Dear Mum & Dad,

I am well. Hope youse are too. Tell me big brothers Doug and Phil that the
Army is better than workin' on the farm - tell them to get in bloody quick
smart before the jobs are all gone!
I wuz a bit slow in settling down at first, because ya don't hafta get outta
bed until 6am. But I like sleeping in now, cuz all yagotta do before brekky
is make ya bed and shine ya boots and clean ya uniform. No bloody cows to
milk, no calves to feed, or eggs ta get or feed to stack - nothin'!! But ya
haz gotta shower though, but its not so bad, coz there's lotsa hot water and
even some soap and a light to see what ya doing!

At brekky ya get cereal, fruit and eggs but there's no kangaroo steaks or
possum stew like wot Mum makes. You don't get fed again until noon and by
that time all the city kids are buggered because we've been on a 'route
march' - strewth... its only just like walking to the windmill in the back
paddock!!

This one will kill me brothers Doug and Phil with laughter. I keep getting
medals for shootin' - dunno why. The bullseye is as big as a bloody possum's
bum and it don't move and it's not firing back at ya like the Johnsons did
when our big scrubber bull got into their prize cows before the Ekka last
year! All ya gotta do is make yourself comfortable and hit the target - it's
a piece of piss!! You don't even load your own cartridges they comes in
little boxes and ya don't have to steady yourself against the rollbar of the
roo shooting truck when you reload!

Sometimes ya gotta wrestle with the city boys and I gotta be real careful
coz they break easy - but it's OK coz it's only one at a time like, it's not
like fighting with Doug and Phil and Jack and Boori and Steve and Muzza all
at once like we do at home after the muster.

Turns out I'm not a bad boxer either and it looks like I'm the best the
platoon's got, and I've only been beaten by this one bloke from the
Engineers - he's 6 foot 5 and 18 stone and three pick handles across the
shoulders. As ya know I'm only 5 foot 7 and eight stone wringin' wet, but I
fought him till the other blokes pulled me off and carried me to the boozer.
He didn't come with us though, said somethin about sore mouth...

I can't complain about the Army - tell the boys to get in quick before word
gets around how bloody good it is.

Your loving daughter,

Sheila

__________________