Cleanskin

Cleanskin

(ˈkliːnskɪn) (Australian) n. 1: An unbranded animal. 2: Someone with no prior criminal record, a person with no previous convictions; loosely, someone who has not done anything wrong before, an unblemished character. 3: An unlabelled bottle of wine.  4: An undercover police officer who has not done a particular task before. 5: A cricket bat with no maker's logo

I am a 'cleanskin' in the Northern territory of Australia. An unbranded animal, arriving unscathed after a rather event less long haul as Darwin's 'Xmas cyclone threat' dissolves. I feel a bit like Mr Magoo, whistling along the roads oblivious to the trail of destruction surrounding him. From CNberra, through Melbourne and onto Darwin, flights are cancelled, storm chaos prevails, but I seemingly sail through and around the storms to arrive on the only non-cancelled flight into Darwin, Boxing day morning thus far.

It seems fitting that the first word that comes to mind when writing this blog is an Australian word. Aussie slang in fact. It came to me as I stood at the top of the Free water slides at Lake Leanyer ,NT (yes, free).  I have two tigers, and Blinky Bill in front, all on the Right shoulders. Whether you are teen, genY, gen X or a baby boomer, you have some part of your body that's been scribbled on. My sisters' friend Tracey has a 'full leg', Ned has the odd branding, and I've seen more Neck and knuckle tattoos on the Wharf in Darwin then at an ex punk Party I recently went to. If it wasnt for my red and purple dreadlocks, and bad fake tan I'd be A contrasting black and white. (note to self, fake tan, as it promises, looks fake - Each day, as it wears off, I segue from 'Ginger Meg's ' speckles, to pigmentation disorder).

I arrived in Darwin to Beer, beer, beer and darts. It's wet season, and it's not just the relentless humidity and heat, the dramatic downpours, of swimming that makes me appear 'wet behind the ears'. I am the token non-drinking, non smoking, non fishing visitor. Wet, wet, wet. I am as wet out of the shower as in. It's not the Gecko attacking moths, roches as big as your thumb, the mice, the mozzies, the snakes in the roof, the cane toads that surprises me. It's the fact that you can drink and drive a boat -legally - and as one local told me, 'it's encouraged!' I am now looking nervously at our New Years eve plans, a trip on ' 'tinny' on Darwin Harbour. Forget the yachts in Sydney, the cruises in New York, fireworks from the Eiffel tower, we're doing a 'tinny' in Darwin harbour - filled with crocs and box jellyfish, to a backdrop of fireworks and drunken boat-driving territorians. And I'll be there with my diet coke, untattoed body, without fishing stories or cigarettes to share. It occurs to me, that I could be the maverick here, because I am, in fact, not a maverick. 

I drive my sisters car, and while she has a tattoo, she has the car of a clean skin, no 'I float and I vote', or honeypot stickers here. Not even a personalized number plate.  We play 'spotto' - an eye-spy travel game, where you scored points for spotting 'yellow cars'. I am a clean skin, or novice here too. 
I make the mistake of 'calling 'spotto!' on a gold car (lose 1 point), not calling 'double-spotto'  on a yellow Hyundai Getz (Jacksen calls, and gets two points') or (god forbid), calling spotto on a car in a car dealership. To the cleanskin, it appears that Jacksen is making the rules as we go along, but while at first caught out and confused, i gather momentum. Ned and jack have the home-side advantage, having travelled this route many times' and with local knowledge, and the power to amend the rules, they are many points ahead. Arguments ensue, about gold cars versus metallic yellow, about who spottoed first, and whether a half painted vehicle is a full spotto. 

And as we drive, through the palm tree lined streets, the high-fenced yards, pass the yachts in the harbour, and the aboriginal communities, my sense of belonging increases with my spotto score. I can put a stubby cooler around my diet coke! I can chew a toothpick instead of a cigarette! I can turn to my sister and Jack for fishing story 'conversation starters', and I guess, if all else fails, I can y my hand at driving a boat? Afterall, I am a very useful NT accessory. A clean and sober, driver. And while I won't be getting a tattoo, I might just go as far as joining the crew for Pizza and beer for breakfast (eaten at lunchtime, but minus the beer...)