Letters by steamers leaving Auck. may arrive quicker if addressed
c/o N.Z. Base P.O.
Mt. Pleasant
London
instead of G.P.O. W’llgtn.
Hornchurch
Essex
9-9-1918
Dear Mother
Another N.Z mail today. We are now getting about three mails a month.
One from you 11-7-18. Wish Gertie luck in the school exam. She had better learn to make a living with her brains. Hard work hardly seems a characteristic of the family. It seems funny for you still to be worrying about Trot being in France when he has been over here over 4 months. There is nothing in the way of clothes that I want. There is a splendid gift store here and since I am still officially a patient (I wear blue on my shoulder) I can get buckshee all the soap, tooth brushes, knitted socks, pyjamas, pillow-slips etc. that I require. The tucker is very good, the hours are short, (I didn’t do anything all last week through lack of accommodation for the class, but I have started in earnest (?) today (Mon) and done one hour), we shall be having a week’s leave every three months, and there seems very little to complain of bar the neighborhood nearness of the N. Pole. It is only three weeks since I was complaining of the heat and already we have had two nasty cold snaps. It is going to be a worse winter than last, everyone says. I am ever so much more susceptible to cold now. One thing though, I can lie in bed (being a Serg) till 8.10 a.m. There is a big difference between that and 5.30 which is the winter hour for reveille in France.
Latest letter 19-7-18. I am looking forward to the tin of xxx & the “brown Betty”, whatever that may be. The parcels are delivered later than the mail. Last mail’s parcels have not come to hand yet.
One from Gorrie (previous mail) 7-7-18. I am now in communication with Leslie. I hope to see him on his draft leave in London. So Irene is getting married. Makes me feel old – she’s younger than I am. There is no danger of my being so foolish as to give hostage to Fortune, though. And Gertie is taller than Mat. What a long time I have been away! Roy will be getting engaged next. It is only about 1 yr 4 mounths since my final leave. I expect it will be many times that before I hand in my kit – bag and “our ole Bill” honourably discharges me.
Its the war, as the Froggies say.
Yours
Neil