The minivan's route from the Miramar hotel to the Marina Bay Sands complex showed I was truly taken for a ride by the taxi last night. Well, it was the only option at the time.
The only way to describe the complex is to suggest you google it.
It was tricky working out where the lectures were in relation to the show - they are three stories up.
This morning I went to
- the opening lecture on the story of orchids of Singapore
- a scientific talk on guarianthe - is it part of cattleya or not. This one says no. The science was a bit above me, but Ross B's talks helped and I understand the gist of the changes now.
- didn't realise a session was running late so unexpectedly caught an interesting lecture on orchids of Costa Rica.
- Excellent talk on Mr Ridley more known for rubber trees but his orchids story is incredible and rather like me, he wrote his life story in detail - but hey, his entire life!
- Dr Henry Oakeley - one of Mollie P's friends, on his trip in Peru retracing the arduous journey of two explorers in the 1780s... he found orchids not seen since the original trek. It was kinda like Gordon's teams revisiting the sites of old recordings, but on the epic scale.
- due to practically falling asleep, didn't due justice to a lady talking on mini-mini orchids in (somewhere over where?)
At morning tea I met an American lady, and at lunch I sat with local Singaporean hobbyists and ended up talking technology. A teacher of 16-17 year olds said Eddy would like an ipod shuffle for $88 or an i-something they start at $300. He said the price is pretty much standard around Singapore for everything and agreed with Len that the airport is the best place, so I don't have to pay duty.
But, not sure what to look at and what the purchase price should be apart from what's in my notebook.
The complex has a parcel service, so I investigated prices and am going to mail home a second parcel. This will be in a plastic post office bag and its lightweight but bulky stuff. It should take 10-14 working days but if if arrives before me, not to be opened.
Its 6pm, time to prepare the glad rags again for the banquet starts in an hour. Its going to be a long night, we don't sit down till after my usual bedtime!! Don't rate my chances of finding Rod Kn but will try. There are hundreds of people, from all countries, a huge representation from Australia.
ps tried on my designer dress again. Reckon its got spare capacity so suspect it might get worn by a couple of people Missy knows.
I'll try to make this next map illustrate both Havelock Road (the hotel) and the Marina Bay complex.
xx M
