Saturday
London
Dearest,
Many thanks indeed for one of your very nicest letters which was the first thing to greet me when I got home this morning. Most of the things you say are in answer to questions and observations of mine but I’ll just look through it again to make sure there is nothing I overlook. Your “before next Christmas attitude” is the only sound mental outlook to have and it is very, very seldom indeed that I give rein to my imagination as I did in a recent letter.
About the joining of flex, the only safe way to do it is to get one end of your new flex and on that put an ordinary lamp holder. On the other end put an ordinary plug like there is on the lamp at present. Then link them up by plugging the new flex into the bedroom light and the present plug on the lamp into the new holder. Don’t try just twisting two lots of flex together and binding the join with insulation tape. This method will work quite well, but it is also one of the best known methods of setting a home on fire! So be careful! If you look around you might find a length of flex with a plug on it. If there’s none anywhere else there should be one on the fairy lights which, if I remember rightly, is joined with a piece of insulation tape! But seriously, it never should be done that way so don’t you do it will you, love?
OK, love, I’ll try to get a blanket for you, but I’ve got the feeling that out of a list of 22 items I’ll finish up by getting six hankies and some bootlaces! Did I tell you that I heard of a bloke whose wife is getting a blanket dyed and made into a coat for herself!
Today I got a small box which I’m hoping will make the platform for the station. It will only be about 12 inches long on the flat part and then of course there will be a slope at each end which will make it seem longer. I’ll put a signal on one end of it and see if I can rig up some way of lighting it from a battery underneath the platform, but on this latter part I won’t gamble. Anyway, I’ll try to make a decent job of it and hope to make a start on Monday, although I’ve not yet been able to get hold of a fretsaw.
I was very amused by Michael’s imagination so far as his letter was concerned and I’m also glad that Wendy was able to read her letter. If I am forming any of the characters wrongly, will you let me know? I don’t want to be responsible for her getting things wrong. She seems to be getting very hot on the map, doesn’t she? I like their version of Alaska, but however did they come to fall for Spitzbergen? So they are both alright again? I’m very glad. Your mention of scarlet fever reminds me that one of our lads had 10 days off because his little girl caught it! Nice work, eh? It seems there’s a slight epidemic of a mild form of scarlet in London, but they are not insisting on children going to hospital so it can’t be serious. Mrs Reid’s reaction is typically selfish and short-sighted. What annoys me with people like that is that they’d be the first to squeal about other people.
By the way, has the move into Michael’s room had any effect on their sleep? Do they stay awake longer at night? And talking of bedrooms, what do you mean by allowing a stranger into my room! It’s no good you putting up the alibi that he was in a separate bed! Incidentally, I notice that heaping insult on insult, you say I was SLEEPING with you. Just as if I could! If I was working when you woke at 5.30 and thought so nicely of me – bless you – I’m sorry to say I was working! We’ve been up to the eyes in it lately and my present very monotonous job leaves me fair wore out and often these days I’m getting severe headaches. If they go on much longer I’ll go to have my eyes tested. Funnily enough, they are alright when I’m outside. But let’s get back to this business of being in bed with you! Two months to go, eh! I’ll have a basinful saved up for you by then! Talk about spilling the beans – wow! You’ll be weeping sperms for days after the first injection, sweetheart. But let us not dwell on that just yet or we will be deep in a coma. And talking of comas and burnt legs, I’m warning you now that if I come home and find you’ve got sluttish mottled legs I’ll whip the trousers off you and smack your bottom. That’s a promise – on which note we’ll leave this rather dangerous topic.
I’m hoping to get the doll’s head away sometime this weekend, so you should have it by Monday or Tuesday. I’ve also got one or two odds and ends for the children’s stockings. They are only small so I think I’ll keep them here. I want to get a few more things and see if I can make a full Xmas stocking for each of them out of blast netting. I’ll keep you informed as to how it goes.
I don’t think there’s anything else to tell you except that Jack and I went to watch Brentford play Tottenham this afternoon and I really enjoyed every minute of it. It was about the best game I’ve seen since the war began.
Well, angel, I’m afraid there’s nothing more to say. I could cover pages just making love to you but with so many weeks stretching away in front of us I dare not. But, darling, I do love you and often do I ache to hold you tight, or perhaps to tease you as I have so often done. Thank goodness I haven’t missed many chances, have I? In fact I rather think I have made more than one opportunity! It won’t seem so long now, will it? Once we get the next couple of weeks over we will feel that Xmas is right upon us, and that will help to make time go more quickly.
Now, sweet, I must get that head packed up. Be a good lass, won’t you? Give my love to the children and tell them I hope they are really well again. All my love to you, sweetheart.
Ever your own,
Arthur X
P.S. I’m so sorry, love, to find that I haven’t yet said “thank you” for my badge, which is very nicely done indeed. Thank you, angel.
Nov 061943