The flight to Singapore, was long, but uneventful - just a mixture of squeezy conditions (the flight was packed), watching forgettable movies, sleeping and some bland airline food (not up to the usual Singapore Airlines standards). As always, the view over the waiting ships lets me know that soon we'll be on the final leg to Melbourne.

After a four-hour stopover in Changi Airport (lucky I was still travelling with Elite Gold status in their nice Lounges), I boarded the plane for what would turn out to be an unforgettable flight. Because Singapore Airlines now has internet service and live TV, I was able to watch the ODI World Cup game between Australia and Afghanistan. Because of Afghanistan's recent good form, this loomed as a danger game for Australia. And after Afghanistan batted first and scored 291 for the loss of only 5 wickets, it was looking precarious. And this was exacerbated when Australia's top order batsmen collapsed to have them 7-91. The only batsman left was Glenn Maxwell, who now had bowler Pat Cummins as his batting partner. But they dug in and chipped away at the target score. Maxwell was doing most of the scoring, with a variety of boundaries and sharp running between the wickets. He reached his century in quick time, and just kept on going. But the hot, humid weather was taking its toll, and soon he started to cramp. It got to the stage where he could not move his feet - he just stood there and swung his bat, connecting with the ball most of the time. At one stage, he collapsed on the ground, stiff as a board and having cramp spasms in his legs and body. and yet he kept on going. And this is where his innings turned from very good to great.

As they started the 46th over, they were nearing the target, but Maxwell didn't want to wait around, and his last four shots of the game were 6-6-4-6 to reach 201 not out off 128 balls, for a team score of  7/293 to win the game and guarantee Australia's place in the finals. The final partnership of 202 had Pat Cummins scoring just 12 runs off 68 balls! it was an absolute privilege to watch such an individual performance, and made sure that I would never forget this flight home.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get much sleep on this flight, and it was good to get home, somewhat earlier than expected, to Melbourne, which featured many unusual passengers getting off the flight like this Pink Unicorn!

I tried calling Vicki who had agreed to pick me up from Lilydale Railway Station, but couldn't get through to her. So I waited for the SkyBus service to Southern Cross Station and then hopped on. As I sat on the bus, they guy next to me was also having trouble calling someone, and then we both learned, via the SkyBus video screen, that all Optus mobile phone services were out of order due to a technical glitch. Luckily, however, the bus had internet service, so I was able to text message Vicki and let her know that I had arrived and would meet her on time at Lilydale.

The train ride from Southern Cross to Lilydale was very pleasant. I was surprised/reminded of just how green Melbourne suburbs are (even bordering the train line), and was impressed by the high density hubs around the major train stations - something that, as a transport planner, we had been recommending to governments back in the 1980's. I was met by Vicki on my arrival at Lilydale, and we ducked into a local cafe for brunch and a long conversation to catch up on all and sundry. The conversation continued in her new car for the one-hour drive to Taggerty, where I collected my ute from her house and drove onwards to mine. Despite the long grass everywhere, I managed to (just) see the two alpacas in the back paddock, and was also welcomed home by a friendly King Parrot.

Since I had arrived home in the middle of the day, it was too early to think about going to bed yet. So I drove up to Alexandra to do some shopping for essentials, and then made a start on slashing the grass around the house, before a late-afternoon thunderstorm put paid to that endeavour, and forced me inside, where the call of a horizontal bed eventually won.