It's Wednesday morning, 8.45am and normally I'd be getting ready to welcome my first guitar student to the Music Suite at the school, but MATE !! forget that,at this very moment I'm firmly planted on board a Boeing 737 tearing down the runway at some ridiculous speed and oh bugga, heading straight for Glenelg beach. Right about now somebody should pull the 'UP ' lever because we don't want to see what those blokes on the jetty are catching, do we?? Now wer'e up,(not that I ever doubted that this bird could fly ??, I mean this is Qantas I'm flying with, the safest airline in the world ) and below us is the crystal blue sea and miles of beach,the 737 is banking right( good girl) !!) and Darwin here we come.

Three days ago I got an email from my son Gene( who I've mentioned before.) in the US Navy asking me to meet him when his ship the USS Belleau Wood docks in Darwin for three days. Darwin is on the north coast of Oz in the Northern Territory, we call the N.T. the Top End. At this time of the year (October)the season changes from the dry season (April to October) to the wet season ( November to March). The period between the two is called the Build Up or the Silly Season. The weather at this time of the year has a strange effect on a lot of people and they call this 'Going Troppo '.

Darwin was established in 1869, survived Japanese bombing during WW2 and the ravages of Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve in 1974. ( Tracy did addmit later that she had eaten 4 family sized cans of baked beans and didn't mean to point her backside at Darwin )

Anyhow back to the plane trip. My seat number was 5E, sitting in 5D and 5F were real big blokes, I don't mean muscle big if you get my drift !! I was beginning to feel like the meat on the sanger and thinking how much more "compressed" I'd be in 3 hours and that I'd have to buy smaller clothes when a lady said, "excuse me, you are sitting in my seat " She was right I was in 6E by mistake, I moved to the correct seat and "you little ripper " it was business class size. I felt a bit guilty when I looked around at her, she was already slim, stone the crows, she's gonna look like Twiggy by the time we get there.

After landing safely in Darwin and checking into my hotel, I headed for Darwin Harbour and the three big ships docked there. The USS Belleau Wood,USS Denver and USS Mount Vernon. The largest of the three the Belleau Wood (my sons ship, well it's not his YET he's still paying it off ) has a full load weight of 40,000 tonnes, is 250 m long and carries around 30 aircraft including the British made AV8-B Harrier Jump Jets, CH-46 Sea Knight Helicopters and CH-53 Sea Stallion Helicopters.

I got to the heavily guarded boundary gate and started asking questions to establish if Gene was on board or was out on the town with some of the other 3,000 sailors. Security was, as to be expected, tighter than a fishs'bum. Once my I.D. was established I started to get help from the N.T. Police, Marines on guard at the gate and got to talk to crew on the quarter deck of the ship by phone. There were about ten of us sitting in a sort of open tent thing and for the first ten minutes or so every time I said something all these heads would turn around and look at me. I was waiting for someone to ask me if I knew Crocodile Dundee but no one did. A huge fan was blowing,trying to circulate the air, the quiz was about 38 and the humidity about 60 %. Gene came down two hours later to take me on board and the wait had been worth it. It was just amazing to look around this massive ship, see where he worked, where his quarters were and meet some of his mates and superior officers

We spent a few hours on the ship, went into Darwin for some Tea (dinner to you guys?) and after all that activity decided we were pretty buggered and called it a night. The next day was a bit of a scorcher so we spent the day in Darwin going from shop to shop and from Pub to Pub in between. We all know the importance of having lots of fluid in this climate, so what if it's amber fluid ??, it still does the job. Anyhow if you drink enough of it you don't feel the heat, you don't feel ANYTHING !!!

It was really funny walking around Darwin for those few days. You couldn't look in any direction or go anywhere without seeing all these American sailors. They had taken over the town and good luck to them, they were having a great time and they deserved it. Guys were walking around all over the place with all the stuff they'd bought, fishing rods, stereos,clothes, shoes and souvenirs, including didgeridoos. Darwin wasn't complaining either, the US Navy left behind an estimated $20 million in the three days.

To end off the day we went back to the ship. The Marines at the gate didn't want to let me on so Gene went on by himself and came back with an Officer. After she had a talk to the Marines about me being family I was allowed to go on again.

I left the ship at 1900 hours( are you impressed ??) and headed to my hotel for a cup of tea and a lie down. My feet were killing me so I had a long overdue shower (I reckon I was startin' to smell like a Gorrillas armpit ) watched a bit of telly, had a nice cold Victoria Bitter , drained the dragon and choofed off down to the Airport to catch my flight at 4.20 am .( no it's not a typo 4.20 am is right ).

Gene is coming to Oz in January on R and R ( even more impressed ?? ) and will be coming to Adelaide to spend some time with all of us.

Have a Bonza Xmas and a Ripper of a New Year

Keep Smiling, best wishes, John