WE BOARDED the flight from Melbourne on Wednesday morning, and we flew up to Darwin via Alice Springs, which took a while.

After we arrived at the hotel, I went off with Dylan Addison, Brennan Stack and Jarrod Harbrow to visit the Palmerston shopping centre, which is about half an hour out of Darwin.

There was a lady there who asked me to hold her baby for a photo – I've been asked to hold a few babies before, and I feel a bit uncomfortable doing it because I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's nice.

I don't mind going out to these sorts of places to do these things. It's also good to get away from Melbourne for a couple of days with the team as well, so that's always fun.

The weather isn't too bad up here. I don't mind the rain too much. Last time I came up here, it was really, really humid and really hot, so I probably prefer this monsoonal stuff because it's not too hot.

We've heard a monsoon is scheduled for the rest of the week, including the game, but it's not something we're concerned about.

Both sides have to go through it, so it's even for both of us. We've been training since October, so we just want to get out there and start playing some footy, whatever the weather.

All up, I've been to Darwin twice now. It's always a bit of a shock to the system at first, with the heat, but we're up here pretty early so we've got a good chance to adapt to it.

This will be my first time playing up here with the Bulldogs, as the other time I came up was with the Eagles for a NAB Cup game. It was really hot then too, so it's not a total surprise.

I'm looking forward to the pretty full itinerary for the next few days before the game. We've got some sort of community involvement on every day, some type of autograph or mingling session.

I enjoy seeing the people, with what they get out of seeing us. They really light up and have a lot of fun with us, and I really enjoy seeing that.

We also had a bit of a run around on TIO Stadium, just to become familiar with the surroundings.