Wednesday 18th February 1942

Advance party left early this morning. Odds on Bluey, now. HQ Troop is sadly diminished. Basil Grant has gone to hospital with sore feet, Ling is posted to B Troop.

Funny, I once liked to receive letters! (Generally speaking I do not now; they depress me.) Here is an extract from an old diary, dated March 26th 1940:-

“The mail came tonight! I had letters from John, Eileen, Rio, Lois and Win... April and Mad Willy wrote yesterday. So all my friends are in my pocket once more...”

Ye gods! What would be my reactions now if such an innundation came! Probably I'd be miserable for days!

Here's another quaint little extract from the same diary. This is dated April 13th 1940:-

“... English news bulletin from Jerusalem. News perhaps of further Naval victories and of the fighting in Norway! Someone switched on a few minutes before the time and it was, “Boo-hoo – you've got me cryin' – for you...” throbbing gaily out, undistorted. An old dance tune which instantly brought memory of April telling me a story of that mocking tune, during the delightful days when we were discovering each other. “Some gay fragment of a mocking tune, that dies betwixt the sea-wall and the sea.” - but leapt across the years and the miles from Essex to Nathanya!”

And it still comes inconsequently, an unimportant moment and an old song, across more years and miles, to Egypt, in 1942!