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[Page 4]
The weather, itself, beautiful.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 20 to 23/12/15/ The sea is still calm but the sky is dull and the usual routine has been the order of the day.
Thursday 23/12/15/. To-day we had a kit and hammock inspection to see that no one had more than two blankets and regular hours made for drawing them and tags given out for our regimental and mess numbers. Each man could make sure of his own, for previously you could not keep one hammock for any more than a couple of nights. It is also very hard to keep any personal property for if left for about ten minutes in disappears.
Friday 24/12/15. To-day's Christmas eve. This morning the men who had had their hair clipped short banded together and grabbed everybody with long hair and cut big pieces out so that they would have to have it all off. This interesting performance was continued all the morning until they had such a crowd of branded ones that it took the rest of the day cutting their hair. I was done with the rest. In the evening the infantry held a concert in the forward well deck. I viewed it from a position on the saloon deck, standing on the railing and clinging to the roof with one hand. From this position I had a splendid view and indeed it was a curious spectacle. Right at the bottom of the deck was the stage like a small arena and this was surrounded by a solid mass of khaki sprinkled with dungarees fully 30 feet high formed by the soldiers sitting on the deck clinging to every available rope or spar and lining the saloon and forward decks. The whole making it look like the amphitheatre of olden times. Straight up from the centre of this mass (the only living spot within sight) rose the Australian Flag and curiously enough, just above it the evening star shone with that remarkable brilliance only seen at sea owing to the absence of dust. Some of the artists were very good especially the comic band, one man being dressed up as an old woman with the words "I'm not married" on her hat, two others as Charlie Chaplin, one as a nigger and the other as the Conductor. About 11 p.m. the Chaplain started carol singing at different parts of the ship till early next morning. I joined them when near my sleeping place in the saloon deck (although I generally slept on the