March 16th ‘18
Dear Doris,
Have two letters of yours to answer, one dated 29-12-16 was waiting for me when I got back off leave, last week, and the other, dated 31-1-18 came in the following day.
– Glad to hear you had such a good Christmas. – Gordon's youngster must be quite a live one.
– I say, I was awfully interested in your account of the wonderful things that girl could do with her feet. – Absolutely marvellous, what? – I've practiced writing with my left hand and that sort of thing in case my right got messed up, you know, but I'm blowed if I could deal cards with my tootsies.
– Had a letter from Cousin Ross the other day. – He's with the 20th Canadians now. – Didn't know he'd come to France till then. – He had a cushy billet in Blighty and I thought he'd stick with it. – He had to revert to Lieut. to come over, too. – Still suppose he wouldn't have felt happy if he hadn't got a taste of the "tranchées" –
Murray must be having quite a time of it with Allenby's troops in Palestine. – I had rather a decent trip last month. – Think I mentioned to you that I expected to go south on my leave. – A couple of us went together. – We stayed at Nice and had a topping time. – It's a glorious place, for scenery, climate, weather and everything. – The Alps seem clear with the Mediterranean and the combination of maritime and mountain scenery is ripping. – We put up at an hotel where there was quite a few American officers. – One of them, a chap from Los Angeles, was saying that the climate down there was very much the same as you have in Cal. – Am enclosing a snap taken down there. – We only stayed a couple of days in Paris. – Personally I shouldn't have wasted that much time there only my pal, Bull, had never been there before and wanted to look round. – By way of shows we took in the opera (they have a grand building) and the "Folies Bergeres" – We had some jolly fine motor trips from Nice. – Took in Monaco, Monte Carlo, Menton, Cannes and a flock of other places. – Being in uniform we were not allowed in the gaming rooms at the Casino.
Well, my dear, coz, – my love to all the folks and don't forget my address – P.B. Co'y – Can. Engrs. – B.E.F. – France
Cheerio, chin-chin, etc.,
As ever,
Murray