My memories are also of a great little italian LAME who loved her with a passion. First flight of the day out of MEL, you would get Guido on the end of the rope, speaking his own lingo, which consisted of English (sort of) Italian, and some sort of pidgeon. No pushback could commence without him inquiring about your (1) wife (2) bambinos, (3) telling you about his "Rosa" and numerous bambino's which seemed to increase yearly. Then you would get in some sort of jabba, a rundown of the state of the aircraft. "She hadda a bad day yesty Capitan, some silly bastardo bounced her, you treat her ok today she only a liddle girlie Ok Capitan?" Ok Capitan nbr ouno sounda ok, yabba dabba doo you canna starta nbr two" we loved the bloke. Few "Capitans" could resist if they had a new shiny F/O sitting beside them, letting the poor bugger have a chat with Guido. The bloke was already trying to look like he knew what he was doing, but to be confronted with this lingo, you could see the look of bewilderment, and then the sweat starting on the brow, as he realised he had not even left the arm, and he had not the faintest idea of what was going on and after about six "say agains" you put him out of his misery (after just about pis$ing yourself with laughter) and finally Guido always waved a set of Rosary Beads at you (thank God the Pax couldn't see him) and never sent you off without a God Bless you Capitan. I can never think about a 9 without thinking about him.