Letters between Malcolm William Keshan and Dorothy Williams, 1941 - Part 6

"A" Coy 2/4 Bn.
A.I.F.
Abroad.
16^th March 41.

Dear Dot,
Things are getting better every day sweet, the day after
I wrote your last letter I was lucky enough to receive another
one from you and eight pages to, thats just what I like to see
eight pages or even more, keep up the good work darl the more
there are the better I like it. So at last you have received the
album, I was a bit worried about it for a while and I was
pleased to hear you got it ok, I hope it was not damaged in
any way if it was let me know, now don't forget. I thought I
mentioned it before but everdentally not, so here goes, don't be
deceived by those snaps, as to the nature of this country, in some
of those photo's this place looks ok, and you might get the idea
that its a nice place to visit, well there are plenty of places of
interest to visit, hundreds of them as a matter of fact, and if
you could just come and see them and then leave it's ok, but
when you have to stay it's not so hot, as for the country itself
its terrible honest, it's a land of dirt, filth, dust and robbery, or better
still its a land of sin nothing less, personally I wouldn't live in
this country for all the money in the world, there's certainly no place
like good old Aussie and you begin to relize that when you
see these towns over here, its definately a true saying.

(2)
You say think of the hours we can spend looking over the
album when I get back, its very rarely that I think of anything
else darl, that's one of the things Im looking forward to. Well
darl at present Im still in Libya, Im sorry but I can't say where
at present but I will probably be able to tell you where I was
in my next letter so for the time being silence. You say I got
you in a tangle as far as that song was concerned, well you
only thought you were in a tangle, and you were not flattering
yourself when you said "Rose Marie" because thats it, so now it's
your turn to laugh. You ask me why did I join up, well that
would be telling you something darl, I might tell you when I
get back, but I wont promise, it all depends, perhaps it was an
ill will will will, as you say if I hadn't joined up I may have
missed out altogether, but now I take a lot for granted once more
and say I have a rough chance, right, but just think how long
I tried beforehand, and I could never get any where, but boy would
I get wild. So Harold is 21 wish him all the best for me, I bet it
was a good party and by the way how is Norma going wish
her all the worst for me, I wasnt game to say best even though I
was only joking, you certainly have me scared, but dont try and
put anything over me saying you wouldnt have kissed Harold if
you had caught him, what beats me is why did he run, you
wouldn't be able to chase me because I wouldn't run, you would
probably be the one who would finish up doing the running
and I would be doing all the chasing, so take care.

(3)
Well darl there wont be any more snaps for a while, as at
present I have no camera we are not allowed to carry one
so naturally no photo's, but when I get back to civilisation I'm
going to get a knew camera, and you just wait you'll have no
where to keep them all. How did we go listening in to "Rebecca"
the other night: did everything off as planned, or wouldn't I wash
up. I did enjoy the hamsandwiches, even though they were a
little burnt, funny but I couldn't concentrate on the show at all
not wh with you siting along side of me , and the lights turned
low, it was to much to expect me to listen to it, you should have
know better than to think I would, and if you don't want to go
out into the cold before we go, ok well we can stay inside only it
will take me longer to leave, but I don't mind. Your right I told
you to ramble on, so keep it up its good and I like it. So you are
interested our friend Pat again well I told you who he was but
after reading this letter evidentally it's not enough, you want a 
better discription, well its not the general thing but for you ok, so
here goes, now for a start he's a very good hearted chap, but very
spoilt; he has lots of money (anygood) and he's never done a days work
in his life, dosen't have to, lucky him, in the summer he does nothing
but swim and in the winter goes to the mountains, he's very
untidy, and very fond of drink, also a bit to fond of women, well
I hope that will do darl because thats all I can tell you.
Remember in my last letter I told you we had an air raid
whilst we, or at least I, was writing well our Anti Aircraft Defence

(4)
got one of the planes, we didnt know about it until the next morning,
we had another raid last night which lasted for about two hours
when they flew over our camp I dont think they knew we were
there it was to dark, and they would have passed on only some
fool opened up on the with a machine gun, so the pilot turned
back, and if he must have said to himself if you want to play
I'll be in it, and he dropped four bombs right in our area, but
he still didnt do any damage. This is the second time I have wrote
this letter darl. I made a copy of in in pencil and thendone it in 
ink the first chance I got I made the pencil copy on the 12th March 
and now it's the 16th terrible isn't it, the reason I didnt do it in
ink before was I couldnt post it. I hope you got the last one ok
I had to give it to a stranger to post as I couldn't get into Tobruk
so let me know if you received it; if I had kept it I would have
only been able to post it yesterday. When I wrote your letter in
pencil I was in a funk hole (it's a dugout) with a few Iti ground 
sheets over the top to keep the dust out. outside there was one of the 
worst dust storms I have ever seen blowing it lasted for about 26 hrs
Gosh I'm getting lazy darl I haven't done any real hard work
for a long while now, not that I ever did but now I do less
Im out of of Libya darl and in Egypt once again, I hope to get leave
to Cairo in the near future, then Ill start sending snaps once more
Well darl this is not a very long letter but its better than they 
usually are four pages the last one was five the one before seven
I'm definately improving, dont you think so? and this will be five

