Eccentrics?

Tuesday, February 29th., Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken.

As regards the great invasion scare, the two batteries 'stood by' yesterday morning from 4 a.m. till sunrise and today from 5.30 a.m. till sunrise, already to move off - except that bits were not in harness. The reinforcement which came in a hurry from Colchester here consists of convalescent wounded gunners from the front, appointed only to light duty and to extreme emergency duty. The whole East coast has been in alarm about a possible German invasion for the last week or so, but I haven't believed it and still don't. How do these alarms arise I wonder? Frankly, if a raid did occur the coastal defences would simply not have a look in against the picked Germans who would land. They are not only third rate, but very badly generalled. Indeed it is comic and is so regarded by the officers who are intelligent. I just feel sorry for the men who have been sleeping out night after night on the Clacton shore in rain and snow. It is always those at the bottom of the pile who suffer for the eccentricities of their 'superiors'.  

Speaking of eccentricities I sometimes wonder if I am regarded as rather eccentric? I am thinking particularly of my desire (some would call it an obsession) to have things 'just so' I have always liked to have things placed properly; to my way of thinking it is about feeling comfortable. I know some readers found Edwin Clayhanger's finickiness rather amusing but in fact I was more or less describing myself, or at least how I would be were I in Edwin's shoes. Sometimes I wish I could be in Edwin's shoes! How delightful not to be married, to be the master of one's own time, to have a sufficient income and a house just suited to one's purposes. Thinking about things as I am this evening I wonder if it was really credible that Edwin should have forsaken all that comfort for what - Hilda may have been very charming and he no doubt anticipated sexual rewards, but it couldn't last, and he must have known that? Anyway I shall stick to my routines in the face of knowing smiles, and maybe will have the last laugh, quietly of course.