O.K., O.K., very remiss of me not to put this report together earlier, but I’ve been putting out a few bushfires at work… 
As SeeJay has reported, it was a great weekend, which for me, started on Friday night when I caught up with SeeJay and Shep at The Brooklyn and The Merchantile… (Scroll back 7 posts if you want to revisit that one…!!!) 
The only down side of the Smokey was the weather that SeeJay brought with him from Cairns, hot, humid, and at times torrential…  Still those hardy souls who made it weren’t going to let a bit of moisture dampen their enthusiasm…! 
We’ve actually re-named the day as The Inaugural RAN Skilled Hands Chippies Get-Together, because when we finally got around to sorting out the ‘players from the stayers’, ALL of the participants, as it turned out were from that ancient, respected and time honoured profession… Chippies…!!! 
Why are we consistently the social backbone of such events, you may well ask…? I would have thought it was obvious…
...we’re charming, gracious, reliable, entertaining, sociable, full of good humour and DAMN good looking…!!! 
L-R: Hippy Chippy, Roger F, Bobcat, SeeJay, Shep and Quickie...
Of course we now realise that all the Tiffies, Gazundas, Greenies, and other less prominent trade callings,
were all tied up with their prior commitments with the Gay Mardi Gras...! 
SeeJay, of course was our ‘guest of honour’ who’d flown down specifically from Cairns for the event, Shep who’d come up from Nowra, Roger Fidler, who motored up from Goulburn, accompanied by ‘Bobcat’ (made an ‘honourary Chippy’ some time ago,) who’d driven from Canberra to connect up with Roger for the drive up to Sydney, Quickie from Balgowlah Heights (later joined by his wife Maxine, and two visiting Japanese students,) and of course myself, the Hippy Chippy, from Neutral Bay in Sydney… CHIPPIES ALL…!!!
(Well…? Maxine’s married to a Chippy, and the Japanese students got stuck into a huge bowl of Chippies… not too long a bow to draw, is it…?)
With such a demonstration of commitment, to travel from parts of Australia as far as Cairns, EVEN TO FLY FROM JAPAN…! What can I say… it stood to reason we’d have a great time…!
Those on my side of the table got the bulk of the ‘eye-candy’, culminating with two beautiful blondes from Holland (with boyfriends, luckily,) elevated atop barstools directly behind SeeJay… (who can now add a neck strain to the other ailments he’s still recovering from…!)
Bobcat stole the day, not only for her ‘surprise arrival’ with Roger, but by engaging the blondes and conversing in fluent Dutch…!!!
I obliged the Dutch group, by taking their photo for them, and they returned the favour by taking the group shot you see in the Main Photo Gallery under 2nd RAN Skilled Hands Sydney Smokey which you can access by clicking on this link:
http://www.ran-skilledhands.org/photoga ... p?album=23 
In summary, a GREAT venue, a GREAT meal, GREAT service, GREAT conversation and GREAT FRIENDS…! 
Sunday was another Chippy event, when Chippy Ned joined SeeJay, Shep and myself, from Nowra, (via the wedding in Katoomba,) at ‘The Rockers’ (The Wooloomooloo Bay Hotel for you young blokes,) for yet another few hours of fun and frivolity, until we drove SeeJay to the airport to connect up with his flight back to ‘God’s own country’…
With such an effort, made by so few, from so far away, were encouraged to persevere with our ‘schedule of smokeys’, in the belief that EVENTUALLY the local Members closer to Sydney will come to realize what a buzz it is to catch up with compatriots who, as SeeJay so aptly put it, ‘speak the same language, and despite differences in age or distance, have so much in common’…
Also, as my new job role demands, I’ll be provided with the opportunity to travel to other states for work from time to time, so I hope that we can organize to host a few more RAN Skilled Hands Smokeys in a few other states, albeit on short notice…!!!
Already, Ned and I are thinking that the next one should be in Canberra in a few months time…!
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