Lucy dropped me at Dubai International and it was plain sailing through check in and boarding. I had a row of three seats to myself right at the front of economy and the flight was smooth and of course Emirates gave their usual brilliant service. My luck held all the way to Larnaca.

Then it took a turn for the worse. I received a completely hostile attitude from the immigration officer and had to endure a lecture from him about visiting The Occupied followed by yet another about how we were no longer in the EU and therefore had no rights. He went on and on. Somehow I managed to keep my cool while this jumped up ass prsttled on even when “as a specisl favour” he was giving me a 15 day visa when he knew my flight home is in early December.. Net result is that I shall change my flight home from Larnaca to be from Ercan and never go there again whilst the present political idiocy continues. This probably means forever given the utter stupidity of these bigotted officials who seem unaware thst fsr from making tourists not wish to visit the north, they are only showing a very bad side of the Republic of Cyprus.

Thank heavens the friendly face of Ozy Taxi was waiting for me with a name board when I came through. I was the last person out, they kept me so long. No problems at all at the Metahan border, the GC official didn’t even ask to see my passport and all was well with the entry into the north.

Then another bit of bad luck. Ozy stopped at an atm machine (a free standing kiosk) so I could get some cash and it malfunctioned and ate my card!!!!! LOL. Can you believe it? Never happened to me before in my entire life! I rang the bank who owned the machine and my own bank in the UK and they confirmed it was a malfunction but the card could not be returned and my only option was to cancel it and get a new one. The issue is of course that it cannot be sent here. Luckily I have others with me and Bob arrives tonight so it was not a disaster.

Got safely the rest of the way to the house and found it looking as beautiful as ever and all ready prepared by Marion. I unpacked my cases, burnt some perfumed oudh and tried to relax. And succeeded somewhat.

I need a good night’s sleep and to wake up tomorrow to look down to the sea and up to the hills.