Another lovely sunny day. Still in the thinnest of summer clothes all day. Alan and Lesley our closest neighbours came up for coffee first thing and a catch up. So nice to see them again.

Then, we headed out to meet the representatives of the British Residents Society, the longest established expat group in the TRNC. We discussed what happened to me in Larnaca and they are of the opinion that this was an illegal act and I had encountered a rogue immigration officer with political motivation – it’s not unusual apparently at Larnaca. The BRS have weekly meetings with the High Commissioner and they are going to take it up with him and will report back. This does not affect ordinary holidaymakers flying in and out of Larnaca on a 1, 2 or 3 week holiday even if they are spendng it in the north. These officers are singling out travellers who are spending longer in the north and trying to apply the ROC 90 day rule to them. Anyway…. we’ll see…. In any case, I will not be returning any time soon.

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At lunchtime our friends, Heather and Chris, came and picked us up and we went up to Hoots Bistro in Ilgaz village for lunch. You could walk up there from our place. It’s a really nice restaurant/bar both inside and out, very quaint and pretty. We had lunch outside on their terrace. I had lamb chops (I nearly always have lamb chops here) and Bob had a burger which he said was the best burger he’d had in years. It did look good. We stayed chatting in the sun till about 4.

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Just time for a rest before we were off again. This time to a Hallowe’en party at the Wild Duck restaurant in Karsyaka, just west of Lapta. It is owned and managed by Emma and Az who are the daughter and son in law of our friends Deborah and David. They have made a raging success of the restaurant and its a brilliant family space with great casual food, plenty of safe space for the kids to play, a playground, a lovely paddling pool and a load of ducks. Anyway, we were meeting up there. We ggot our costumes on from Mr Pound. Honestly they looked great despite being so cheap. The masks were very effective. When we got to the Wild Duck it was absolutely rammed. So many people in costume. Inside we found Deborah and David helping at the bar and also our friends Pamela and Eddie together with another couple we know, Mike and Linda. We had a really nice couple of hours there enjoying the costumes and catching up.

We then went to dinner at Driftwood but they had lost our reservation….. it was packed and there wasn’t a good table so we hived off a bit further down the Lapta “strip” to Veni Vici, the local Italian restaurant. I had a sea bass which was delicious. Bob had spaghetti bolognaise and garlic bread. It was a very congenial evening. We met the new owner of the restaurant who was there beginning the handover.

Had a lovely day and more social activities coming in the next few weeks.