Palestine

12 Feb 1941

Dear Alice,

Your handwriting is the neatest I've ever seen in my entire life, Almost Doctor Harvey. It's so neat, that I'm so very sorry I ever compared it to chicken scratch. (May I have my biscuits now?)

Ah no, you did not mention you and "living in Miss Fisher's house" in the same sentence in all of our letters. You mentioned "Mac's friends" and your landlady, that was it. I honestly should have put two and two together - not that great of a copper now, am I?

The sand is more annoying than bad, truly. It feels like I'll never get the grit out of everything, but honestly it's not that bad once you get used to it - the sand's never really bad until a sandstorm hits and we tend to hunker down during those. (I wouldn't say no to a fresh shower though, wash all of it away, never thought I'd miss bathing regularly.) They do have us outfitted in the proper tools and clothes, so have no worry about our physical health, Alice. It still reminds me of home since we trained out in the desert as preparation for where we are now; just a little more humid than home though, I think. The sea is much closer than home, so the occasional breeze coming off of it is very welcome by all of us.

The wound identification were actually very popular with the boys, so they do enjoy some of your studies in the very least. Thank you for pointing out the ones more geared towards being a copper, I'll have to keep these notes on hand for reference once the war is over.

As for what you can do when going out and about: you could try cricket games, footie matches (if they still have them), or going to the cinema. I don't really have a lot of suggestions, just, I don't know, mundane sort of everyday things that me and the boys don't get to do right now. Anything that's close to normal would bring us some comfort (and I will say that you don't have to do any of this if you're not comfortable about it.)

And to kind of bring normalcy into our own letters, I'll leave you with this. Happy Valentine's Day, Almost Doctor Harvey.

Your Friend,

Matthew