Just a quick post while we are waiting at the airport gate. It’s 12.20 am and we are both a bit wrecked. We’ve been in the aiport for a good few hours now, and managed to get a bit of kip in. Only 40 minutes ’til our flight to Perth is ready, so not too long to wait. We spent a lot of today looking for hats/fascinators in Singapore, and well basically there are none. For a city with the largest selection of shops I have ever seen, no body must like hats. Ma has given us a back up plan, but we’ll continue our search in Perth. Wow it was hot and humid in Singapore today, I would say nearly up into the 40s in the sun. You know it’s hot when even the locals are using umbrellas to ward off the sun. Anyway I can see the pilots going through the gate so I had better go. Next post from Perth!

Well we’ve been in Singapore for two days now. It is well worth the stop over. It’s hot and humid but that’s a damn sight better than the snow back home. Yesterday is a bit of a blur. We got into the hotel at around 9am and headed straight for our room. The Scarlet hotel is very pleasant (thanks Ciara & Steve), very boutiquey. We had a power nap for 3 hours and then ventured out into the city after a bite for lunch.

The transport system in the city is incredible. Buses, trains, metros, taxis in abundance make it very easy to get around. We’ve been using the Metro mostly, it’s cheap and you can get to anywhere you need to go to. The shopping is plentiful. We have made it to around 10 different shopping centres already. Most of the shops are the same as back home, but not much difference in price. This evening we made it over to the Mustafa Centre, which is in Little India. This place was more like an indoor market with lots of cheap stuff.

We had to do the cliché and make it to the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. Raffles is very fancy, quite colonial looking, but any hotel that you need a map to get around turns me off a bit. The drink itself was good, along with the plentiful supply of monkey nuts, whose shells you are encouraged to discard on the floor. We had dinner on Boat Quay, good food but pricey crab.

One more day here then off to Perth!

After all the hassle getting there it was good to relax and wander to our gate for our London to Singapore flight. I was excited about seeing the A380, the world’s biggest commercial plane, for the first time. Although it did look big I think I had probably built it up in my mind to be half the size of the airport. It is big enough to need two boarding gates, one for each deck. We were near the back of the bottom (main) deck. The internal layout hides the size of the plane, the ceiling is lower than normal and seats are divided into sections of about 12 rows. This means that your own section seems quite cosy and personal. The leg room was decent and the tv screen was a very good size. Me being the gadget freak was excited by the video, USB and ethernet connection that comes in the back of every seat.

We gently rumbled down the runway and with very little effort big bird was in the air. We had aisle and middle seats in the middle section of the 3-4-3 seat configuration, which meant we only got a decent view out the window when the plane banked. One thing I did notice was the noise level, the engine noise is much quieter than on normal planes. This makes it much easier to talk to each other, but does also mean that you can hear more of the other noises on the plane.

Our flight time meant that we were leaving London at 11am and arriving in Singapore at 7.30am. We convinced ourselves that we would sleep from about 12am (new time) to 6am. But both Ash and I have an inability to sleep on planes so our 6 hours turned into more like 1 hour of restless sleep. At least there was an on-demand entertainment system that could keep you going for a couple of years.

So red-eyed and sleep deprived we arrived in Singapore and 7.22am local time on 29th November. Get me a bed quick!

At 6am on Tuesday morning we finally set off on our way. After first planning the trip a year ago it was surreal to be actually starting off on the trip. Dublin airport was its usual busiest at seven in the morning. Our first flight was from Dublin to London Heathrow with Aer Lingus. We had presumed that we would be able to check in right the way through, but Aer Lingus is now a completely automated airline with barely any staff. So we had to do the check in on the machines which only gave us boarding cards to London and not on to Singapore. Then we checked the bags in, this was also an automated process, the tags the machine printed out did say Singapore on them so we figured they would be okay. After we managed to find an Aer Lingus staff member, they assured us that they could not check us in for the Singapore leg and that we would get the boarding cards in London.

