p.

No. 16. Saturday - June 6th Marjor J H Massey
6 Palestinian Coy. The Buffs
M.E.F.

My own darling Barbara

I feel very sleep & tired as I
begin this letter at 9-50. There are two main reasons for
this. Firstly, I started a physical fitness campaign in the Coy
yesterday morning. For me, this means rising from my bed
at 6-30, drinking a cup of tea, shaving, & then being on
P.T. parade with the men at 7.0 until 7.30. The hot
weather has now really begun, & it is even pretty warm
at that time in the morning. We all do it stripped to
the waist, & I make it pretty hard. So as to pull out
people's guts - & it certainlly pulls out mine. This is all
followed by a lovely cold shower, which is still a poor
substitute for the sea of Haifa last year. And the second
reason is that a pair of starlings have taken to flying
into my room at 5-0 exactly & making an infernal
din - but I have now organised my room windows
with netting & hope that trouble will now be over.
This exercising of the body is a marvellous thing, though,
& you must incist that I carry on doing it after the
war. It is so good to fill one's lungs right down to the
very bottom, & to stretch one's muscles, especially the
ones all around the stomach. Are you dong your
exercises darling? You must, you know, it will be
fun to do them together, & see how long we can
go on, without succumbing to passion - & even
more fun when we do succumb.

I have not much news at all - but lots of things about
which I want to write to you - but I like the whole
evening ahead of me when it is like that, & I shall
hope for such a situation tomorrow.

Yesterday, I had your no. 92 to cheer me up & keep
me going. It must be admitted that the England-Palestine