Brilliantine intrigued me. His battered soft hat was never off his head. He slept on it. His creased jacket draped around him, and a well used pipe balanced in his mouth. "Why do they call you Brilliantine?" I asked. For the first time he raised his hat to reveal his bald head. "Digger says I used so much Brylcreem to slick back my hair that it fell out, he quipped,"axle grease" he called it. "Brilliantine is another name for Brylcreem" He squashed his battered chapeau back on to his white cranium.
"You can call me BAL-AN-TINE, that's my real name"
We all sat on the grassy Endrick river bank as a warm zenith breeze brushed past us. I watched Ballantine as he patched his fishing wader with what looked like a kit to repair bike punctures. His wet sock suspended on a post in the sun drying. I noticed a scar on his foot.
"Did you cut your foot" I asked. "No, snake bite! I got it in the jungle"
"Gulp! you were in the jungle?" "Yep, I was lying covered in my camouflaged coat as the Japanese soldiers went past me,the snake crawled over me and sunk its fangs into my foot. I grabbed it ,tied it in a knot and lobbed it at the Japs"
He stuck a crow feather in my hair," now your camo is in place go and hide in the grass, we wont see you"
I could hear the guffaws from Digger and Daddy beside us.
Daddy, said not to listen to him,he was in the Navy!!
Oh, the innocence of the child. Nevertheless, it did not stop me crawling on a reconnaissance mission with feather and twigs in my hair. Rabbits be afraid, be very afraid.
Digger was a very interesting character. I will tell you about him in my next Blog.
Make someone laugh to day. It's good medicine.
Lets all try and throw off our camouflage and be true witnesses for Jesus in this changing Christmas.
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