I land at the tiger terminal in Melbourne at 10.45pm. I trundle along the exposed path, in to the high security cage that makes me feel like I'm in a detention centre, then through the metal-bar revolving exit. After that it's up the road and on to a Skybus.
It's Tuesday for another 5 minutes.
Mum's already arrived this morning. She's staying at my partner's place while she's here, and is asleep by the time I get there.
I have a couple of ciders with my partner's housemate (my ex-girlfriend, don't ask,) to try to unwind. After the flight I'm pretty on edge and excited.
A couple of Die-Hards have sunk a few drinks on the plain and try to start up the Dockers Theme song. They are off beat and out of key but they're singing the original theme song so they get points for that.
The first attempt dies a few words in, but they give it another crack when we hit the tarmac. This time they try the new version of the song and, although the give up a couple of lines in, once they die down I can hear a small group up the front singing "oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my daaaaarling Ballantyne"
A good proportion of the crowd is proudly dressed in Dockers merch and purple attire but most of us are either too tired or too embarrassed to join in.
So now it's 4am on wednesday morning, I have to be at work in 5 or 6 hours, but the adrenaline is still pumping so I sit down to watch a movie with my mate.
Luckily, it's school holidays. My day job is working for a theatre company that does a lot of work with Victorian high schools. During the off season it's mainly budget meetings, projections, and planning meetings. This is where all the big decisions get made but the pace is far decreased from the constant calls, sales, rehearsals, and touring shows of the busy season.
I've managed to get off work for Monday and Tuesday to go to Perth, and now I'm taking Friday off to see the parade, so i have to at least work Wednesday and Thursday to keep the little theatre afloat.
But the purple is never far from my mind.
And thankfully, I can steal an hour to jump on Dockerland and Blog about my 2013 road to the GF.