I have started on the layout for ‘The Eastling’ so, at this rate, it should be ready to release by early next week, if not before. It has been a summer project so it would be good to have it done and dusted by the time the Symi season finishes, which is roughly a week away. Well, that’s when Neil finishes work at the bar, so I call it the end of our summer.
Meanwhile, yesterday. We had a cruise ship pop in for a pint of milk. It was only here a couple of hours in the early morning. I can imagine the passengers hurrying to finish their breakfast and disembarking just in time to be told to get back on, saying, ‘That smelt nice,’ before being shipped out again.
After that excitement, we went for a walk, parting ways as we met the main road because Neil wanted to go uphill, and I wanted to go across country (and a bit up). He ended up doing five miles, and I did my usual three. I was back and starting on my book layout tasks well before he panted his way through the gate. Anyway, that’s my note for the day.
The sun is shining, the sea is calm, the early mornings are colder, but the days are warm. The season is winding down but is not yet over, the boats come and go but not as many day boats as a couple of weeks ago, and most places are still open and will be for a while. Not heard the taxi bots so often, if at all, this last week or so, and I’m not sure about the day trip boats. So, we are definitely in the autumn season, a season that can go by unnoticed as the weather can stay like this until November or December and then change suddenly.
A few odds and bods in the photos today. Over the winter, I tend to be out and about less and so rely on a stock of photos from those time I do get anywhere. At the moment I only seem to be going up and down roads in my walking boots or trainers, and it’s the same road. I’m aiming to do longer walks in a couple of weeks, so you may finally get some variety. And now… back to the editing.
(And some random Symi shots.) Here we are on Monday again. In two weeks I’ll be off to Rhodes for a couple of nights, but before then I have ‘The Eastling’ to finish. It’s back from proofreading, so I am reading through for the last time before letting it go. I’m over halfway and aim to have it ready for layout in a couple of days. Laying out will then take a couple more days, and I usually have a day of frustration while trying to get the Kindle version to present correctly (the print file is much easier, the Kindle never look right in the front matter department). After that, I send it up to Amazon and wait for it to go live, and then I’ll let you have the links. Hopefully, it will be available by the end of the month. As I’ve said before, with this one, you will be better off reading (or rereading) The Saddling and The Witchling first, just so you get the flow, but it’s not 100% necessary.
Morning light
Meanwhile, in other personal news… Nothing much. Been walking when I can, still aiming for three miles per day, five days per week at least. When I’m back from Rhodes, I hope to do one longer hike each week. The current walks are exercise walks and, I have to say, getting easier. From home, all the way up the main road/hill to the Panormitis turn off (just under two miles) and back, can now be done comfortably in about an hour and a quarter. While all that is going on, we’re also doing this ‘Sober October’ thing, but not calling it that. ‘Sober’ makes it sound as if you’re drunk every other month of the year and makes me wonder how a ‘Cold Turkey December’ would look, or a telling your friends, “Hey! I’m coming off ketamine for Christmas.” Actually, I can see the t-shirt…
Starting work.
So, all that’s happening hereabouts, and meanwhile, the social diary is very empty. Apart from one dinner later this week there’s nothing in the diary apart from book stuff, notes to buy various ferry tickets, the bathroom roof to prepare for winter, some mild decorating, light dusting, finding duvets and hanging the draft-excluder hangings ready for the colder weather. Neil is working at the bar up until 23rd or 24th October, and then he’s off for the next few months so belts will have to be tightened financially. Unless, of course, everyone spreads the word about this wonderful new series of mystery thrillers set in a village called Saddling where part three, ‘The Eastling’ is about to play out in a rather Brexit inspired tale of betrayal and social hysteria. If you feel like adding reviews (to any of my books you’ve read), spreading the links around social media, buying a copy for your friends as presents and so on, then please do. I can save the income for ‘Hangover November.’
Fixing up the main road.The river bed from the mountain to the village. At the bottom (you might be able to see it) is the house that took the brunt of the run-off in the big storm last year; part of it is still missing.
We’re launching into the weekend with some more random photos from Symi. Morning light on the south side of Pedi bay, a gulet off Harani in the entrance to Symi harbour, a view from the donkey path heading out of the village towards Xissos, an early morning balcony view, dinner at a taverna in September and a few other shots from before then. I don’t know about you, but I have no plans for the weekend. There are lots of jobs to be done – painting the bathroom roof and ceiling to prevent leaks, weeding plants in their pots, trying to remember where I put the duvet, preparations for winter that include hanging drapes and curtains against the drafts, not that it’s particularly cold yet, but it will be, that kind of thing. Whatever you’re doing, enjoy it!
The island falls quieter still as visitors leave and only a few arrive for the end of the season, but the weather is holding. Today’s photos come from a trip to Yialos on Wednesday for the usual things, post office, bank, collect a courier delivery, pharmacy… Actually, I was very impressed with the pharmacy – as I always am with both of them. I was after some anti-inflammatories for a shoulder injury, or ‘anti-inflammables’ as Neil calls them, but the pharmacist told me that I shouldn’t take them because I also take something to slow my heart rate and the anti-inflams can cause high blood pressure. The thing is, I didn’t need to offer the BP tablet info, she already knew I take them. I know I always buy them from there but only once per month and with all the other customers they have… I wish my memory was that good.
Meanwhile, back in the village yesterday… After work I went for a walk, it was around 7.30, up to the monastery and back again, took a few photos and came home just in time to meet our landlord and the electrician who needed to check our fuses as there was a problem with the power downstairs. I knew this; I’d turned it off ages ago. There’s no-one living down there (luckily, as they’d have a noisy time with us walking about overhead, the TV and so on – it’s not that we’re noisy, but it’s very thin floor/ceiling), but after an air con unit was put in and it rained, our electrics kept blowing. The only thing that stopped it was flicking a switch on the fuse box that didn’t work any of our lights or sockets. It must have operated downstairs. So, that was sorted out, or not as it’s going to be fixed ‘avrio’, but as it makes no never mind to us up here, I’m not worried.
