I’ve arrived at Lydda after an odd day ! After being weighed in & writing to you this morning at Beirut we waited for the plane from Cyprus & then learned that he had had engine trouble & had returned ! The train had gone & it was very helpless we were, me & a Lt. Col.. So we tried to get road transport & at last at 3o/c news came of an Anson calling in with a hospital case, & praps he take us. He came & did, only he had no seats in his fuselage. However, we sat on suitcases & left out 4 & arrived at 5, after a pleasant trip. It was interesting seeing the Palestine Problem so objectively, laid out as a map ! Then there were more complications ! No planes were flying to Cairo because the airmen had “struck,” -Mutiny is a better word. So I am stranded at the Air station, though very comfortably, for the night. I fly on tomorrow in a civil plane all being well & arrive at Cairo at midday.

                        The next problem was liaison with Ian & the telephone line was hopeless. So I got on to Cairo to the Duty Officer at H/Q & he passed a message. It has worked. Ian knows where I am, & is leaving a warrant at El Maza & I go on by train, as he has a conference to go to. So we shall meet at Alex ! It’s been an odd journey & even the light in my room has fuzed !

                        They’re silly airmen. We all want to go home, & they’ll get themselves into serious trouble if they’re handled properly. The officers & sergeants are running the station, & it’s all light-hearted & allakeifck. The air men are glum & obstinate. Syrians you can understand. Not these people.

                        If there is any gap between train set Cairo I might squeeze in Henry V. I did hope to get to Cairo this evening & see it after dinner. But it was a good thing the Dakota wrote down before it picked us up & not after if it had to break down at all.

                        Hope Ian brings my mail up with him ! Passing a message as I did I didn’t get the reminder in. If not it will be Monday I get it. Otto will be pleased to see me & I him.

                        Now a little letter to Mummy & then to bed early & up early-ish. I hope there’s no hitch tomorrow. But this place is not so far from everything as Beirut. So stranded we were.

                        All my love. This morning Syria, this evening Palestine, tomorrow Egypt; soon – England !