Things kicked off at Penrith Panthers Club on Friday night, with lots of renewing old acquaintances and meeting people whose names were familiar, but whose paths had never crossed. Festivities carried on until the wee small hours, and because some had not had enough, started again at breakfast time - good luck to them. Jack Beggs turned up early in the night to wish us well, but left before all could get to say hello.
Saturday started off dull and grey (who said Sydney gets all the good weather), and by the time the river cruise was due to set sail, things hadn't improved much - there we were standing around like stale bottles waiting for the stragglers who never did turn up - by the bar at Panthers seemed just that much better. 44 of us made the cruise and what a pleasant 2 hours it was, visiting parts of the Nepean Gorge I hadn't been to, and I come from the area. Lunch was various meats and salads followed by strawberry cheese cake - all very nice, all washed down with your favourite beverage.
Things kicked off at about 3 o'clock at Glenbrook, with more refreshments, served very ably by Shane Browning (Ciscon) and his assistant. More stories (or was it lies) were told, and even more beverages were consumed interspersed by quick glimpses of the cricket. Tours of the new facilities at Glenbrook were organised, just to show us old timers how much this modern day Air Force had changed.
Time for more beverages, and to welcome those who had decided to attend at the last minute - John Goddard, Mick Osborne and Grahame Miles turned up unannounced, and were generally rubished by all who saw them walk through the door.
7 o'clock and it was sit down time to a very well presented meal, plus of couse more beverages of choice. As the meal was consumed, appropriate words of wisdom were given, and finally a toast to our departed comrades was offered by Bob Scrivener. After the meal, a group photo was taken by Fritz van Amstel, with the usual confusion associated with these things.
After a quick presentation of an 8mm movie of days gone by at Fairbairn (including a very young Blue Rhodes) by Alan Mewha, it was time for more beverages and more remeniscing ( or is that bull sh_t). Gary Butler did a swan dive off the back steps of the mess and 'retired hurt' (the hour was fairly late) ,and then when Mike Golden went to look for him, Mike fell off the edge of the pathway (well it was dark you know) and damaged a few ribs.
Next morning the messing staff prepared a great breakfast, just the thing for a hangover, and while we were filling our stomachs, Gary Meyers appeared, still fully booted and spurred, wondering where Block B was - he couldn't find it the night before, and had collapsed somewhere that looked like a bed, and he still doesn't know where he slept.
As if we hadn't had enough the night before, the BBQ at Londonderry Txers started at 10am, with copious quantities of snags and of course more beverages. By about 2o'clock everyone had decided enough was enough and slowly wandered off into the distance - the parting words were "See you at the next one in Wagga".
Special thanks must go to Neal Miller and Greg Smith for their efforts in organising what was a very enjoyable couple of days - I know I had a wonderful time seeing people I hadn't seen for up to thirty years.