Page 1145 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1143
1143
1940

On the range in the morning. Dr Holmes & Steele came & fired, the former quite well. The men didn't do very well
but the light was awkward. Office, court, went over to see Cole who seemed very fed up at prospect of going back to
Aden, he thought Loch would not come back here. I always suspected he would. Went over to see some gardens
which we are dealing with in the afternoon near Portuguese Fort - very badly looked after too, then meant to sample
Khalil Kanoo's bathing pool but saw cars there so didn't. Bridge at Mespers - the Shoreham returned, sent a long letter
to SNO which will make them get up a bit, I wonder how he will react to it.

Tuesday 30th [July]

Much cooler day, a shamaal blowing in morning. Didn't go to fort as I had work to do. Office all the morning and
customs. Had a long talk with Tikamdas who is going to sell the cultured pearls from the case in India. We might as
well get what we can out of them for the people who have been swindled. He told me that the quality of this year's
catch is much better than last year but quantity is less and the market is very bad. Wrote the Judgment in the Hedd
murder case, it took a long time, it should have been done before. Played gold in the afternoon, quite cool on the golf
course, nobody else was playing. Then went out to dine with the Boones to see their cinema. They showed it in the
big room at the club, it was not as good as Mrs Loch's but the Muharram pictures were unquestionably good. A poor
dinner, there were a lot of people from Manama as well as the Jebel. The PR departed yesterday for England, a relief
to think that he won't be here for a couple of months. He has paid Bahrain far too many visits this year, everyone is fed
up with seeing so much of him. The cow that had the calf seems off colours and rather upset. Perhaps it is usual.
Have heard nothing of the SNO.

Wednesday Jan 1st 1936

The party was an enormous success. There were 32 people, four having failed to materialise. We had
dinner in the drawing room, cleared of all furniture, at two long tables decorated with coloured glass vases
full of tall branches of yellow acacia & the tables very gay with scarlet & yellow crackers. The dining room

was turned into the drawing room. The Police band played during dinner on the veranda, this was an
innovation, the first time it has played in public on such an occasion. The people were very pleased at them
& sung at intervals all through dinner - the champagne cocktails before dinner brightened them a lot !! I did
a little personal sketch on each name card typical of the person who had it, pen & ink, some very personal.
Dinner was very good, usual style, turkeys, xmas pudding & mince pies. After dinner we went down the
Court room, which was very gay & decorated with the stage at one end & we did the three plays. They