16th Feb 1959

Written on HSBC Jesselton airmail letter

Dear Mum Dad and Alan,

Your cold weather and the reports of it, with fog that we read about in The Telegraph, make us quite content not to be there. It has been a little hotter during the past few days but managed nine holes of golf on Sunday and then went in the sea for some water skiing. One of the people from Borneo Company has a boat and set of skis and a crowd of us have a go on Sundays. I could not get up - the start is a bit tricky at firs, but expect to do it another time. One gets half upright, then whoosh - over backwards and start again. I did not know John was going back to Hongkong - is he with a civilian firm? Neither did I know Alan had partly purchased a car - what type? My finances are OK and we will save a bit here at present estimates. It is only on leave that we get short and of course there was a lot to get last time - I estimate we need 700 pounds for the next one as a minimum but guess we can manage it in time. The maternity ? should be covered provided the insurance can remit from India. I did receive Dad's 6 pounds - thought I had mentioned it - thanks very much. Shall get around to describing Jesselton one day, though there is not a lot of it. Two main streets with new buildings parallel to the water front, ten minutes from the office and up hill finds our house. There is a lot of hill and relatively little flat ground fro Jesselton to exist on. Ten minutes along the coast road brings one to the Golf Club and halfway along is the hospital and Secretariat where the Duke's reception is to be held. Two main roads go inland for twenty plus miles and these we have yet to investigate. We hope to take some photos in due course but many of the shots I want depend greatly on the position of the sun and the time of day and I shall have to plan accordingly - have no need to rush it. The family continues to be well. We have visited the local cinemas twice and had Chinese food afterwards. I went to a Chinese dinner - a business occasion and ate a huge amount - I thought we had finished twice before we actually did. Going to dinner with a Donald Jones & family of Cable & Wireless tonight. He is very busy planning transmissions of pictures for the Dukes visit.

Cheerio for now & Love Peter