(5)
How is everyone at home going darl wish them all the best
for me will you, how is George going still enjoying the camp life 
I think I'd enjoy it if I was back in Aussie now, nothing would 
worry me after being over here, tell George a lot of what they teach
you in Aussie is just dropped over here, that is in the infantry, 
he's in the Sigs isn't he. I still dont know my position in the unit
I gave them a bit of a suprise when I aired my knowledge, they havent
done anything yet however and its up to them to make a move 
so its still Sgt Keshan. Well there is little more I can tell you sweet
very little my information has a silencer on it so to speak but you 
will hear from me again soon probably from a different place
again. Im certainly moving around a bit lately. So darl its Lots 
of Love once more, don't forget to take care of yourself, and let me
know if there is anything I can do for you over here, maybe you 
want to know about something I may be able to answer for you
Well I finish off with a Great-Big Cheerio again, hoping all is well
Very Sincerely Yours
Mac

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A.F. W3078
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tents of this envelope refer to nothing
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M. Keshan
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Address :-
Miss. D. Williams.
37 Byrnes St.
Bexley. 
Sydney.
Australia. 

.S.A.G.
Received 
2/4/41.

37 Byrnes Street,
Bexley. N.S.W. Aust. 
Monday Evening 17/3/41.
 
Dear Mac,
Hullo there! Consider yourself priviliged my sweet.
There is nobody to whom I would write two letters in consession
and yet here I am, writing my - is it fourth, or third -
and I haven't had one from you in between. I reckon I
must be able to "tosh" it. I have the miseries well and
truly to-night though, Mac.
Remember, how I used to sit down & write you pages on
how lovely the night was, coming home from Physi, & how
grand it was just walking along, thinking. The nights
are still lovely, but somehow I'm all wrong - out of 
touch with it, or something. I'm getting stale I think 
darl - lacking the vital spark, that gives things "oomph"
Perhaps that vital spark is all wrapped up in one small 
word with three letters in it. (If you know what I
mean) But this is no time to be unloading my sorrows. 
My job is to brighten you up. (I'm kidding myself
I do this, and that you need brightening up) Do
you mind me weeping on your shoulder? Just say the
word, you know & no more moans will be heard from
this gal. All set - well let's go then.
How's my soldier beeng behaving? Worse than usual - 
or is that possible? Now don't hand me that - I wasn't born
yesterday, and I know your opinion of the beautiful girls

2.
of the East. If you ask me, (I know you didn't but we'll 
pretend that you did) when your Bullet Head get to town,
I'll guarantee the girls get going as fast as they can - in the
opposite direction -- Why Mac, I didn't know you could 
say a thing like that; you're not the "little boy" I used to 
know. Coming home from work to-night, as I crossed over York
Street, I suddenly thought of how you used to tear after me, 
& say very quietly "May I walk with you." Do you know Mac,
I think I must be missing you - a darn lot. (Or maybe 
you haven't noticed it before.) Before I go into a weeping act, 
shall we change the subject? 
How are you keeping Mac? Daddie has you definitely eaten
by a camel, while Mum has you married to some glamorous
maiden fair. I just j tell them to stop teasing & clear off 
out of my bedroom so as I can get your letter written. (By
the way, you haven't married a glamorous maiden fair, by 
any chance, have you?) This is a beaut letter isn't it - full 
of absolutely nothing. To tell you the truth, it's very hard to 
concentrate. Jack Davey on the wireless is distracting my
attention with "Yes, No" Jackpots Now they have  
finished so I can really get down to business. 
I told you in my last week's letter of how Joan & I were going
to dinner at Eilleen's place (Eilleen being of course, our evacuee
from Japan.) Mac, I never dreamt I would eat some of the 
thing's that I did eat. And we did use chopsticks as I feared. 
At least the others used them. I just made a mess, & a fool of myself
with the darn things. First of all we had fish, to-gether

 3.
with the inevitable bowl of rice, which came with every course.
The fish was bream; only cooked in such a way as to fool
everyone - fools like me. Then we had meat & "vegetables" - that's
what they called the stuff; which was cooked on a primus
stove on the table in front of us. Of course the meat was cut in
pieces too big for me & how the dickens could I cut it with
chopsticks. They had some laughs at me, I assure you. It was
a good job they took things in such a fine spirit. But Mac
I really couldn't help making faces when I ate some of 
the food. And what do you think Mac! You'll never guess
what I tasted - - - Seaweed! Truly Mac - seaweed, and
it almost made me ill. That was my first and last time
I'll ever eat that stuff. And instead of eating bread & butter
we had rice. Take my tip sweet - stay away from Japan
They even have a different tea from ours - green tea that
tastes for all the world like hot water & scent.
I do sound horribly catty I know, but I didn't mean it
that way Mac. I had a marvellous evening; and the
meal ("ski-ar-ki" they call it) was certainly a
novel experience, and one I shall never forget.
Well ole dear, our luck at tennis didn't hold out for
very long. We lost on Saturday, by seven sets to one.
It does sound terrible, but it wasn't quite as bad as it 
seems. We gave them a run for their money & had a
marvellous afternoon's tennis, which after all, was the main
thing
Dancing held no attraction for me on Saturday night, so