Her older brothers both had travel experiences through school so I was keen to share with her the familial love of travel and felt it was a perfect time to broaden her horizons. Of course being a teenager she wasn’t interested in planning or discussing the trip in any great detail: ‘Mum, I already know/I looked it up online/it’s not a big deal,’ she’d say, rolling her eyes into the top of her head. I got the feeling she thought Singapore would be like Sydney.
From the start it was a little wobbly. 6am at Departure security, the entire airport snapped to attention at the whine of the alarm; she had two pairs of scissors in her backpack, because she’d decided to bring along her school pencil case. Hadn’t we just had the discussion in the car about what might constitute a threat in carry-on luggage?