I lost one of my dearest buddies just a few weeks before Christmas.Johnny was an old soldier, on e of the "Desert Rats". This was a label stuck on the British forces in North Africa by Erwin Rommel---a general, by the way, much respected by those same "desert rats". [They took the name to their hearts.] Johnny came through it all, from Alamein to the Italian River Po. The songs which he brought home with him were many and varied, and I can still get through most of them. "Lilli Marlene" was the most famous of the songs from the African war. Another from the same theatre was "D-day Dodgers" [Hamish Henderson]. I still sing "Bury me out in the Desert", an old Desert Rat song. The bawdy version of the Egyptian National Anthem was a favourite; "Up yer pipe, King Farouk, hang yer b----cks from a hook---". Johnny left me his accordion in his will [as if I needed it---I have five now----but that one is precious.] I was home in Scotland Christmas and New Year, and as I had promised, I took Johnny's accordion to his local club, sat down, and played "Bury Me out in the Desert". There were tears all over the top of that "box", I can tell you, and I was kinna loth to raise my head at the finish---but when I finally did, I found every damn' table in the place topping up their beer with teardrops. Never mind---Johnny wouldn't have wanted more than that wee tribute so what followed was a bit more cheery. Hey---d'ye want a book written? ---I could write one, nae bother!!