Tilos Photos
I was going through my files to see what photos I could share with you today and found some from Tilos. Nothing to do with Symi, but as they were there, I thought I’d use them.
It’s Monday as I write and the water is coming in. We only found the water feed open once last week, and that was on Friday for one hour only, maybe we missed it on the other days. It usually comes in from around eight in the morning and stays on until as late as twelve or one three days per week. At the moment it’s going into our neighbour’s sterna as he needs it more than we do. We share a meter, and although we pay the bill on line, he gives us something towards it when he’s taken some in. You have to be very careful with water on Symi, and other islands, especially at this time of year. Just a note.
Back to Tilos. I’ve not been able to get to Tilos this year, but I went there last year and the year before to have my writing retreat, as I call it. It’s an easy journey from Symi, but you can only go direct on a Friday evening on the Blue Star. It’s possible via Rhodes on other days. I have stayed at two very good places which I chose because they had large dining tables. Why? Because I like to spread things out. I have my notebooks on one side, the laptop in the middle, and papers all around where I can jot things down or look things up. I also place the table facing a window with little view, so there are not too many distractions. The header image at my author blog was taken in Tilos last year, with Paddington looking on.
When on my retreat I fall into a routine. Up early, usually at six, and straight out for a walk around the seafront at Lavidia, where I stay. This clears the head and allows me to plan out what I am working on for that day. Back to the apartment and coffee, and then I settle down to a couple of hours typing, sometimes with a break for breakfast. At the last place I stayed, the chambermaid would come to do the room every day and on the first day, I noticed she came at 10.30, so I upped and went out for a frappe in the square, returning 45 minutes later when she had finished. I then did that every day only to find out she varied her routine and no matter what time I went out and came back, she would just be arriving as I was coming back to work. Never mind, I still managed to get another two hours at the typing before lunch. After that, an afternoon session, usually longer, before finally putting down the pen and keyboard around six.
I managed to get 35,000 words done last year in that one week, which is actually only six days because the travel back is early in the morning on Friday. I also took one afternoon shift off to go for a walk because I thought I should. Last year I worked on ‘The Saddling’ and the year before on ‘Remotely’. This year, as I couldn’t go, it took me a bit longer to write what I was working on, doing it at home with all the home distractions around me. But, I have managed 80,000 words of ‘The Witchling’ and am now on the second draft; this is the follow up to ‘Saddling’ and, at this rate, might be ready before Christmas. We’ll see. I also have ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ on the go, Neil is reading the draft of that as I write. So, look out for the new books later in the year and meanwhile, tell all your friends about those available already (click the links above) and I’ll get back to my typing while you check out these other images from Tilos.
