20th September 1943

Monday (Valley Farm Cottage, Higham)
Woke at 6 to pouring rain.  Felt terribly ill, with dreadful headache and excruciating pain in condyle of jaw on right side.  Could not face Colchester.  Lay dozing, heard George bring cows in to milk.  Rain stopped.  Heard Jacquie Conran moving about, but she did not come up.  Tried to get enough energy to go out to ‘phone office, but could not face it.  Never felt as bad as this for a long time.  Nearly 2 o’clock before I could stagger downstairs.  Jacquie heard me and came out – she felt bad too.  At 5, she called me to tea, and when I’d had a good cup and some bread and jam I felt a little better, but head still bad.  Heard an “all-clear” in the far distance.  Every day now we shall watch the weather.

After tea, Jacquie went down to the pub. and came back with the American called “Trigger”, quite a pleasant young man.  Comes from Ohio.

Went down to the ‘phone, and spoke to Capt. Folkard.  He was rather distant, but think it was alright.  

Back and had supper, took some dope and went to bed.  Clear starlight night, but no alarm, and very few ‘planes about.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does he mean by dope?

James

E J Rudsdale said...

Thanks for your comment, James. E J Rudsdale is referring to the sleeping tablets, which he calls 'dope', which he was taking at the time to try to sleep through the air raids. CP