31kgs!

I'm sat in the Singapore Airlines lounge at Melbourne airport waiting for flight number 2 of the 3 it'll take to get me home. My bag weighed 31kg when I checked in for my Singapore Airlines flight! Exactly 1kg under the maximum weight for a single piece of luggage. I just prey the wine I bought survives the journey (especially as some of it is earmarked for Christmas consumption)!

The weather in Launceston and Melbourne has been trying to ease me in to U.K. weather conditions – its been raining in both places. The difference I think is the temperature. In Melbourne it's been a really warm and muggy day – almost like an early summers day in Hong Kong.

The day started very damp in Tassie – it was chucking it down in Launceston! I got to the airport a little bit too early. The problem was that my flight was at the sort of time that you really can't do anything beforehand. If places in town had been open I would've got breakfast, but on a Saturday morning not many people were around at 7.30am and even fewer cafes etc were open. Hence I was at the airport at 8am fro my 10am flight.

The flight was a bit delayed in to Melbourne because of poor visibility – the cloud was pretty low.

I got my bag and went to the left luggage place. I was thrown off course at this stage as the left luggage place appeared to be closed. The shutters were down at least. On closer inspection I saw a note saying that between certain times you have to 'call for attention' from the phone provided. This is what I did and 5 minutes a bloke turned up, charged me the hand luggage rate for my massive bag, and I was all good to go!

I caught the SkyBus into the city and my first mission was to find somewhere to eat (I hadn't had a proper breakfast and I was starting to fade). The place I went to first (after some internet research) was actually closed – the location in the CBD kind of suggested that it survived on the Monday to Friday crowd. This stumped me a bit. I did a bit of a trawl around a few of the main streets and eventually ended up in a Greek place. Nothing beats a lamb souvlaki for lunch! I was so stuffed afterwards (I guess the vegetarian appetiser platter for one may also have contributed to this)!

After my 'feed' I looked around a few shops. At times it felt a little bit like Singapore – lots of people of varying Asian ethnicity and a very warm, muggy day! I paused for a bit to watch a 'street entertainer' at Federation Square. The guy was from the U.K. And his act was pretty amusing, as long as you weren't on the receiving end of some of his 'jokes'.

Seeing Federation Square busy on a Saturday afternoon I can sort of sort of see the point of it now.

To perk me up a little bit I got a smoothie from a place in the Southbank complex. The smoothie was a real struggle to drink – definitely more yoghurt/ice than juice. I found a bench by the Yarra and chilled out. This also gave me a chance to rest my sore shin (it's still giving me grief).

At a little after 5pm I thought I'd have another look at some shops. Well I would've if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of them were closed or closing. The city centre had been really busy all afternoon, and the penny kind of dropped that people were Christmas shopping. I now that there have been decorations up in the places I've been to, but it just sort of doesn't feel like Christmas is in about a months time.

Time for a beer.

I went to a place in Federation Square called Beer DeLuxe – lots of different beers. I stuck to ones from Tasmania. First off I had a Moo Brew Pale Ale and then 3 bottle of Boag's Premium. The Boag's is such good stuff.

Suitably inebriated it was time for some more food. I picked a random Thai place from a strip of Asian restaurants. It was very busy and full of Asian students ( a good sign). I got some Thai fish cakes and some kind of Thai fried rice. For the first time on this trip I had a Crown Lager.

It was a quick turn around at the restaurant and in no time at all I was back on my way to the airport.

At the airport there were lots of school groups heading off on trips/tours – it's nearing the end of the school year here. There's a big group on my flight going to Cambodia.

I've now had a fair bit of red wine and I'm hoping that it acts as a perfect sedative and I get some sleep on the flight to Singapore.