Highlights:

-- Book-buying. If you're studying Southeast Asia, Singapore's bookshops are unrivalled.

-- Interviewing. Sometimes I wish I focused on topics that didn't involve interviewing... Interviews cost lots of time, money, and energy. But what a rich source they are. You always get things you didn't expect.

-- Watching 1965, a not entirely satisfying but nevertheless curiosity-arousing take on Singapore's communal conflicts.

-- Being there at the beginning of a historic election campaign in a historic year.

-- Realizing there was a new konfrontasi memorial.

-- Sampling red rice ale. Buy the bottle with the owl on it...



-- Enjoying Toastbox breakfasts. Excellent coffee, made in the time-honoured way, with socks and jugs; and the mee siam is tangy and delicious.

-- Wondering about The Hive, NTU's iconic building. Certainly interesting...



-- Saying hello again to our favourite tiger-in-the-park.

-- Walking to Little India, via the temples of Waterloo Street, and having ginger tea at the Tekka Centre. I love that little slice of old Singapore.

-- Strolling round Gardens by the Bay as evening fell; enjoying the fabulous "domes" and the "supertrees"; and walking home -- via the Esplanade (lit up by lasers from the Marina Bay Sands), the streets around Parliament (all barricaded ready for the Grand Prix), and a dark and steamy Fort Canning Park.









-- Enjoying more of Ya Kun's kaya toast. You just can't not...