He looked as relieved as a schoolkid who's been excluded from the cool bunch for months...and out of the blue, someone offers to share sandwiches at lunch, or maybe a smoke behind the shelter shed.
"C'mon down," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull motioned to ex-prime minister Tony Abbott. Abbott's grin could very nearly have split the air. He rolled into an "aw shucks" shuffle as he made his way down from the loneliness of the backbench.
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Momentous political occasion
See what happens when former PM Tony Abbott asks a question in the House of Representatives for the first time since losing the top job.
The prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, was visiting the Parliament. Lee and Abbott shook hands and Abbott patted Lee on the shoulder, Turnbull overseeing it all, before the little official party moved on.Â
Abbott was left standing there, possibly swept by one of those desolate "what if" moments that afflicts those consigned to the outer. Â
The occasion, however, morphed into a coming-in from the cold for Abbott, who was the last Australian PM to make a state visit to Singapore.
Within hours he would be so emboldened he stood during question time and asked his very first question - a gentle Dorothy Dixer about trade - since Turnbull and his party room gave him the heave-ho as prime minister more than a year ago.
The Labor opposition burst into sardonic applause, and Abbott grinned and chuckled along.
"Nice to be popular, Mr Speaker," Abbott said. "My question is to the Minister for Trade. Will the Minister update the House on how the expanded Singapore-Australian Free Trade Agreement will support the government's plan for jobs and growth?"
By then, Singapore's PM had granted star treatment to Australia's former PM.
During his official speech to the Parliament, Lee related that last year in Singapore, he and Abbott had attended "an Aussie-style barbecue at a public park" in Singapore.
"Afterwards, we went to dinner nearby. I made sure to choose some good Australian wine," Lee continued.
"But, alas, I neglected to check the steak.
"After dinner, Prime Minister Abbott asked the chef where the beef was from. The chef, with Singaporean directness and candour replied 'From the US, sir'.
"I will have to do better when Prime Minister Turnbull visits us next year."
It was hardly the stuff of deathless anecdotes, but for a man starved of official recognition, it was steak, vegetables, dessert and a cigar with cognac.
Abbott's readmission to the cool bunch - or at least its environs - seemed complete. He beamed. And beamed.