The morning after the fright with the 15 JU88s, Dad took the Ford van with ‘about a dozen chaps’ on board into Cyrene for a swim in sea, which was warm even though the sky was partly overcast.The road from camp at Lakatamia wound steeply over spectacular hills and required good driving skills. They got caught in a few rain showers on the way back, but everyone enjoyed the views and the trip out.
Dad was sharing a tent with Arthur Horsfall, a Canadian pilot about the same age, who was keeping his own diary notes. Arthur had also enjoyed the swimming outing, and names this Castle St Hilarion, commenting: “Some drive! Some Castle!”
In the evening, Dad set off again with the crowd for some night-life of Nicosia, finishing up at The Empire. Here, he found a little kitten shivering in a stairwell, so brought it back in his jacket into camp, where it spent the night at the foot of the camp bed. Arthur had stayed behind and gone to bed early, but Arthur’s own diary entry for that day mentions the arrival of the kitten! When Dad woke up on the next morning, Friday 29th October, the kitten was nestled next to his left ear, and Dad stayed in the tent writing up his ‘reserve’ log book, to help settle it in. He named it ‘Timbaki’, after a popular night-club singer from The Empire.
On days like these it must have seemed that the war must be a dream. But who knew what the next day would bring?
Where They Served 