Page 51 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1926

The Sheikh came in to confer about the commotion about the registration of deaths. It has caused a real fuss but we
suspect it of being engineered. Sheikh Abdulla came in too, & quite a mob round the office. Daly sent & invited the
Sheikh to come & see him. He, I & Abdulla drove off to the Agency in his car. We were almost mobbed by the people
with petitions, such idiots too, the Sheikh is capital on these occasions saying to all "If allah wills all will be well" etc
etc, which doesnt commit him to much! Arrived at the Agency. I found that Daly wanted Sheikh Hamed alone, so I
had to sit & talk to Abdulla for over an hour. He was most interested to hear I lived in Sandown. He remembered it
well, having lunched there, bought a walking stick & specially remarked on the mixed bathing which he saw. He
spoke of it rather with disapproval. He also said how he admired the chine at Shanklin! Holmes motored me to the
office. M & I had tea with Holmes & then went by motor boat over to Muharraq, a lovely evening & all looked very
pretty. The Spences came to dinner, rather a failure of a meal, the ice, flavoured with port, didnt set properly, & the
chicken was too small. Afterwards played Bridge. I think they much enjoyed coming. Poor Bridge. She is a vulgar
person but means well. He, as usual, talked stop - he always does, on the wrong occasions. She wears most unsuitable
clothes & has a barrel-like figure, very fat.

Thursday [10th June]

A hot tiring day. Diving Court in the morning but not very many cases. Painted an indifferent picture in afternoon &
then went a walk to see how the building of the new palace was getting on. Very hot & glaring. It is light now till 8
pm, so different to Africa where the days are always practically the same length. A thoroughly tiring day so went early
to bed. Skipped my Arabic lesson in the afternoon, felt I couldn't do it!