So handy I did a lot of tree climbing when I was younger trying to keep up with two elder brothers. It turns out it’s a necessary skill for living in Cyprus.

Sitting on a plane 48 hours ago I was thinking most of the hassles were over. Having negotiated the main obstacles like cleaning, handing over keys, leaving ‘do’ with cake and mini speech. Then that boozy leaving lunch, when all of us became embarrassingly honest about…well that would be for another time! I thought I was tired then, but throw in squeezing our kit into too many bags and cases, more goodbyes and the flying visit to the bank to change our address. There seemed to be no end to what needed doing before we left the UK. Oh no, the phone needs unlocking – more phone calls! Anyway, once we were on the motorway, surely we were nearly there. Apparently not, arriving at the Oxfordshire RAF base, we discovered ‘check-in’ was the night before now and I found myself scrummaging on the floor in the lobby of the accommodation block looking for sharp objects amongst make-up bags in hand luggage. Why were my hands now sticky and purple? Smells like….nail varnish…yes, leaking bottle in here somewhere. Glancing over my shoulder the gaggle of female soldiers with massive camouflage Burgens, who were also trying to sort out weight problems (for their baggage I mean), would they be discarding nail varnish remover? Maybe not.

In fact the rest of the journey and even the arrival at our new house late on Saturday night was fairly pain free. We were beginning to settle into a new mediterranean-style laid back life, which for us involved chicken salad, a little shifting furniture around, some gentle unpacking and then a swim to cool down. At breakfast we’d enjoyed a fresh grapefruit, which we’d found on the terrace outside. It was slightly bruised in one place and we wondered how it had got there – perhaps someone had dropped it by mistake or it had been thrown over the fence…we ate it anyway. Later that afternoon I happened to look up into a small bush in the middle of the terrace and saw something large and yellow, on closer examination there were a lot of large yellow balls – grapefruits! We have a grapefruit tree in our garden and today I enjoyed a freshly picked juice-filled grapefruit for breakfast. Delicious.

But last night grapefruits were the last thing on my mind. I had sauntered outside for a few minutes to look at the night sky and enjoy the novelty of being outside without layers. Earlier I’d locked up careful as we popped out for a drink in the village. The Major followed shutting the front door behind him with the keys on the table inside. Oops, or words to that effect. Surely we’d left a window open somewhere or even one of the several other doors? No, I was far too efficient in security measures…slight panic that we had no phones – also locked inside the house – and one of us wasn’t wearing shoes. It was a fair walk to anyone who might help and it was also after 11pm. Would we have to sleep on the sun loungers all night and face the Mosquitos? Another slightly more desperate search revealed a tiny toilet window could be opened. There was hope again. But the 6ft 7inch Major’s shoulder’s wouldn’t fit through the gap – so it was down to me to climb on a slightly dodgy object at shoulder height and slide through the half of the window we could open, but backwards and on my stomach. Time to take off the new dress and thank goodness underwear was matching for a change. I’m not sure what any neighbours looking out at the view would think as I ran round the house in my bra and knickers with mission accomplished to retrieve my dress draped elegantly on the washing line. So scraped elbows and knees – but the tree climbing experience had proved useful.