Day 98 : A World Record Sort Of Concept

High Point : Appearing on the 7 o’clock news all over Asia.

Low Point : Not being able to hang out in a fire station everyday

It’s always nice when you pop over to someone’s house and they not only offer a cup of tea but a cheeky little biscuit on the side too. Well our day with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was the equivalent of my gran making her entire house out of biscuits for my visit.

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We rolled into Central Fire Station (the oldest and busiest fire station in Singapore) to be greeted by the fire fighters, media and expectant public. It’s never easy parking our truck but doing it font of this lot was a bit tricky. We were interviewed by News Channel Asia and, as with any media now, it was all about getting the key messages across (charities, website etc) and not saying something ridiculous. Okay we nailed the former but slipped up again on the latter. When myself and Paul were interviewed in London by radio 5 live in June, my panic lead to making up the motto of “lay it on!”, I still have no idea what the means. For Asia News about our expedition I said “we came up with a concept, a world record sort of concept” and “I do not believe there is a another fire engine in the world that could make it around the world”. Much to learn!

What a superb day. A tour of the fire station, presentation of a donation to our charity which was extremely generous, tour of their museum, lunch reception and a ride on their hydraulic platform looking over Singapore! Awesome. To all of our friends at the SCDF for hosting us today, putting us up in your accommodation for three nights and assisting with much of the admin to even enter / drive in Singapore, a huge huge thanks and to Simon Rowley for making it all possible.

So Martha’s time on dry land is almost over. Late afternoon, along with EES we headed to their warehouse where Martha was to be packed up for shipping. As the rain came down, it was a strange moment seeing her lashed down on the container. A little sad.

Today is also the end of the road for Seve. London (and work) is calling. Big personal thanks from me for all the time and effort that he has put into routing stage 4. A lot goes on behind the scenes to move this fire engine from A to B everyday, frankly Seve and the girls nailed stage 4. Bingo !

Steve

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