Final postcard from Cyprus - posted in England!

I cannot believe it is four days since I blogged, nor can I believe I am now home and back at the day job. There is a reason, I've been unwell, too much sun fried the creative bits of my brain. It was painful and serves me right for being smug about swimming before breakfast and all that.

I didn't want to leave Cyprus in limbo as the end of my previous blog was a little clliffhanger, which is why I hope you have come back to read more about 'Omar' and 'Tom'. I don't know their real names, but it amused me to think of the two brothers who owned the hotel where we were staying, as stand-ins on my holiday for the two actors and their famous characters.

We planned a sail around the bay and on to Famagusta (now a 'ghost town', apparently still as it was when the people fled in 1974). We would stop off for a swim and lunch on board, how romantic I thought, especially as the boat was called, 'Shirley Valentine', it's true! Unfortunately husband was poorly so we could not risk him ruining other people's day out by throwing up.

This is the part you'll love, I was told by a reliable source that the boat is owned by an English girl and her Greek Cypriot husband; you've got it, she had done a SV, stayed, and is now running the leisure cruise with Tom C.., I mean her husband; you couldn't make it up.

The references to Dr Zchivago & Shirley Valentine, made me wonder how the inspiration behind these stories came about for the two authors, Boris Pasternak & Willy Russell, as they brought the two ideas to life. But that's just it, the stories are on observations of real life; simple as that. Now all I have to do is take a leaf out of their books, so to speak, and write my own.

You'll be pleased to know, I hope, that I did not have to pay excess baggage on the way home. Husband 'reorganised' the packin, I had to agree to throw away magazines, oils and potions; it worked. But as we approached the check-in desk, with not a word of a lie, the whole computer/baggage system at Larnaca Airport crashed. I didn't touch a thing; it took the IT guys 45 minutes to find the fault and restore order. What an exit from Cyprus.

I hope you like the image of me that husband captured for you. He was under strict orders for there to be no face, cellulite, profile or cleavage.

'Speak' soon, PP.