Wednesday 12th August 1936
Devil of a day at the works. Harris pretty awful, lately. As Mr Nimo (cellulose manager) said at lunchtime, he is “an extraordinary fellow. Seems to have a grudge against humanity”.
However, the evening made amends for the rest of the day. I left the (bloody) stores at 5.15. Just caught a bus, which gave me the luxury of a cup of tea before catching my train. Got to “President” just in time to get my chit signed by the VS officer and put in the request box before it was cleared. Then I had an idle time in the canteen until 8.30. Had a cup of tea; used the heads; gave advice to new hands and received same from old hands, smoked.
“Request men” on the quarterdeck. The transfer went through and I doubled off in the wake of Foulkes (ex-Broke) who had just been rated AB. More talk. Got away about 9.10 and just missed the 9.30 down to Paddington. This was a stroke of luck as it happened. I had a banana and a cup of tea on the platform, whilst waiting and got into conversation with the attractive girl who served me. We began by discussing bananas and ended by fixing a “date”. Incredible! I suggested it whilst receiving the change from the purchase of a packet of Players and she wrote her address on a paper bag. (Romance of railway snack-bar; poem of Paddington.) She is 19 – I’d thought her somewhat older than myself. Came down by the 10 o’clock.
In spare moments of my train journeys this week, have been practising morse; can now transcribe, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”, without reference to the signalling book.
However, the evening made amends for the rest of the day. I left the (bloody) stores at 5.15. Just caught a bus, which gave me the luxury of a cup of tea before catching my train. Got to “President” just in time to get my chit signed by the VS officer and put in the request box before it was cleared. Then I had an idle time in the canteen until 8.30. Had a cup of tea; used the heads; gave advice to new hands and received same from old hands, smoked.
“Request men” on the quarterdeck. The transfer went through and I doubled off in the wake of Foulkes (ex-Broke) who had just been rated AB. More talk. Got away about 9.10 and just missed the 9.30 down to Paddington. This was a stroke of luck as it happened. I had a banana and a cup of tea on the platform, whilst waiting and got into conversation with the attractive girl who served me. We began by discussing bananas and ended by fixing a “date”. Incredible! I suggested it whilst receiving the change from the purchase of a packet of Players and she wrote her address on a paper bag. (Romance of railway snack-bar; poem of Paddington.) She is 19 – I’d thought her somewhat older than myself. Came down by the 10 o’clock.
In spare moments of my train journeys this week, have been practising morse; can now transcribe, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”, without reference to the signalling book.
posted by Paul Wilson at 6:38 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home