Highden”,
Sun. 2nd Nov. ’69.

Dear Mum & Dad,

“Happy Birthday” for Friday Mum! I can’t send a holy picture with prayers on the back every time, so I’ll just send the prayers!

Yesterday – All Saints Day – we had a sung Mass, & in the afternoon we went for a walk. There are not many places to walk to, but we went to the river nearby. (It is too dirty to swim in though, because the Freezing Works tips all its rubbish into it).

We have another sung Mass today – in a few minutes time, & a 3rd Sung Mass (Requiem) tomorrow for the Holy Souls. So we are fairly busy singing.

Nisi ‘Ota’Ota (a Tongan 3rd year student at the Mount) might be going home for his holiday at the end of the year, & staying there for a year teaching at St. John’s College. That means that when he comes back he would be in our band. The Samoan students used to do that too but they have since all left (!!) The 4 Tongans at Highden don’t know whether they would be going over in 1971 or not, but the general feeling is that they would rather stay here & finish their course, rather than go & “waste” a year at home.

How did Leo enjoy his weekend at Waimarama? It is 2 months on Tuesday before we return there.

None of my pumpkins are up yet, although it is 12.24 days since they were planted. The back of the seed packet said 10-18 days so I suppose there is still a big chance of them coming up! I have extended my garden to about twice the size it was when you saw it, and will plant it in cucumbers. Pumpkins, water melons & cucumbers are good to grow because after they’ve come up they can look after themselves, & yet it will be quite interesting watching them grow.

The weather has been very fine since Visiting Day!

I went to the dentist last Wednesday & had another 2 fillings (That means 6 altogether). I don’t have to go back for another 6 months).

We got letters from the Mount last night. The Young Fathers go down to Christchurch on Nov. 10th.

Apparently the cat at Greenmeadows had two kittens. Everyone thought she was going to have either hundreds or an elephant. All the students (about 50) were watching &waiting during tea recreation, but the bell went & they had to go to Chapel! However, the young Fathers (nine of them) didn’t have to go, so they said that they would give a cough outside the Chapel window for every kitten. But when you get 9 priests all coughing at once to announce the arrival of 2 kittens you get 18 kittens, which made Night Prayers the most exciting it had been for months!

Well, I can’t think of any more “news”.

I was thinking that it might be best if I posted you that coloured film which is in the camera, after it is used up, because it has a lot of Francie’s photos in, & she will be keen to get them. (However, I haven’t got any stamps!!...?..!)

Love from
Bruce




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