Item 04: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1916 - Page 52
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[Page 52]
[Note: pages of original letter were filmed out of order]
just fairly rolls off you.
I am wondering whether I will be able to ware frannel pyjamas in Egypt; they say it is pretty cool there at night so they may be not too hot but if they are I can buy some cool'uns I suppose, silk ones perhaps. I wash the pair I have with me every time I go on piquet as then they have two days to dry as we cant take our clothes off when on duty. The five pairs of socks I have with me ought to last a good while as we don't wear any on board; in fact we only wear shoes when working with the horses.
Full dress parade here consists of identification disc and a short pair of pants, so you see we are not extravigant on clothes.
Soon after we left Fremantle Bartrim developed mumps and he has been in isolation ever since. Poor kid: he finds it very slow and is rather home sick I think.
There is no doubt that this is the life for a chap alright, we get a fair amount of work but only short hours, go to bed about 8 PM and eat our heads off on good tucker. They all laugh at me, say they would rather keep me a week than a fortnight even on a months allowance of tucker.
I have seen an awful lot of flying fish the last day or two; they are jumping all round the boat.