Or, to be quite blunt about it, the day Hughesy hit the wall.
Mind you, it didn't have to be that way, it was just that things continued to pile up on the back of two late nights and the absence of the regular afternoon nap.
After the late night, I was late out of the blocks and didn't surface until nine, by which time the nearby Vietnamese bakery was out of croissants. Fine, the brioche I ended up with was a fair substitute. Not my choice, but it would keep me going until lunch.
And lunch should have come after a ramble around the shopping, but I opted to join Madam and hoof it off towards the Botanical Gardens, which turned out to be a bit further than we thought, so we didn't quite get there.
Miscalculation #1.
We hiked back to Federation Square, where I managed to check the email, then proceeded on to Chinatown, where lunch was rather enjoyable but really should have been followed by a restorative return to base.
That was Madam's choice, anyway.
ut, for Hughesy, Miscalculation #2.
She left me at an outlet where I could recharge the mobile phone credit (tick), proceed on for a serious look at Basement Disks (tick, and escaped relatively lightly) and head for a good look at Minotaur, which turned out to be as non-Hughesy relevant as I suspected.
But it was one of those cases where you needed to make sure.
From there, carrying a fair load, I headed back to the Metro Apartments, and found Madam had done, been there and gone.
I should have opted for a restorative nap, but had intentions of taking a look through the lanes and alleys. A check of my list of interesting stores revealed a music shop and a book outlet at the other end of Bourke Street, so off I headed to investigate.
Miscalculation #3.
As it turned out Gaslight Records had closed down a long time ago, The Paperback Shop was interesting but failed to deliver anything to take home, Hill of Content had plenty of content, but the same result and George's book department made a hat trick.
By that point, I was starting to fade, and the progress back to the Metro was a fairly hasty retreat without a lot of investigation along the way.
I did manage to find The Book Grocer, which is worth another visit if we're back in the neighbourhood, and it was just after five when I headed back up to 802 at the Metro. I wasn't particularly hungry, but thought I might manage something a bit later. A walk around the neighbourhood, and possibly a beer or two seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's amazing how quickly these things can change.
A quick ale at the Irish bar, a quick check of the neighbourhood, where I might have found something tempting a little later on, and I was back upstairs just before six.
Which is when I, quite literally, hit the wall.
In bed by six, I didn't rouse myself until it was time to pack and head for Sydney the following morning.