Sentosa Island

Sentosa is exactly how you would imagine a Singaporean holiday island to be. Beautiful, efficient, sanitised. Not by coincidence but by design.

The hotel resorts are all luxurious 5 star properties featuring grand swimming pools and pristine private beaches. We are lucky - our room is at the corner of the building, overlooking both the beach and the lush garden. I can hear the birds in the mornings.

"Beware of the monkeys", a sign says, "They are not pets, but wild creatures." Somehow I cannot imagine anything wild in Singapore. I would have loved to see a monkey, but I don't come across any in my three days on Sentosa.

There a little train that takes people around the island. We explore the beaches and we zip down the hill on a wire. In the evenings once we're bored of too much island bliss, we take a cab to the city and join random queues outside restaurants. The Singapore crab is sweet and life is good.

Sunday Bliss

I have been feeling very domestic since we moved to our new flat in Balmain. Whilst life in London was mainly centred around going out and city entertainment, these days I mostly look forward to spending my weekends reading, writing and cooking.

Being able to do things around the house feels like a great luxury to me - a much needed contrast to everyday office life.

Today, the weather was simply glorious and although we're approaching winter in Sydney, the temperature was still a very mild 22 degrees. We spent the morning reading the newspaper on the balcony and I made a batch of chocolate cookies in the afternoon.

Cookies are probably amongst the most basic things you can bake. They don't require much more than flour, butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate, but they're oh so yummy. We're having one cookie right now with our tea and maybe another one later this evening watching a movie on our brand-new DVD player.

Hawaii

One thing is for sure: Sydney is really far away from pretty much everywhere else.

Last month I was scouring the map for a suitable stopover between Seattle and Sydney, and the only place that made halfway sense was Hawaii.

Admittedly my boss questioned my plans initially, but after double-checking, he agreed that there was no other suitable option and signed off a weekend at a beautiful resort hotel at Waikiki Beach.

Now let me tell you, Hawaii is awesome. It's like being on an exotic island, minus the complication of questionable food, dodgy street vendors and tropical disease.

On the way back I got friendly with a Vietnamese taxi driver who had lived in Hawaii for 30 years. "It's the best place in the world," he said. "The weather, the beaches, the mountains... I've never felt the urge to go anywhere else."

"Yupp," I thought, looking at the pristine sand and the majestic palm trees, "I can understand how, at a stunning place like this, even a taxi driver would feel like a king."

Our new flat

We have moved! After two months of living in a hotel in Darling Harbour, we have finally moved to a proper little flat in Balmain.

Balmain is the Australian equivalent of London's Crouch End or Hampstead. Very green, villagy and middle-class. I absolutely love it.

The story of our move was a bit of a last minute scare. After one of the flats we had set our eyes on fell through, we were left with only 4 days to find a new place. Luckily this property came up and we took it on the spot.

Most flats in Australia come unfurnished, so we have spent a fair amount of time at Ikea and garage sales. Everything is now slowly coming together and it feels good to finally have a place to call home.

Seattle

To my friends it must look as if I'm jet-setting around the world all the time, but to be honest, most of the time I travel for work.

It can be a bit tiring at times - long flights, jet lag, long working hours, but there are fun moments too. I hadn't been in the US for almost two years and I had almost forgotten how amazing it is for shopping.

Especially coming from Australia, where everything costs three times as much, I fell into an absolute frenzy at Nordstrom Rack, the most amazing outlet store ever. Nordstrom Rack stock absolutely everything from designer handbags to clothing and jewellery at ridiculously low prices. Luckily they sell luggage too, because I had to by an additional suitcase to fit in all my purchases.

I particular love this Michael Kors purse and this little phone wallet, which were both half price. I also bought a beige Michael Kors handbag, which I've been wearing pretty much every day since.

Los Angeles

Modern myth has it that these days everyone in Los Angeles has written a screenplay, is writing a screenplay or is just visiting.

I was in the latter category - whistle-stopping in L.A. on my way to Seattle. Los Angeles is very surreal for multiple reasons. Firstly, because you cross the international date line when flying from Australia, you can actually arrive in L.A. before you left Sydney, despite a 13hrs flight and a 2hrs queue at LAX immigration. It's like back in the future.

Secondly, almost every single location in L.A. has featured in some kind of Hollywood movie or is the favourite haunt of a TV celebrity. "See this window?" the travel guide said, "This is where Bruce Willis jumped out of the window in Die Hard." "And this ice cream shop? This is where Mila Kunis buys her Lemon Sorbet." "And this hotel room? This is where Whitney Houston overdosed."

I also learned that Brad Pitt started his career as a waiter in a diner and that Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg performed for free at the legendary Comedy Store before they became famous.

I didn't bump into anyone famous during my stay (although I looked very hard for The Hoff at Santa Monica Beach). Celebrities probably don't hang out at the same outlet shops and Taco Bars as me, but just walking on the stars on the Walk of Fame was pretty cool.

Family Funday Sunday

For many years, the "1001 Things To Do In London for under a Tenner" Timeout Guide was my bible, my trusted resource for planning my entire free time. And what good times we had together - at the fringe theatre, the free museums, the public lectures, the TV recordings, the parks, the summer concerts. The options to have fun on very little money were endless.

Here in Sydney I haven't been able to find a similar compendium, so I have to start putting together my own guide to inexpensive entertainment.

One of the cheapest most fabulous ways to explore Sydney is to buy a "Family Funday Sunday" ticket. For $2.50 you can have unlimited train, bus and ferry rides in the Greater Sydney area. On Sundays only. And only if you are accompanied by a child. But to be honest, I don't think anybody is checking...

Last Sunday we took the ferry for a little cruise around the bay and then we headed for Manly beach. The weather was beautifully warm and sunny and it was the first weekend I didn't even think about switching on my work laptop...

Having the beach so close is probably one of the greatest perks of living in Sydney.

I figure there are still a few sunny Sundays ahead of us before the winter draws in and we're surely going to be on the ferry again next weekend.