lmao so I'm now back on unemployment after only two weeks back at work because reasons. so hopefully more often updates? and if I've described the climate of Ballarat/Australia in general wrong, my bad, I am literally on a completely different continent and latitude line lol. Please enjoy and thank you all for the reviews and comments! - Dee
Army Base in Queensland
31 July 1940
Dear Alice,
Thank you… for… well just thank you. I've been using the journal a little, and you're right, it does help quite a bit, so thank you for sending one.
I did get a copy of Sad Cypress, thank you, and I promise not to purchase any other new Poirots for however long the war lasts. Just so long as you don't spoil any of it for me since I'll be waiting even longer for my copies than you.
Worse? How do they get worse? At least right now where I am in the book - barring getting introduced to the youngest sister (who's as bad as them but slightly better in comparison) - they're gone. But how do they get worse? This is just your plot of getting me to read it faster, isn't it? I do like Anne's in-laws - the Musgroves - and I'm itching to meet the Captain that's got her all anxious.
As for Ballarat, I love it. It's an old mining town north of Melbourne started during the gold rush of the 1840s. It's colder than the coastal city, more dour in its weather half the time (apart from two to three weeks in the summer where it's blistering hot), but it's quiet compared to its past. I used to run in the bush, around the lake and parks with an old friend, Lucien, whenever he got home from boarding school, but we drifted apart once both of us turned eighteen. He went off to school in Scotland and I to police training; I stayed in Ballarat as a constable - my CO made my life hell half the time, but I learned a lot - and while different from the golden summers of my childhood, Ballarat was all I knew. I missed it (and still do) when I transferred to Melbourne for further training a few years ago. I hope to visit it whenever I get leave if possible, Mum still lives there in our old house, but my sister Vera is trying to get her to move to Melbourne so she won't be alone.
(Mum is being stubborn, but I don't blame her one bit. I think she's holding on to the hope that I'll come back home and stay in the house before she leaves; if this war goes on, she'll be waiting quite a long time.)
What about you? You mentioned Sydney in one of your letters, is that where you're from? Also, I don't know if you celebrate it, but Merry Belated Christmas in July.
Sincerely,
Matthew
