Bryony dropped me at the airport at 8:45pm for me to meet up with the other Queensland guys. Only Col Cooke and Gill Chapman are there as Ross Chapman (no relation to Gill) is not coming now until the 12th as he has a seriously ill pet at home. Malaysian Airlines will carry 15kgs of cricket gear each as well as our 30kgs of luggage so having 45kgs of luggage each is fantastic.

The plane lifts off on time at 11:10pm for an 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur.   Food on the plane was excellent, with a Mongolian Vegetable wrap early in the flight and a Nasi Lemak for breakfast. The flight was only about half full and we had managed to arrange for Chappy to have a spare seat next to him so he was able to spread out and have a decent sleep.   I only manage to have doze a little but I'm not feeling too bad when we arrive at KL at 6:00am local time.   We have four hours to kill and spend most of that just lounging around in one of the waiting areas.

At 10:00am local time we lift off an a fully-loaded A380 Airbus for a 13 hour leg through to London. A couple of nice meals, one a fish and vegetables another a fish curry and a couple of beers keeps the tummy full. I've watched a couple of movies (Red, Horrible Bosses and Quantum of Solace) but its hard to get any sleep and I was getting more uncomfortable by the hour.   I've had a dose of the flu for the past week or so which was just starting to improve but with a lack of sleep I'm going downhill fast.   I've been awake for approx. 48 hours by the time we touch down at Heathrow at approx. 4:00pm local time.

Getting through customs was an absolute doddle - just walked straight through and we spot a van from Enterprise Car rentals right at the exit to the terminal.   This is the mob that we have organised the hire cars through and as we have to go to Feltham (about 10 klms away) to collect ours this seems to be a real bonus. When we inform the driver he just tells us to hop in. When he actually takes us to the Enterprise office at the airport its apparent that his English isn't the best. Anyway the guys there are pretty good and organise a lift for us to the Feltham office.

At Feltham it turns into something of a bun-fight. The tour organiser had organised for the group to have three mini-vans, one luggage van and one car - and all automatics. The mini-vans aren't quite what we were expecting, all were manual drives and it takes us forever to sort out driver details and payments etc.   I had been feeling decidedly crappy for the last two hours of the flight and the flu seems to have returned with a vengeance.   I just want to get this sorted, get to our hotel and get to bed.

Eventually we are away and I have been asked to drive - not ideal the way I am feeling at the moment.   Ten minutes into the drive and we notice that the fuel gauge says we only have 34 miles of fuel in the tank. We have just got onto the motorway and having a mild panic about when we'll find a service station.   We eventually find one with 15 miles left.   Its about 8:30pm when we arrive in Thatcham and make our way to the Regency Park Hotel. After checking in and a quick shower and change of clothes we make our way back downstairs for a toasted sandwich and a beer.   Its about 11pm when we get back to our rooms (I'm sharing with Gill) and after watching Argentina beat Netherlands on penalties in the World Cup semi-final we crash-out.   It takes me approx. 2.5 seconds before I'm pushing out zzzzs.