Alexandria

August 20, 1939

Dearest Mother:

Glorious has been here for nearly a week now, since our weekend in Limassol, Cyprus. 802 flew off to Dekheila from a hundred miles at sea about 4 a.m. one morning, so here we are again.

My new aeroplane seems to be quite reliable so far. We did a lot of flying over the sea on our last manoeuvres and the engines ran very nicely. They proved quite nice for deck landing. At least not much worse than our previous type.

Every instrument that you can think of is included in our instrument panel down to and including a stop watch.

Thanks very much for the charming picture of Jean. She looks older every day! (Not a doubtful compliment to her!) When is it they want to stop people thinking they are older and reverse the idea! "20?"

Judging from Dad's letters, we are in for another good crop in Canada. Unfortunately, the "Great Millennium" or whatever they call the next war isn't over yet, so I can't get home and see you.

The more I think of it, the luckier I seem to have been going home on leave last year. It might be my last attempt, but not if I can help it.

I missed the last cruise to Athens - tough luck - I should have liked having my picture taken learning on one of the acropolis or parthenon! (Line-shoot)

Ronny must be quite a lad these days. Is he going to school this year?

I am going along now for a swim, so will hop along.

Write often

Love

Bill