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Date: September 13th 1944
To
Family
From
Geoff
Letter

Dear Family

We've been moving so fast I havent been able to write to you but I'll try to make up for it.

The Belgians are a very very nice bunch of people. Anyway the Canadians think so. Since we got here, instead of being on the scrounge French, they bring us eggs & fruit & vegetables. They arrive in their Sunday clothes and climb all over the tanks like a swarm of bees. All very too. Flags out all over the place. My French is pretty fair now &a lot of them speak English. the population of a nearby town grew to in Ontario then came back here with the proceeds & opened a pub. So they speak Canadian. I had a long chat with some people yesterday who brought me some turkey eggs (very good & bit) & vegs and they invited me over to their house. So we sat & ate grapes & drank wine & Pernod & Bols until my eyes almost popped out & had a wonderful evening. Politics, religion, languages & people were discussed at great length until 1:30 in the morning in a weird mixture of English, Flemish, & French, at which time I staggered back to my bivouac. What they think of "les sales Boches" is just about unprintable. Anyway, I havent enjoyed myself so much since I left England. You have no idea how much you can miss things like a pleasant room with comfortable chairs and a carpet, etc. The people were a Mr & Mrs F. van Doorne, 63 Rue Sud du Marais, Eecloo Belgique (no security, they don't live there now, but are returning soon) if you'd like to drop them a line in your best Bruxellais, Hairp! They're both young & very attractive, & I think they'd like to hear what goes on in the outside world. They think the English are wonderful, (she went to school in Kent) & she thinks "the Ladies Home Journal" is the best literature in the world apart from Hemingway & Aldous Huxley.

I'm still waiting for my job at the regiment new order says there has to be a captain here to run things so I guess I'm it. Ah well!

Well, cheerio people, I have to go to work now. Love to you all. Geoff

P.S. Mail is very bad. The cigs & birthday parcel you sent haven't turned up. They will eventually, but I guess other commodities have priority.