SCG hosts the Barmy Army end of tour love-in on "England Day"

At 01:45am on 7th Jan 2011, I crawled off to my bed having witnessed England winning the Ashes 3-1 in Australia, lifting the little Urn aloft, and doing a lap of honour of the SCG which had been transformed into an England-only theatre of Dreams.

I bet no one could have predicted that 8 weeks ago.

It was something quite overwhelming and spine-tingling to watch. When the rain fell shortly after play commenced, you knew it couldn't wreck the day's celebrations, surely?! It was more of a nuicance, but as an armchair fan watching back home in Southampton feeling desperately short of sleep as a result of a full week of cricket watching, I REALLY wanted the weather the hold out so we could get a wriggle on and we could celebrate, and then sleep!

In the end it was so straight-forward. Swann got the breakthrough, having Sid Vicious caught in the deep of a slog-sweep. Good hands from Jimmy Anderson, he's done very little wrong this series.

Soon after Gentle Ben Hilfenhaus came to the crease and shortly returned to the dressing room having nicked an Anderson in-swinger. Food and drink for 22-catch-thus-far-now-23 Matt Prior behind the stumps.

Steve Smith then tried to prolongue the agony by hogging the strike, keeping Beer up the other end. Not sure what he point of that was, but fair play for giving it a go, not many others did that for the Aussies this series.

Finally Beer was served when Michael played on to his own stumps from a bouncing Tremlett ball. The result was a formality, but the joy and relief of a job superbly well done being completed was evident on all the players faces.

And so that was that. Off to bed I trudge, but then I thought I should wait for the presentations, which were brilliant and joyous as you can imagine, and then the lap of honour of the SCG on England Day (perhaps Day 5 at the SCG could be called England Day in subsequent Ashes series- just a thought!)

This was followed by the interviews. Cook ("Chef", as Athers calls him - gedit?!) was stunned, Strauss was pumped, but still so articulate (the batters "dipped their bread in it" in the first innings here, you can't make quotes like that up!) And Colly was a gent and one felt sad that we'd doubted his abilities in the past, because he's clearly a top bloke and a huge member of this team.

Finally I set myself the goal of seeing the Sprinkler before heading upstairs. It didn't come and at 1:45, with my alarm due to sound to wake me up in 4 hours 15 minutes, I decided, "Come on mate, enough is enough," and that was that. I still found it hard to sleep, to switch off from what a monumental moment this had been.

My kids are 2 and 1, so clearly unaware of this amazing victory, no matter how much I try and show them and tell them otherwise, but the stories from this series will be told to your children and your grandchildren for years to come, that's for sure.

Make no mistake, this victory is huge, the first time Australia have lost at home 3-1 since 1988 when the vintage West Indies side decimated them. To place this England team in that bracket is clearly premature, but it gives you an idea of what they've achieved here. Unlike 2005, I can see this side getting better and better and it's surely not unrealistic to think they could be No.1 test team in the world in the next year or two.

A similar dynasty to the one that has just ended for the Australians would be nice, probably a little ambitious that, but you can but hope.

Well done England. As David Cameron said, when he kindly spoke for the whole country, we are all very proud of you in the Huelin household!