I don’t believe in ghosts but I can’t explain what I saw.

They say that once you admit you have a problem, you are half way towards getting it fixed. Well, I’m going to make a start by declaring, here and now, that I need professional help. I need a good psychiatrist to find out what makes me tick because there is something not quite right in my head.

I don’t normally dream too much, or maybe I do but I’m just not aware of it. But lately I have been having dreams that make absolutely no sense whatsoever and they don’t seem to follow any logic.

I’ll give you an example. The other night I dreamt that I was in my local pub having a pint with my grandson. We were both having a pint of Guinness and we were engaged in a serious conversation. Now you might think that this sounds normal enough and that it’s nice that a grandfather and grandson would go for a drink together. But Cooper isn’t three years old yet.

He was sitting on a stool next to me and he was hardly able to reach the counter, drinking a pint and chatting away and my brain didn’t think that there was anything wrong with that picture.

I’ve had lots more of these, some are too silly to even remember, but they are becoming more frequent. I have had adventures with people I don’t even know, like the actor Michael Caine. I have also performed a concert with the comedian Billy Connolly. I have never met either of these guys.

I have had another little experience too that may or may not be related.

A few years back I was living in Cyprus. I had a lovely two- bedroom apartment and it was relatively new. It was built on the edge of The Buffer Zone which is a stretch of no mans’ land that runs from east to west on the island. It separates the north of the island which is occupied by Turkish Cypriots and the south of the island which is occupied by the Greek Cypriots.

From the balcony in my apartment I had an unobstructed view of the Buffer Zone and I could also see part of the ghost city of Famagusta. Part of that city remains unoccupied since the Turkish invasion in 1974 and it is monitored by the United Nations. That resort area was once the playground of the rich and famous like Liz Taylor and Richard Burton but now lies abandoned.

One night I was sleeping in the apartment and as usual I had the bedroom door open to allow the air to circulate. Something woke me and when I opened my eyes there was a man standing in the doorway. I couldn’t make out his face but I could see the rest of him. My first thought was that I had been broken into.

I reached over for the light and jumped out of bed but there was nobody there. I checked the front door and the sliding door to the balcony and they were both locked. There was nobody else in the apartment and at that stage I was kind of spooked.

There were two ladies living in the apartment next door and we had become great friends. They were two mature ladies, Ulla from Sweden and Tove from Denmark. I wasn’t living there long when I heard a loud crash coming from their apartment one evening. It sounded to me like the kitchen units were after falling off the wall. I went next door and rang the bell. The door opened and these two astonished faces looked out at me. I asked them if they were ok and they started laughing.

They couldn’t understand how anyone would care whether they lived or died and they thought it was wonderful that someone would check up on them. They invited me in for a gin and tonic and that was the start of a great friendship.

They used to give me a hard time about my work in the Buffer Zone and being part of the UN which they had no great faith in. I used to tell them that I was very busy killing people and protecting them from all kinds of marauders. They took to calling me Mr. Bond and they still do today.

One day, I was talking to my neighbours and I told them about my visitor and I expected to get a bit of slagging. But to my surprise they told me that they had felt a presence in their apartment too.

I subsequently got talking to a local farmer and he was telling me about the history of the area. He told me that it was a very violent time during the invasion and many people died. He said that there were many bodies scattered around that area of the Buffer Zone including the place where my block of apartments now stood.

He also told me that there are people missing who are presumed to be dead but whose bodies have never been recovered.

I have thought about what happened in my apartment that night and I have tried to find a plausible explanation for what I saw. I am normally a practical person and I would be sceptical about the spirit world and ghosts and goblins. But I can’t explain what I saw.

My sister, Deb, came to stay with me for a couple of weeks with her son, Ryan, and they shared the spare room. I didn’t say anything to them about my visitor because I didn’t want to spook them. But one morning we were having a chat and Deb mentioned that she thought she saw someone standing at the foot of the bed during the night.

Maybe I’m not the only one losing it.