidet. It has a shower which you can operate by hand by pressure on a knob on the right of the seat. The water pressure usually adjusts from a trickle to a jet.
One of the things I like about bathrooms in Singapore is that they have a shower attachment beside the toilet. I was in a DIY shop in Singapore and was surprised and delighted to see that a shower head was very cheap to buy. The price of one, two or three cups of coffee.
I bought one in Singapore and took it back to Britain. When I had a plumber already in the house checking something else, I asked what he would charge for fixing the shower head next to the toilet.
He needed to find a suitable pipe with sufficient pressure, from the pipes to the toilet or the washbasin. Then to fix the attachment and seal it properly so it did not drip. If you already have a wet room with drainage in the floor and a pipe leading to a run out pipe, that is easy. I did not have it. So I needed a bucket or something more elegant under the shower head to catch the drips. I had a carpet over the floor lino. Ideally cut this out, or at lease cut it in the area of the bathroom or toilet under the tap. Or put down a tile or stick on lino tile which can be lifted and wiped or replaced.
Regarding the shower head itself, look at how it attaches to the wall.
A built in toilet with the fixed controls is even better if you are replacing the toilet. Too much trouble? Enjoy the one which somebody else has organized for you at large hotels and shopping centres and office blocks around the world.
Now let's look back at the one in Changi airport.
Check the cubicle doors for the sign because there might be only one cubicle fitted with this device.
Sometimes in a Community Club you find this kind of toilet in the cubicle with the wide door adapted for wheelchair users.
It takes some practise getting used to it. Often the insructions are on the back of the door to the toilet cubicle.
For travellers, note that the Isle of Wight has a poo museum.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Poo_Museum
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs
Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)
Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com
dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com
Useful Websites & Resources
https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/
https://www.wiki-calendar.com/
https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-to-write-christmas-card-poem.html
For one hour online individual tutorials or group workshops contact
annalondon8@gmail.com
Public and private places are selling their tickets for the Xmas period from November 1st.
