Page 75 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1926

Friday [23rd July]

Wrote letters in the morning. A man messed about with the car all day. It is the spring that has gone, & a great
nuisance too, however Daly has a spare one.

Tennis at Dalys in evening - very poor games too. Dr Harrison is back, the worst of the missionaries, author of a book
called The Arab at Home, which I read in England with a good deal about Bahrain. He played tennis in his operating
shirt, a garment up to the neck, karkhi trousers, & yellow shoes, & cropped hair, a horrid sight. Pickering talked of old
Douetel's son, who is in the Turf Club at Bombay, also of Gordon Howard's brother who is secretary - who he says
gives himself tremendous airs on grounds of his family! - a thing that I am sure Pickering could not do! Daly is a poor
host & doesnt disguise how these parties bore him.

Saturday [24th July]

Busy day at office though the Sheikh is away, hawking at the end of the island. M felt seedy so we didnt go out after
tea. Finished reading "The Constant Nymph" a very unusual book, I liked it. Really nothing to write about. Closed
the contract for the sea wall, 1,22,000 rupees, myself I think its a good bargain, & I did all the bargaining. I am keen
on seeing it started at once. Mail tomorrow.