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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2023
The next page in Denis's handwriting is headed ‘Resumed Diary’, and the date is over five weeks after he had last written. He was still based in Luton, and feeling unwell.
Saturday, 11 April
Having felt rather rough on the job yesterday and gone to bed early feeling feverish, I decided to report sick this morning – the first time since I left my medical orderly job eight months ago. And yet I always thought that, with the fruit of two years’ experience of sick parades, I should be taking frequent days off when transferred! What keeps many people from going sick in the Army is the waiting about. This morning was, I suppose, typical of a sick parade. I was waiting an hour and a half before I saw the MO. I didn't mind that much since my cold had abated somewhat by this morning, and since I had a book to read. But for anybody really ill, it's the kind of thing that makes ‘going sick’ almost a hardship. As usual in such places as hospital waiting rooms we had that typical character, the ‘Have I told you about my operation?’ raconteur. This particular RASC guy, about 35, talked for 20 solid minutes about his hospital experiences at Hatfield House, with fulsome praise for the beneficence of Lady Salisbury. I told my tale convincingly enough to get ‘AM.A2’ – back again on Monday, which should entail another day off from work.
Today was the first time, I think, that I’ve been in the main shopping centre of Luton at an early hour of the morning. And even before 10 a.m. there are long queues at fish and cake shops – far more so than I’ve ever noticed in Tunbridge Wells on leave. Called at the gramophone shop to pick up an ordered record, and learnt that records are in short supply to the extent that no orders can be taken for HMV till June, and one may only buy one HMV disc a week from stock. Rationing of some kind may be the next step.
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