Dear Family

I've finally got a chance to write some letters for the first time in a month, so here goes.
I was away on the Isle of Man on a course for a couple of weeks. A very interesting course and a very interesting island. The Isle of Man is in the Irish Sea as you'll see from a map, and you go thru Customs just as if you were going somewhere. The place is full of internees, Italian, German and Jap, and also a certain number of the best people busy dodging conscription, as there is none there. Quite funny. I saw a musical show just before sailing in which there was a song about "The tight little bright little Isle of Man", where you have to wear your best clothes as you might meet Hess.

There are lots of eggs and butter on the island, and beautiful steaks. And instead of asking hopefully for a small whiskey in a pub, you demand a large Haig. You can see it was quite a change from the "mainland" as they call England, and although we had to work very hard on the course, it was still quite a holiday.

A lot of very decent English officers on the course, including a Guardee who started off by saying that 7 o'clock was a gahstly hour for dinner (so fraightfully eahly, you know) but we got him cut down to his proper size very quickly and he was very decent. He even omitted to shine his buttons one night, which is the height of demoralization for a Guardsman.

I got back to the unit just in time to go out on some terrific manoeuvres, from which we've just returned.

I did get a telegram from Don, but it was 2 days late, I called the address given but it was in Northern Ireland, and I couldn't get through. His best system is to call CMHQ in London and get my phone number there.

I saw Dick Porteous for the first time, on the scheme, and found out that he's now stationed about 800 yards away from me. Funny we'd missed each other for 2 years, I've seen almost everyone else I know. Well, I'm going to write to Nan and John now as promised, so I'll cut this short.

Cheerio Geoff