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Monday Evening May 24^th

Dear Mother and Family,

Since I last wrote, folks, some of us have moved to a satellite of the other station, and Clarrie and I with a few others are now in a very beautiful part of Derbyshire not far from the big town of these parts.  We’ve now finished circuits and bumps on the bigger kites, after which we had a 48 hour leave in London.  Didn’t do much at all except what little shopping we could squeeze in and a certain amount of sightseeing.   London proper was a little crowded so we were directed to a Junior Officer’s Hostel facing the Chelsea Embankment.

Our evening we spent

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at the Apollo Theatre seeing a show called “Flare Path” by Terence Rattigan, the chap who wrote “French without Tears” and its one of the best plays I’ve seen for a long time.  It deals with life on an “ops” station and is absolutely true to life with all the latest expressions; in other words it hands out the “pukka gen.”

After that we had supper in a restaurant in Piccadilly and were out at our diggings by 10 o’clock.  As we still had another hour of light Clarrie and I went for a walk along Chelsea Embankment, over Albert Bridge and down alongside Battersea Park.  Then bed and a long lie in next morning (Sunday) followed by a good satisfying serve-yourself

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breakfast of sausages and fish patties.  By the time we got organised and into Australia House it was about 11 o’clock.  So we decided to go down to Marble Arch at the entrance to Hyde Park and hear the orators orate.  The only two subjects you hear are impassioned much-heckled addresses on either Politics or Religion.

The crowd, as a crowd, usually remains good-tempered except for a sprinkling of extremely roused interjectors.  Then you get little side-groups in a circle on a fringe of the main crowd arguing amongst themselves.  All good fun but after an hour of that and watching an anaemic underarm baseball game, we’d had it and went back to Australia House for lunch.

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That afternoon we took photos of Cleopatra’s Needle and crossing the river, dug into the thick huddle of dwellings on the other side to unearth famous Lambeth Walk, a dingy twisted little lane, and despite what it says in the song, nobody was capering about in the somewhat warm, muggy afternoon.

But we had to catch the train at 5:30 so we went back to our base i.e. Aus. House for a bite to eat before our 3 ½ hour ride.  There we were asked by a couple of charming waitress lasses to go to a radio-concert that evening.  We were disappointed to say that we were off to Derbyshire in half an hour, i.e. here one minute gone the next.  So we took our leave

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and were in Derby by 9 o’clock, having a few quiet noggins (i.e. giving it a “gentle nudge”) before the bus went. 

About a week ago Clarrie and I got on our bikes, and in the beautiful evening rode 5 or 6 miles through some of the loveliest country I’ve seen yet to a fair sized village where we had our noggin or two with the villagers before coming back to bed; we slept well that night what with flying in the day, a 12 mile ride and a modicum of beer.

We’ll be at this place some time and I’m going to like it a lot.  Seems like a jewel amongst the smoke and grime of the surrounding Midland manufacturing centres.

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And as it is 20 to 11 now mum, I guess I’ll get some sleep as there will probably be more flying tomorrow.  So till I write again soon, all the very best and lots of love to all at home

From Sid

          XXXX

PS: I’m including the “Flare Path” programme with this, Mum as you may like to have it

Lots of love

From Sid