Weekend chatter

Was that the last busy weekend of the season? I wonder. Only busy because there was a big birthday bash at the bar and in the taverna afterwards. Music, dancing, food and fun, with us being the first to leave as we’re lightweights when it comes to staying out late. ‘Meet for pre-dinner drinks at eight,’ usually receives the reply, ‘I’m normally thinking about going to bed at eight, but I’ll do my best.’ We had a great time, though, and so did everyone else, from what I can gather.

I’ve also gathered that a new café is now open. It had its blessing on Sunday, and it’s on the way to the new landing stage, harbour, jetty, call it what you will. Where the Blue Star and other large ships pull in, on that stretch of road near the petrol station. I’m not sure of opening hours yet, so I can’t say if it will be open for the early morning Blue Star arrivals at 5.00, but no doubt time will tell.

While at the desk, draft two of a new ‘Clearwater’ story is now complete, so I can tinker with it in my draft three. I still only have half a title, so can’t get the cover started yet, but hopefully, by the day’s end, I will have found the rest of the title and sent a message to my cover designer who will, as usual, come up with something fabulous. I also have more of an idea of what the fourth part to the Saddling series is going to be, so I may finally get around to starting that. I just need to finish this one and then set myself a timetable for drafting the next. It may be autumn and heading for winter, but there is still much to do.

Food photos from the season

The randomness continues with a theme today; 10 random photos that are food-related. Some date back to January (forks), others are last week (Thai meal in Rhodes), some are plain silly. Basically, all I am doing is clearing out my old photo folder ‘cos I haven’t got anything new to show you from the past couple of days when I’ve been staying home. Have a good weekend.

Photos from the season

Some recent random images from various times through the season today and tomorrow. We have a birthday party to attend this evening, first at the Rainbow Bar and then dinner at Georgio’s. After that, so far, the weekend and following week appear to be socially free, if you see what I mean, so plenty of early nights and early mornings and, hopefully, lots of writing time in between.

Thursday ramble

The season is calming down, but the weather remains very pleasant. Warm days, cooler in the evening and in the shade, with fewer visitors about but still enough for most places to be open. The day boats continue to come in unloading day-trippers, and Yialos seems to be busy every time I am down there. Now that my little holiday is over and we’re returning to normal up here, I am back to working on the next book.

Because the weather is cooler, I don’t need to get up and out at dawn for my morning walk, something which I have neglected of late, yet today I was awake at three and wide awake too, so I got up and started on my day nice and early. I can always pop up the mountain later if I feel like it, though with lots of editing to catch up on, I am not sure I shall.

I’m afraid my blog will become more and more about what I am doing at home over the next few months as autumn and winter are quieter times for me, not that summer is very busy for me either as I don’t travel far, but I will continue to blog away until I completely run out of things to ramble about. Which is what I’ve done now, so, at 5.23, I am heading off into writing land to lose myself for a few hours before setting about the task of sorting the winter clothes from the summer stock and seeing what I can donate to the refugees, still fit into (if anything), and what needs replacing. [Note: must buy thermals.]

Off we go again

And here I am back from Rhodes, holiday over and back to work. We went across last Sunday on the Sebeco, and I came back yesterday on the Panagia which, on a Tuesday, comes directly to Yialos first, going to Panormitis later in the day. Neil met me, and we went to Mediterraneo for a relax before going to lunch at Trata – as if I haven’t done enough eating and drinking in the last 2.5 weeks.

When in Rhodes, I treated myself to an apartment in Mandraki, a place called ‘The Perfect Spot’, which you can find on Booking.com and elsewhere. I’d stayed there before so this time, Despina who own the apartments, sent me the access code and told me where to find my key. I let myself in and found everything, as the name implies, perfect. Clean, tidy, with everything you need for self-catering (not that I did much of that), on the pedestrian street, well glazed for peace and quiet, aircon and all mod cons. Highly recommended.

Mother stayed at the Plaza for a night, so I nipped up to there for breakfast – another bargain. It’s open to non-residents, and they have a huge buffet with just about everything you could need, apart from teapots, and all for only €7.00. Great value.

The journey back on Tuesday was easy. A walk around to Akandia, taking a short cut through the bottom of the Old Town and breezing onto the Panagia where I sat and looked through a Greek language book I had bought. I am considering taking an intensive three-week course next year and want to revise book one before seeing if I can manage stage two. I only realised this morning that the book I have isn’t the one the course uses, but Neil has a copy of that, so I’ll compare them later and see if my book one gets me to the required level for the course. I’ve done book one before, but want to revise from scratch to improve my writing and comprehension – so that’s another winter project to look forward to.

Anyway, it’s back to work, there’s a pile of washing to do, shopping to get in, piano to play later, and then I can get back to my next novel – which will be in English.