Today is the day of the opening ceremonies for the World Cup 2015. I had loose plans of going along to the Melbourne event and joining in the fun after I kissed the wife goodbye and put her on the plane and before I had to go catch my own flight just before midnight.

A bout of dehydration has seen me awake most of the night with nausea and diarrhea. When the alarm goes off I’m awake but a shell of the man I used to be.

It’s the wife’s last day with me before she return to Scotland and to normal life. We had plans to get a nice breakfast and a good lunch but that plan’s out the window now as I can barely keep down a tiny sip of water.

Breakfast is replaced by a trip to the chemist where I get various pills to stop me exploding from both ends.

Lunch is in a vegetarian burger chain with a pun name that the wife was keen to check out (Lord of the Fries). I’m still unable to contemplate eating anything and can’t even look at her while she eats hers without the risk of any unpleasant technicolour yawns escaping from my insides.

By the time I’m putting her on the bus to the airport I can at least pretend to act like I’m feeling better but that all comes apart at the seams as I watch the sky bus pull away and I’m left feeling awful with a stomach that won't settle down, bowels that won't behave and an empty feeling in my heart now that I won't see my wife and best friend for almost two months.

For the first time in the eight years I’ve been planning this World Cup trip I question if this adventure was such a great idea after all.

I head back to my Melbourne mates Myles’ flat and crash on his couch for a couple of hours. When I awake I feel the best I have all day and decide to try and eat a slice of dried toast. It takes me an hour to finish it.

Myles comes in and makes dinner. Chicken kiev for him and another slice of of dried toast for me.

I bundle up my luggage and Myles bundles me up and before I know it I’m back at Southern Cross station on the skybus out to the airport to catch a midnight flight to Christchurch.

I’m sure that there are some opening ceremony celebrations going on somewhere tonight but I can't muster any interest for them whatsoever.

I’m tired, wiped out, ill and missing my better half.
Cricket World Cup opening ceremonies are usually rubbish anyway.

"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)