24 Nov 2017

Sentimental Journey

The above sewing machine is not much to look at, and certainly not worth a lot of money, but Grandma C wanted it for sentimental reasons, as it had belonged to her late grandmother, and the family had been wanting to get rid of it.

The machine was situated in Singapore, and Grandma C had several quotes to freight it over.   The best one was about A$2500.

So when we saw an ad for a cruise (about A$3500 for the two of us) that included flights from Perth to Singapore, 2 nights hotel accomodation, and a 12 day cruise from Singapore to Perth, we had the idea of carrying the machine back to Perth ourselves.

With the help of a sister of mine, a handyman in Singapore was employed to dismantle the machine into three parts prior to our arrival, and we spent our day in Singapore packing the parts into boxes.
The three boxes
The concierge at our hotel (Furama Riverfront) was fantastic.  He stored the boxes for us and, the following day, organised and packed a taxi for us personally.

Getting the boxes on to the ship was dead easy, and they all either fitted under the bed, or in the wardrobes and therefore took up no valuable space in the cabin at all.   We were allowed 64kg luggage allowance each on the ship, and we did not even use up one person's entitlement.
The Hotel  -  I've never seen a busier hotel.  People were checking in and out all the time!

2 views of Singapore from the Ship's deck.
I was amazed that the whole process of shipping the sewing machine went so smoothly.

Now comes the task of re-assembling the machine! 


10 comments:

  1. What an idea. We were toying with bring over a surplus modern sewing machine to Singapore before my present trip. It weighs 10kg, too heavy to carry onboard and too hard to pack into a suitcase without a lot of thought and preparation; so I postponed the idea. Perhaps I should take a cruise for the next trip instead !
    KM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could pack it into a box for the plane. But the cruise is a great idea.

      Delete
  2. My wife still has one, looks similar to yours, also inherited from her mum. Should had ship it to NYC and Dubai where my family resided for several years in each city. After all shipping was unlimited and provided by my company, haha..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could have taken it all around the world! Is the machine still working?

      Delete
    2. Pua TK2:21 pm

      Yes, the Singer machine is still working fine, although we changed the belt once or twice in its present life of 40 plus years with us. Not only good sentimental value, but also economic value as well.

      Delete
    3. I'll have to see if I can get this to work after assembling it.

      Delete
  3. Oh! So you were in Singapore. My mum has a singer but the body is some China made one, not the original. That one called it a day long ago - the type with doors below, drawers by the side. We have a China-made one in our house - but my missus was always fiddling with this and that so I gave up, not bothered to get people to come and repair anymore, not functioning at all, gathering dust in the corner. Tsk! Tsk!

    Furama is a very old hotel, was already there 1973, I think. I see King's - there was a Japanese hotel next door, Apollo or something. Well, all of them don't look the same anymore, of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, in Singapore for 2 nights. Then the cruise took us to Phuket, Langkawi, Penang, Port Klang and Bali, before taking us home to Fremantle.

      Delete
  4. How lovely to bringing machine from singapore to Perth just for emotional attachment to this dear ausiroo !

    we all feel so connected to objects and gifts related by our loved ones and so the grandma C :),

    Marvellous images of busy hotel and buildings seen from the deck .
    i am glad that it was pleasant experience

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello baili. I was quite worried before th3 trip as I thought it would be difficult to carry the machine and our luggage. In the end however, it was all ok. Grandma C is very happy to have her grandmother's sewing machine in our home in Perth.

      Delete