Paradise is Darwin in July. As you all know I was off last week for a few days visiting my daughter, with my partner Susie, and what a great break it was. After arriving on the red eye special into Darwin at 5.15am Thursday morning I needed a couple of hours of the "el nappo" and came good for a while upon awakening. After I snuck back in again early in the afternoon for another two hour power nap I was the Roman of old and not just some washed out old guy and I was ready for a visit t

Paradise is Darwin in July. As you all know I was off last week for a few days visiting my daughter, with my partner Susie, and what a great break it was. After arriving on the red eye special into Darwin at 5.15am Thursday morning I needed a couple of hours of the "el nappo" and came good for a while upon awakening. After I snuck back in again early in the afternoon for another two hour power nap I was the Roman of old and not just some washed out old guy and I was ready for a visit to the famous Mindil Beach at sundown. What an amazing array of foods, stalls, music and all sorts of fun. No wonder it is so well known - it was fantastic.

On the Friday we tinkered around for a while and eventually headed towards our ultimate destination: the town of Batchelor. On the way we dropped into the Berri Springs for a little splash and swim.What looked like a porpoise thrashing in the water to the other swimmers was actually my good self trying not to drown because even though water and myself are well known in the shower and the occasional bath that is about it. This is quite strange because I actually quite love the look of a river and the beach and as a younger guy was always at one or the other. I am just too lazy to swim, I guess, these days probably because taking a form guide into water makes it unreadable. Just the same it was a sensational feeling sitting in the warm spring water and just plain relaxing. A little further into the day we went to a serious swimming, waterfall type pool in Litchfield National Park which was also a delightful experience. On the really nice walk back to the car I mused, " Gee, I could hack this sort of life regularly" and thoughts of retirement and the easy life entered the brain as it would in such an idyllic setting.

Around 5 ish, just after seeing some amazing gigantic anthill mounds, I felt a low rumbling sound which turned out to be my stomach sending out distress signals. It was time for a feed and after dropping our gear off we sped off to the local tavern at Batchelor where I opted for a good old fashioned parma. May I say how delightful it tasted quaffed down with a couple of soul cleansing stubbies. During the meal I encountered some good luck because a branch from the tree I was sitting under snapped and landed on the back of my chair without the slightest disturbance to my body. People nearby were amazed. The second bit of luck occurred some minutes later when a fellow drinker dropped his stubby onto the tiled floor right beside my bare legs at the bar. The stubby shattered glass all around my legs but not a single drop of blood was drawn. With quite some confidence I declared my luck was in and I would win at the races the next day.

Well, what we thought would be a quiet night at the local changed dramatically when Susie and I heard the man running the Karoke machine needed some interested singers to do some numbers. Due to our shyness we waited while a couple of less shy people strutted their stuff and we quietly entered our favourite, "All I Have To Do Is Dream", by The Everly Brothers. After thunderous applause we thought this is a bit of all right and yours truly did a couple on his own, was joined by Susie for "Wake Up Little Susie" and for the coup de grace of the night I sang "Proud Mary" with my daughter - our first ever duet and hopefully not our last.

By this time I was starting to get the taste of the ambrosia liquidus but keeping my senses about me I decided one more number would be the go and did "Blue Moon" by The Marcels. That went over quite well so I uttered the famous "Okay, one last one!" line : it was "500 Miles" by The Proclaimers. Strike me pink! All of a sudden I was joined by the boys from the bar, especially Des, and away we went to finish the night on an absolute high. The applause from the onlookers was deafening. What a pearler of a night. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with the singing, chatting to some very nice people plus Susie and I did some old fashion rock and roll dancing to boot but I was fearful of a hangover. It was time to go otherwise my visit to Fannie Bay races the next day would be a tough gig : I am no longer twenty one years of age.

Speaking of my age it is time I am off to bed. I will post this a.m. Wednesday and will finish off asap.