Officer's Mess
No. 11 Flying Training
School
Royal Air Force Station
Shawbury
Shrewbury, Salop
Hatfield, Herts
August 7, 1938
Dear Folks:
Today is a nice beautiful rainy day so everything is quiet around this part. It has been raining and drizzling nearly all day.
Yesterday was real nice and warm so I spent part of the afternoon in the swimming pool with some actors and film stars from a nearby film studio. I think I told you that the pool and club were rather exclusive. Only the people belonging to the Royal Aero Club and the Royal Air Force can go there. It is a nice pool about 39 feet wide and 75 feet long. The water is 3 1/2 feet deep at one end and 7 1/2 feet at the other end. At the deep end there is a diving platform with one board about 10 feet above the water and another about 20 feet up, also a spring board just over the water. Between the pool and the fence around it is nice soft green grass where you lie in the sun if you wish. Along one side is a building with 2 squash courts and a canteen.
I think I told you what we do throughout the day and at what times. The food we get here is the bunk. You can't get food coffee over here; it is all this French coffee with a lot of chicory in it. It tastes like slop most of the time. For breakfast we get corn flakes or shredded wheat (there is a factory near here) and eggs sometimes with ham or bacon. They serve soup at dinner and it is terrible stuff; I don't know how they make it; anyway I seldom eat it. Then we get a choice of cold ham or corned beef, vegetable salad and potatoes, or else we can have a hot meal which varies greatly from lamb, beef, liver and bacon, stew and kidneys and some vegetables. For dessert we get pineapple, figs, prunes, raspberries, rice and bread pudding, applesauce, cherries, etc., but it is all served with custard. I'm getting sick of seeing it. We never get pies, or milk even on any dessert. At tea time we get tea, bread and butter and jam and cake -- mostly fruit cake.
MONDAY, AUGUST 8
I didn't get this finished yesterday in spite of all the time I had, so I'll finish it now and mail it before supper. The sky is still murky today but I got in 2 hours, 10 minutes flying. Diving through the clouds playing hide and seek with myself.
I lam invited out this coming Sunday to dinner with a Canadian family - here's hoping I get a good Canadian meal again.
This coming Saturday a bunch of us boys are going into London to do a little shopping. I have to buy a stiff shirt yet.
It has just started to rain again so had better dash off and get this mailed. I'll try to write again before the end of the week.
As Ever With Love,
Estelles
N.B Don't forget to send my mail to "Canada House", London.
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