Guess who's back?

What a holiday I’ve had! It was a real step back in time for me, returning to a country where I used to reside and looking with an adult eye over the places in which I lived, learned, worked, and generally became the person that I am today.

The trip became even more memorable midway though it, when on a starlit beach and after a perfect day on a Sentosa Island, I got down on one knee and Mrs Cynic agreed to put up with me until death do us part. It truly was the trip of a lifetime.

I have so many happy memories of Singapore, and can highly recommend a visit to anybody who hasn’t ever been. The country is clean, tidy and safe, and because it is so multi-cultural it really serves to give you an idea of what life is like all over South East Asia. Food is both cheap and superb, with dishes available from just about every country you could name, and for such a small Island it’s almost impossible to believe the contrast between the skyscraper dotted cityscape and the dilapidated shop houses of Chinatown and Little India. There is so much to see, and even if a city break is not your thing, there are beaches on the outlying islands to rival any that I have ever sunbathed on.

Premiership football is massive out there and the locals actually have quite a decent knowledge of the game. Upon entering a taxi one morning, the driver noticed the badge on my chest and immediately struck up a conversation about how Hasselbaink was going to link up with Darren Bent, and whether or not I thought the two of them could form an effective partnership. Mrs Cynic just stared at him in disbelief, this was supposed to be her break from football!

Regular visits to the local Internet café (sorry Chicago Addick!) kept me in touch with the rest of the news from home, and in a quaint back street Singaporean bookshop I even found a copy of Garry Nelson’s Left Foot Forward available for sale! I wonder if he knows.

Still, I’m back now and as soon as I've managed to get my head around that fact I’ll update the site with my thoughts on what’s occurred in SE7 over the last couple of weeks.

Here are a few pictures from a wonderful trip.

> Keppel Harbour from Sky Tower
> Siloso Beach on Sentosa - Link now fixed
> Dolphins
> Local housing estate
> Cable cars
> Sentosa from Cable Car
> Seletar Reservoir 1
> Seletar Reservoir 2
> Singapore River
> Local Hawker Centre
> Clarke Quay
> Merlion and city skyline
> Raffles Place
> Monitor Lizard
> Waterfall

Holiday

Temporarily of course. I've been on holiday for the last few days, and myself and my partner are off to Singapore this week for a well earned break so it's unlikely that there will be any updates until close to the end of the month.

Have a pleasant July, and lets hope its a productive one in the transfer market. See you in a few weeks.