Page 39 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1926

didnt! Sat outside on the veranda above the harbour - or quay at least, & talked. Cool & quite pleasant, but de G is
such a terrible person, & Mrs Spence rather a trial too, quite vulgar, tries to be girlish & completely rotund with black
bobbed hair.

Thursday [20th May]

The Diving Court - from 9.30 till 3.15 pm!! Crowds of cases, really a tiring job though, but just now is the busiest
season of the whole year. Some of the old boat owners are such horrid old creatures, greedy, grasping jews - not
actually jews of course, but with the same feelings & ideas.

Holmes (Major) came to dinner. He is actually a mining engineer, oil prospecting & also doing various jobs for the
State, quite a nice fellow but a terrible gossip, he & Mrs Daly gossip together unceasingly. Windy night, the Shamal
wind, said to last 40 days, has apparently begun, rather nice really. This is quite the most amusing sea I have ever
lived by. It is so lively & full of boats, one never looks out without seeing sailing boats & launches going up & down to
& fro from Manama & Muharraq. The new house is really coming on, walls up to the height of the tops of the doors.
It will be so nice when done. Holmes brought the plans & we altered some things to suit our ideas. It will really be
awfully nice & very roomy & I hope cool. We have the top, & below I have all my offices. It is quite close to the sea,
with the new sea wall - just like a seaside promenade, running between it & the water. We are to have a car. One of
the Shaik's, he is selling 4 oldish ones, is to be bought for the Land Dept & we will take their one - a Ford! but quite a