Spent the morning finishing packing my pack and two boxes of things to send home. The postage on the boxes (22 kilograms total) cost over a hundred US dollars - and that was surface for the large box and economy for the smaller! Dropped by the Egyptian consulate to pick of my passport complete with a new six month multi-entry visa. It was a beautiful day in Sydney so I spent the couple hours before my flight having lunch with Susie down on Watson's Bay, then hiking around the southern head of Sydney harbor.
The flight to Melbourne ended up leaving nearly an hour late, but there was a long enough layover that it didn't affect my next flight. My new favorite airlines is Emirates. The flight out of Melbourne was absolutely full so I got a free upgrade to Business class. I could get used to that! Tons of room, a lovely toiletries kit, great food, and great service.
Didn't sleep at all on the plane, so by the time I got to Singapore I was a zombie (1 AM local / 3 AM Sydney). Breezed through immigration, collected my pack, and got some cash out of an ATM. Stepping outside I got slammed by the heat and humidity! Decided against trying to find someplace cheap at this hour and went back in side and had the reservation desk call the Metropole - the same hotel I'd splurged on six months ago when I was here. Took a lovely air-conditioned mercedes taxi to the hotel and less than an hour after landing was closing my eyes to go to sleep. Best of all - check out time in Singapore isn't until noon!