So, we’ve now been back in England a month now so it’s probably time to round the blog off with one final post:

Jan and Claire took a taxi from Mersing, Malaysia to Singapore General Hospital with a couple of huge oxygen tanks to last the journey. The hospital seemed very efficient and apart from one panicky moment where Claire watched on helplessly as Janet was wheeled through some doors labelled “Critical care and resuscitation”, everything turned out ok. We later discovered that those doors were used as a shortcut to the X-ray clinic!

Lexi and I arrived in Singapore in the evening and found a hotel near the hospital. We dumped all our stuff and then went to visit Jan who’s lungs were making remarkably fewer sloshing noises than they were a couple of hours previously. They kept her in for observation over night in but by the time we returned the next day she was right as rain.

We did a bit of touristy stuff, visiting some temples etc and eating one evening in Little India. The curry was fantastic but I did become slightly worried that we might have to make another trip to Singapore hospital after Lexi bit into a chilli by accident.

Lexi and Jan left the next day to get a bus back to Kuala Lumpur for their respective flights home. Claire and I continued to explore Singapore and, more importantly, eat copious quantities of rice and noodles and unidentifiable things in tasty sauces. We visited Sentosa island, the southern most point of continential Asia but it felt a bit underwhelming after the beauty of Tioman island in Malaysia. And then it all came to an end. We spent our last Singapore dollars on shoulder massages at the airport and boarded our flight home. More than a few tears were shed on the plane and by the random woman on the tube whose foot Claire squashed with her suitcase. Camden seemed to have changed little other than the stream of looters coming out of Dixons and we’ve slipped back into “normal” life with depressing ease. Everyone who we’ve seen since we’ve been back has asked “did you enjoy it?” and the answer is “Yes. It was the best thing EVER” because, well, it was.