The London flight left pretty much on time and got into Heathrow without the usual circling. I spotted Johnny Murtagh on the plane and collared him for a chat. I didn’t mention too much about the Breeders’ Cup disaster Coolmore had, and decided to compliment him on the ride he gave Yeats in Longchamp on Sunday instead. What a life jockeys have, he left directly after the Breeders’ Cup Classic and flew to Paris. He arrived at the track an hour before the race, and still managed to win the race (in fairness, Ryan Moore did the same trip and finished second in the same race). He was on his way to Melbourne via Hong Kong, for the Melbourne Cup, he said he was riding in the Derby on Saturday too.

When we got off the plane we had about 1hr30 before our next flight, with a change of terminal, tight but easily do-able. The doors opened and we were ready to move at pace (well as soon as everyone in front of us got off). First things first I needed a quick pit stop. When I came out of the bathroom, Ash told me to look at baggage belt. There were our bags spinning around rather than heading for Terminal 3!! We picked them up and headed for the first person in a high vis jacket we could see. We found an Aer Lingus guy who told us that they had been put in the wrong cart, and that we had two choices; give them to him and he would bring them downstairs, or take them ourselves and check in as normal. He recommended the latter, because he was not sure whether they would make it through the other way. Now we were worried!!

We took off heading for T3 with a month’s worth of luggage in tow. When we arrived the Singapore airlines section looked empty. There was still a girl behind the business class desk so we tried her. She checked us in with no problem and we could relax again. We had boarding cards in hand and 45 mins to make to the gate. Don’t you just love traveling.

More good news, Conduit went and won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in California. What a race, what a horse. Ryan Moore gave him a perfect ride, sweeping wide with a late run to collar Mick de Kock’s Eagle Mountain with 200yds to go. The rate of improvement in this horse has been astonishing. The whole clan were on hand to see him destroy a handicap field back in June at Epsom, and from there he has stepped up in class with every race and has answered every time. Mary-Kate and Jim-Bob flew in from Kentucky to meet up with Pa in California. They were all ready celebrating their recent enagagement but now they have even more reason for partying.

This is Pa’s third Breeder’s Cup winner he has bred, Pilsudski won the same race at Woodbine in 1996 and Islington won the Filly and Mare Turf also at Santa Anita in 2003. I was there in 2003 and have to say it was one of the greatest moments in my life (obviously the day I married Mary-Catherine wins hands down!). Apart from North Light winning the 2004 Epsom Derby with the whole family there, winning a Breeders Cup has to be tops. Now all we need to do is win the damn Arc!! Hopefully this boy might have a shot or two at that.

Here is a video of the race:

Great news has reached us via telegram from the States. Jim-Bob (Jim) has asked Mary-Kate (Liz) to marry him, and after much thought and reflection (about 2 seconds) she said yes. Pa, Ma and everyone else are delighted. We are all a bit shocked that despite having spent most of last Christmas and Epsom this year with us lot, he still wanted to marry her!! They are currently in California with Pa for the Breeders Cup, where I am sure he will have some words of wisdom for his future son-in-law. We’ll soon all get to celebrate together in New Zealand. Another wedding to look forward to.

Welcome to The Waltons On Tour, the travel blog of the Reynolds family as we head down under for Nadia & Kevin’s wedding!!

Long ago when we all decided to go on this trip, in a moment of weakness, I suggested it would be a great idea to write a blog documenting our travels. The blog is natural progression of an idea instilled in us kids by Ma & Pa when we last had a full family holiday together. We all headed off in a camper van for a tour of France. Upon departure each of us was presented with a folder, full of blank paper. Pa told us that on a daily basis we had to document our trip.

We were allowed to supplement our words with any paraphernalia we find. This meant a daily scrap over any brochures and flyers we could get our hands on. These resulting masterpieces are still with us to this day, and give us great entertainment from time to time (when they appear after too much wine). This blog however would be the kids revenge, because it was agreed that Ma & Pa must also contribute. The idea was roundly welcomed but soon forgotten. It only reoccured to me quite recently and I was delighted to discover thewaltonsontour.com domain was still available.

I hope that you will enjoy reading what we have to say and looking at some of our pictures from all the incredible places we are going. As I write this it is only five days till Mary-Catherine and I start our trip, can’t wait!!