Decipher old short hand postcard from 1906?

[peternoyce]

Hi,

Please could anyone interpret what is written on this postcard? I think it is shorthand text.

It was posted in 1906 to Leslie Carden.

Many thanks!

[conahy calling]

http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com/BasicsofPitman.html

Looks like Pitman

[Rhododendron]

Haven't done shorthand for too many years now but can interpret some of it.  May not be totally accurate (as there are no lines etc to go on) but here goes: (you read it straight across the page by the way).  My slashes show the end of each line.

Dear _  Many thanks for your postcard.  Are you going to (Southampton?) on Saturday to see a match?/
You will have to get your ticket before hand if you do/
as there will be such a rush/
Sorry I have not answered your postcard before/
but (word is crossed out) I have been so busy that I have not had/
time for anything.  Did you know that (Nelly?) _ at the Post Office is ill
(off sick?) as _ all by herself?  She (word is crossed out) ought to have had (me?) to cheer her up/
Have you seen much of (my mother) lately?  Yours truly G.J.C.

[peternoyce]

Wow thanks 'conahy calling' and 'Rhododendron'. I had no idea what the text contained and wondered why they had written it in shorthand in the first place. The card is local to Southampton so your interpretation seems spot on!

Many thanks for your effort!

Pete

[Rhododendron]

Very pleased to have been of some help.  (Just annoyed I cannot interpret those other few words!).

[BumbleB]

Could Nelly be "Nelly Gough"?    Not ever so sure about the "off sick"  but then followed by "as the week all by herself".  And could "had me" be "Jim" ? 

I was never excellent at reading  shorthand - even my own 

[Rhododendron]

Well Bumble I did think myself that it could have been Nelly Gough.  As you'll know, without other markings to indicate capital letters etc some words could be read as something else. (If that makes sense!).

I see I did miss out the words "the week" which I had written down here. 

Also, I was not sure whether there was something written after what I have transcribed as "off sick as..."  i.e. a mark just beside that little red tub!  What do you think? 

[BumbleB]

Yes, I think there is another outline next to the red tub - how about "to do"?  Making it ... has to do the week all by herself.  Now all we need is the word/s before that ...

[Rhododendron]

Ah.  "to do".  Could be!  But that would still fit with "off sick" but then it would be "as to do the week all by herself".  Of course a Yorkshireman would miss the "h" off has! 

By the way.  It seems the word after"Dear" is likely to be Leslie as the owner now thinks.