The fireworks last night turned out to be a personal display for us just by the bridge! Well that's how it seemed. We had thought they would be at Darling Harbour and we would struggle to see them but they were on our doorstep! I suppose the New Year ones are a bit more spectacular but we were delighted with our show!

Our own Sydney harbour fireworks show!

It was just as well we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport and time at the airport before our flight because we had a rather frustrating last few hours in Sydney. It started at the hotel when we checked out and then realised the shutters to the car park were down and we needed our room card to get them open! It was annoying but fairly easily resolved. We then managed to get in the wrong lane over the bridge and ended up in the centre of Sydney instead of on the motorway!

Our next frustration was a traffic jam outside the airport which held us up for about 20mins. The airport itself was sadly lacking in signs and had long queues for everything! Checking in, passport checks and security all had us walking along in long queues. This is something we haven't experienced this holiday at all until today - even Heathrow was a doddle compared to Sydney!

We did eventually get onto the plane - but only after queueing again! We were very pleased to be flying on an Airbus 380 as they are lovely planes. They are quiet and relatively spacious and you hardly notice them taking off. For the first time we were on the upper deck, though we didn't really notice it because we boarded through a high level air bridge and never saw the lower deck!

We arrived in Singapore at 5pm after an 8hr flight which went reasonably quickly. We watched The History of Everything and Paddington and enjoyed them both in different ways! We are now only 8 hours ahead of home and back in the northern hemisphere, which is good as we had a lot of trouble with north-facing being warm! Talking of warm this place is warm! It was 32C when we arrived and standing on our balcony it feels extremely humid. In our room, of course, it feels rather cold because of the air con!

Singapore skyline from our balcony

Our view tonight is not quite as iconic as the last two nights but it is still pretty special. We have swapped one vibrant city for another and although we face the harbour, it is the Marina Bay Sands hotel which dominates our view. This is a fascinating and tremendously expensive hotel which appears to have a huge boat straddling its three towers, which themselves look like old fashioned pegs! There is a lot to look at from our balcony and even more once we set foot outside, but we won't be doing that till the morning as although it is now 9.30pm we think it is 12.30am!

Singapore at night - Marina Bay Sands hotel in centre