Saturday

I am now in Singapore with another 45 minutes till my flight home.

After finishing the last post, I packed up and left the AA lounge (American Airlines - there was alcohol there) and called into the British Airways one to see of there was any difference. I was quite surprised. The AA seems more spacious and was less crowded and of course the showers were working , which is why I was there in the first place. However there was a broader choice of food in BA. I didn't stay long and headed for the departure lounge which was not to far off the 15 minutes suggested.

The flight was much more crowded then the one from Singapore, with every seat in Premium economy filled. Originally I was seated next to a garrulous  old codger of about 70, a surgeon it seems who specialises in facial reconstruction for kids, although it was not till we were landing that I over heard this. He managed to knock over his coffee onto the seat next to him, then found out he was in the row in front. I sat next to an much younger African american, who was conventionally unchatty.

I watched part of the Green Lantern film but fell asleep before it finished and had 6 or so hours all up. I realised that, although it was 5-30 London time when I woke up it was already afternoon in Singapore and decided not to try for more sleep. I watched the Hangover part II but missed the last 5 minutes (i'm guessing) when they turned off the entertainment system before landing.

I have been doing my own little survey of international prices. There was one that compared the price of a Big Mac in different coutries converted to a common Currency. My standard has been iPads.

The base model (for comparison) is the 32GB Wi Fi only model, which lists on the Australian Apple site for $690. When I was in KL you could get one in the "high street"  For 1800 rmb or about $600.  There was a special from an on line retailer, at the time, in Australia for less than that but with postage it was around 640.

The London street price is 480 Pounds and the duty free 440, still well over 700. Also the price for my Macbook, for which I paid $2500 in the US is 2100 pound or about $3500, so the UK is definitely not the cheapest place for computers and similar.

I have just checked the Singapore duty free shop and they have only the 3G + wifi version for $800 only $40 less than the Apple store at home.

So.... No rush to but one here either. Maybe I'll just be patient and wait for the iPad 3 next year, then see if I can get to KL to buy one.

Later

One more data point - The iPad is $626 in the duty free shop in Perth airport and the 3g Version is under $800, so cheaper than Singapore.

The trip was not to bad despite the smaller legroom in the standard economy class. Saw the last 5 minutes of the Hangover and watched the Social Connection and Source code.

There was a passport chip reader on the way to the immigration hall which I used without a clue so I whizzed through that, and my bag was out quite early. However there was a huge queue for customs with almost everybody having to get searched or at least  have the bags scanned. It was nothing like this last trip so I expect it is the beefed up security for CHOGM.

I eventually got home about 1-45am.