July 8/43

Dear Mother

I received two airmail & a [?] today so I thought I'd better answer them immediately I am glad to hear that Dad received my letter and that he is going to write us both. I don't know why Melville don't write home he seems to write me plenty, he is going to be in Manchester the 15th so maybe I will get a chance to see him. I have wrote him twice and he has written few letters back. Maybe he is [?] for a [?] or something. I told him that anytime he needed any money that I could loan him some, maybe I let myself in for something but I really don't mind as I can usually spare it. I am starting a Post Office saving Ac't tomorrow so I can save some money when I get leave. I expect to get leave in another three weeks so I had better start saving money because Melville spends my money like water.
I am glad to hear that they are busy at the garage, it sure is to bad that they can't get enough help though. Leonard must be turning into quite the [?] if he don't even trust his own work. Of course we had quite a time with our old crock. I sure wish I had it here, I would [?] some of the stuck up old women so that they would come to life. Some of these people over here are dead from the ears up [?]. Just think of that poor little girl who phoned up and found out that I couldn't see her because I was over here on the Isle of Man. I wonder who she could have been.
I have been here over three weeks now, just another week to go and we move again. The train over here was very funny, you have to got to London to catch [?] train to go to pretty much any place at all. On the way to here all the sergeants were the joe boys for the officers and we walked and loaded our baggage six times. I sure will be glad when we get settled on a station where I won't have to be living out of a kit bag. I don't expect that I will get settled down thought much before Christmas time. We are celebrating a new [?] 30th birthday next week and then we will [?]. It sure feels funny to be this far from home and knowing of all the gang's on at home. Victor must be getting to be quite the ladies man, he is getting a little particular who he goes around with to I would say Melville and me have been holding quite a conversation over the [?] affair. Have you given her a ring yet Cecil? I bet he talks to the nuns to get ready for his date on Saturday. I wish I was home getting ready to go out right now. The girls over here are sure a glum lot and very [?] to quite a lot of them though don't like Canadians. They claim that we are to fast for them or something. I think that you had better send a couple of our [?] Canadian girls over here as my birthday present. I haven't even seen a Canadian [?] over here. Half these English girls you can't understand anyways, all I do is answer them with yes or no and hope that they don't get my face slapped.
I started this letter on Friday but I had to go to class before I finished it. It now being Monday night I figured that I had better settle down and polish it off. We had quite a weekend and I never as so much in all my life. There is a little place in town where you can buy anything to eat. I even had a steak, and I sure appreciated it. They sure do things funny over here, when you order a meal they bring everything all piled on the plate. I sure will be sorry to have next week [?] isn't much I am to do about it [?] seems. But Vagg is here now it seems that he had to leave Halifax because they sent all his baggage over and he had nothing to wear. He sure did [?] & lot of drafts before they caught up to him, I don't blame him much for wanting to stay in Canada but he could have picked a better place than Halifax. I saw Glenn for a couple of days before he went for leave and then I got posted before we could get to-gether and really visit with eachother. He sure looks like a [?] in his uniform now and I think he has even put on a little weight, it must be the beer over here I guess. I have had no word from you since Wednesday and I have received no parcels but at present I am moving around so much it takes a long time for it to catch up to me. Well it seems like I have run out of things to say so I will sign off for now and write again later in the week after exams are over.

Orval