In Tweed Bay Hospital again. I saw Prof. Digby yesterday morning to confirm my coming in and he asked me to come in that evening (Saturday) as he wished to operate on my tag on Monday morning. Church service has just been held and it was quite nice. I have also just had castor oil and will get an enema tonight in preparation.
Pages tagged:
Brown / Ponting
Loaf of bread issued
Colder, overcast.
Wedged in big window frame in Dentists place.
(1 more parcel to come, &, “It will not be long now” from an Ind.guard)
Washed some clothes.
Workers’ oil & sugar, also bread issued. Cigs now Y11 per pkt.
Mary sent up a lovely chow, chicken, sausage, egg, noodles lettuce & onions & it made our own chow look pretty sick.
Lorry with 4 days fish pm.
X (Alun Thomas, E. Grant ((sp.?)), S Mackinlay ((sp.?)), J??? (("Jenner"?)), ??? (("Betty Twidale"?)), D. Wilson ((spelling?)), C.J. Norman (C), Betty Tebbutt,??? ??? (("Peggie Hunter"?), J. Matthew / ((or "Mathers"?)), Scantem ((spelling?)), Harry Tyler, McDermott.)
Quite a few saw the New Year in, bells were rung & Auld Lang Syne sung. Everyone full of optimism!
Overcast, dry. N wind.
Started bricking up Dentists window.
Drink & pkt cigs with Steve.
Oil & sugar issued.
Mrs Brown gave me a tie. ((MW Brown?))
Excellent meal pm. Soup, fried potato cakes & fried vol au vent filled with egg yolk and wong tong.
Talk with G.F. & V.P. till 7pm.
Just before 12, some people went out in courtyard and clanged Block 5's bell. Several people knocked on our door and first-footed us and wished us Happy New Year - don't know who they all were! Clifton came along and kissed us (except for Mum who was asleep in bed). People were noisy for about half an hour after.
Mabel had a meal ! - Half a rissole etc. We each slept on a crumb of wedding cake from Vincent & Marie's reception yesterday.
Alumni of Stanley camp will always remember 1945 as the year they began to run down, finally, like clocks that have not been wound. Most of them slept a good deal and what weak emotion they felt was of an unpleasant kind.
Source:
Emily Hahn, Miss Jill, 1947, 264
Note:
This is a novel, but I suspect this gets close to the truth, for some internees at least.
X ((probably means a repeat of the show from the 1st))
Fine, dry. NE wind stronger.
Finished Dentists window.
Lost my knife somewhere.
Lorry with parcels 6pm.
Germans pushed back 14mls (refers to their salient made in recent push).
Ship to leave Kobe 4th with parcels.
Local Japs celebrating.
Went to see Mr Davis ((can't remember his initials)) to get date for our one-act plays. It might have to be after April.
Worked in afternoon.
Spent evening with Gladys Johnson in her corridor.
Birth of Maureen Patricia Fox.
Her father John Fox has been giving his wife, Barbara, half his daily ration during her pregnancy. This will continue while she is feeding Maureen.
Source:
http://www.derryjournal.com/what-s-on/arts-culture/limavady-rotarian-ma…
X ((probably means a repeat of the show from the 1st))
Birth – To Mr. & Mrs J.A. Fox, a daughter. (Maureen Patricia)
Overcast. NE wind.
With Chalmers on windows.
Germany to go on only a few more weeks.
Parcels at the end of month.
Jap time signals all haywire again.
A-r alarm 9pm.
Elsie Bidwell has to have a mastoid operation.
Barbara Fox had a daughter this morning - Maureen Patricia.
Fish cake for tiffin. We fried noodles this evening.
Dr Mark (Erooga) came for coffee.
Death – Miss Olive Suzanne Geoffrey (34), Nursing Sister, Med. Dept.
Fine, clear, warmer.
Panes in Shield’s window. ((Barbara Anslow: Sammy Shields did dentistry in camp and worked in a ground floor room in the Married Quarters which had been so bomb damaged during the war that it was virtually uninhabitable.))
A/r alarm 12.30-2.30pm.
Colendar [sic – not sure if he means calendar or colander!] for Mrs Brown.
Fed up.
Lorry with wood & fish 6.30pm.
Redwoods' turn for passage. ((The 26 residents of 'our' flat took turns in cleaning the communal passage and areas. Big problem about a mother and toddler who lived in a curtained off part of the landing between first and second floors as to which passage she should clean!))
Bulletin on board says there are no indications that we shall get parcels.
Miss Olive Jeffery died at 4.30pm. ((A Govt. nursing sister who was already a TB patient when our war started.))
Death of Olive Susanna Jeffrey, a 34 year old nurse.
Sources:
Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 2008, 188
Overcast, low cloud. Colder E wind.
Window panes.
Col. came out noon & left 4pm.
Gimson gave lecture on Trade Unions & Social Legislation in British Colonies. Finney gave a suitable reply in which he said he hoped that before the year was far spent we should all be back on our jobs. ((Probably J Finnie or A H Finnie.)) My job seems likely to fizzle out.
Worked in afternoon. Typed for Dr H. Talbot.
Annie came to talk re wedding ((I was to be a bridesmaid)).
Got potatoes from Mr. Ingram ((A.W. I think) for cigarettes. We ate them in evening.
Mr Davis visited, we can have Feb 21, 22 and 23 for plays.
Peggy came over later, told us of her appendix operation in Stanley, then I visited Beryl Goldenberg who is in bed with a cold.