"Many old bushies drank tea with no milk and no sugar. Arthur was one of them but he did find some sugar when I asked. Not many of the western stations had house cows for milk, but many did use powdered or condensed milk, so I asked Arthur if he had any. He replied, 'What are you making? Pudden?'"

"There are alcoholics and alcoholics, but Sparrow's explanation to me that the best thing he ever drank was methylated spirits with carbide in it

- but you had to drink quickly before the bubbles stopped rising - put him in a class of his own."

The author's wide experience working in four Australian states, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Central America has seen him encounter a variety of unusual events and accumulate a trove of funny stories, most of which are true. Or so he says.