Changi is indeed a perfect layover. With a 5 hour wait, we checked our hand luggage into 'left luggage', remember those?

We then proceeded through immigration and took a taxi into the centre of town. We ate at the old post office (famous for the photograph of Japanese soldiers at its door) and afterwards, took taxi back to the airport in time for our flight home.

Wonderful time.

 
SWTSMBO had already travelled to Singapore to be at the F1 GP on 11/09.
I travelled later to avoid missing 2 x Exeter Chiefs matches & a BSO concert.
(Also given the choice between watching a GP and having my fingernails pulled out I would go for the latter option!)

14/09/26 - Exeter To Heathrow Airport
DIG 1342 (OT) > EXD 1354 (OT) : 2T20 EXM > PGN : 1 x 165/1 (3 Cars)
EXD 1415 (OT) > PAD  1705 (1734) : 1A26 PLY > PAD : 1 x 802/1 (9 Cars)
PAD 1725 > HXX 1740 : 1T73 PAD > HWV (Service Suspended)
Had to use the Elizabeth Line instead.

Tickets (All With Senior Railcard, 1 Pax▸ , Price Per Person):
DIG > PAD 1st Class Advance Single £37.95
PAD > HXX Hex Advance Discounted Single £6.65

Local train reasonably well loaded.
Tickets / railcards checked: No / No
I had booked a reasonably priced 1st Class ticket so as to guarantee use of the Pullman Dining service; shouldn't have bothered as there were only 4 other customers. It was good but not excellent.
1A26 was routed via BRI and ran roughly to time until after DID when the ‘fun’ started. Turned out that the whole PAD-RDG route had been blocked by 'an obstruction on the line’ near Hayes and we reached PAD 29 minutes down.
Having waited for a short time at P6/7 we were eventually told the HEx service had been suspended due to the congestion and we should use Elizabeth Line services instead. The PAD concourse was absolutely rammed - no cats were being swung - with delayed pax and even getting to the specified P14 was a bit of a struggle. Eventually got onto 9H88 which was of course full & standing ( and late!).
Rather amusingly, despite the absolute scrum, the HXX ticket gates were still in use.

30/09/26 - Heathrow Airport To Exeter
HXX 0717 (0723) > PAD 0733 (0741) : 1Y30 HWV > PAD : 2 x 387 (8 Cars)
PAD 0903 (OT) > EXD 1113 (OT) : 1C74 : 1 x 802/0 (5 cars)
EXD 1151 (1154) > DIG 1203 (OT) : 2F15 PGN > EXM : 1 x 150/2 (2 Cars)

Tickets (All With Senior Railcard, 2 Pax, Price Per Person):
HXX > PAD HEx Advance Discounted Single £6.65
PAD > DIG Advance Single £48.25

Many cancelled or late running services in & out of PAD apparently due to a signalling failure in the Slough area. ‘That’s very surprising’ said absolutely nobody. Also SSDD.
1Y30, which was very well loaded due to other binned Heathrow trains, ran through Airport Junction very slowly.
Because our SQ322 flight arrived at LHR an hour early (of which more later*) I looked at changing our tickets so we could travel on the 0803 departure from PAD but GWR wanted just short of £200 for the privilege so that was a definite ‘credit card says no'.
According to a subsequent on board message from the TM 1C74 should have been a 10 car service but even with only 5 it was not that busy. RTT shows that the incoming 1A70 PLY > PAD service was also 5 vice 10 cars. More trains than expected…..
1C74 essentially ran to time for the whole journey (has to happen occasionally).
Tickets / railcards checked: Yes / No
1C74 is timetabled to arrive at EXD at 1113. The 2F14 train to EXM is timetabled to depart EXD at 1115. This is bloody annoying.
As was the provision of a single 150/2 unit on the actual 1151 ‘connection’ to Exmouth on a Friday morning during a half-term. EXD was very busy.

*I don’t mind flying if there is no alternative but I am not generally a fan of all the hanging around in the airport before and after the event. Particularly when it involves London Heathrow. As noted SQ322 arrived an hour early but we were then held on the aircraft at the gate for 20-25 minutes because the cretins at LHR had failed to get the air bridges ready. The obvious conclusion is that they weren’t checking the status of incoming flights and just assumed an ‘as scheduled’ arrival. Then at T2 there is the hike between the satellite and main terminals. And in baggage reclaim it was obvious from the stop-start bag delivery, which took around 30 minutes, that not enough resource is allocated to moving bags from the satellite to the main terminal.
They need to send a team to Changi Airport to find out how to do the job properly. Changi is still the best large airport I have used.