Deep breath Ben…here we go, the start of the adventure that is the The Best Job in the World.

I left Hampshire behind with the thunderous skies dumping untold amounts of rain onto us as we loaded Dad’s car with my bags and hit the road ready to take on the traffic of the M25 for the last time this year, oh what a pleasure!

Matt and the crew from Beyond TV were there to meet me at the terminal, filmed my final farewells to Mum and Dad and after checking my extremely weighty bags (somewhere near 55kgs, yikes) I headed through passport control and towards the Singapore Airlines lounge.

Just after the scheduled departure time our Airbus A380 gracefully lifted its bulk from the wet runway and we were off, up into the heavy skies until we finally broke through into the big blue beyond. The first leg from London to Singapore went really quickly, 12 hours taken up by an almost constant stream of food and films, until the announcement came to fasten up for the last time (it had been one of the most turbulent flights I’d been on with probably ten different seatbelt warnings) and we dropped towards the runway below.

Singapore airport is awesome, a huge range of shops and stores to tempt even the tightest traveller and the temptation was too much at the iStore as I swiped the plastic for a couple of little essentials…they are essential Mum ok!

The second leg of the flight to Brisbane was a chance to finally get some sleep after deciding to stay up for the first part and I nestled into the corner of my chair with a full stomach and tired mind and passed out….right up until there was only an hour to go, perfect – that’s the way to fly.

Bruce Wallace from TQ and his daughter were there to meet me at the airport along with the Australian side of Beyond TV. They’d done a great job of keeping my arrival out of the public domain and it was a welcome relief to not have journo’s there for once thrusting their mikes in my face. I just hope it’s the same when Bre gets here on Tuesday, although judging by the fact that they’ve called her poor Grandma in Vancouver for information I doubt it.

We headed into the central business district and to the Sofitel hotel where I’ll be spending the next few days until Bre and I finally head out to the Blue Pearl next week. My amazing room up on level 24 will be the perfect retreat every evening.

I felt wide awake as I sat waiting for the rugby to start and almost wished I fallen asleep before it started…the British Lions were playing South Africa in the second test from Pretoria. Tell me how you can let such dominance at half time turn into a loss by the end of  the game? It ended up with a loss for the Lions both in the game and now the series as the South Africans lead 2-0 with one to play.

Just the Ashes to look forward to then……hmmmm.