So here I am, fresh faced MA, escaped from Haslar via Sultan. Dan Dare Airlines delivers me and Michelle Rust to our home for the next year. Having just left Sultan filled full of stories thanks to Sam Parker and various 'old' sickbaymen
 
Its was hot that summer in the UK but even hotter as we disembarked, first thing I notice they have to stop the traffic so the planes can land and if you don't stop you are in the sea, picked up and off to RNH Gib, drop off it, the mess is above the bar and you have to go through the bar, the peniquie club to get to the mess danagerous Meet Jock Balloach, Les Davies, Dusty Miller and not forgetting Graham Buddle plus a few others.
 
Taken to see Mac Sargent the regulating POMA, words of  wisdom, be back for 9PM, don't get drunk or into trouble, ok PO. Get myself sorted 7PM in the bar, beer 11p, vodka 5p a tot coke 12p a can ( I drank vodka and coke way back then), brandy depending on how you like yr paint stripper 5p, 7p and 11p. Meet the most important person there Jack the barman, its down hill from there.
 
The next thing I know its 10.30pm and we are off down town (Clubbing for the yoof of today), great I can't feel my legs and I am having an out of body experience,
into the beer keiler and the challenge of a large stein just to get a plastic badge, failed miserably I think, then its a night club under English steps to dance the night away, Royal Naval School of Dancing qualified includes the Nato 2 step and mateloe shuffle
 
Next thing I remember I was in bed, make it to the regulating office by 0900, athough not well, informed I would be working days there until I went to the male ward in a few weeks. 
 
So a few weeks later a package arrives its a series of pictures of me dancing with some morracan chap with a rather splendid moustache and the best of buddies. So started my year in Gib and a of spendid adventures with Happy Day, John Gregg, Titch Coltan, Graham Buddle, Topsy Turner, Harry Gray, Dusty Miller, Les Davies, Tug Wilson, Naval Nurses Michelle Rust, Val Haslet, Sue ?, Trish O'neill and Denny Prior who some 32 years later I still carry a rather large torch for.
 
A great year it was never quite the same when I went back on various ships and the border opened