A Burma Star

Last month I mentioned that my father attended the annual lunch of his Burma Star Association in Margate. I highlighted one of great battles of that particular theatre of war - Kohima. That battle raged between April and June 1944. Some time ago, Charlie Hunt ( dad's war pal, now no longer with us) gave my father a picture taken soon after he end of hostilities at Kohima. I don't know about you but the "Aussie" style hat looks pretty cool. And as for those army boots - well what can I say!









My father has been staying with me for the past few days. It's been his first time in London since he contracted a very nasty leg ulcer in October 2004. Most people of his age may not have recovered from a hospital stay of nearly 13 months. It turned out he had contracted osteomyelitis and unfortunately, this has resulted in his right ankle joint becoming a bit unusable, to say the least. Despite this, he has battled on with his daily life in Westgate-on-Sea and I've been fortunate to have taken him to football on a few occasions and organised a brilliant birthday bash for him in January (see earlier post).





This week has been superb for him. Visits to various family members, a trip on the London Eye, spending some quality time with his grandchildren and, today, basking in 75 degrees of heat at Uncle Willies place in Walton-on-Thames on this, the warmest day so far this year. But, we are in England. This means that when excessive and unexpected heat occurs, London Underground doesn't work terribly well. One of these days we'll have a world class transport system. Of course, it won't happen in time for the 2012 Olympics which is being held on some industrial wasteland in East London.


Tomorrow (Friday) morning, I'll be driving him back home after a visit to the local surgery on Lyttleton Road. Every 3 days he needs a new dressing on his lower leg. People knock the NHS but I'm grateful that arrangements can be made for him quite easily when he's away from home.