Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please…?

 


I have a BIG apology to make.

A little while ago, I received a notification that my blog was no longer going to be delivered to subscribers via something called FeedBurner from July. As with most technological things, I tried to ignore it and hoped it would go away, until I realised that July was almost upon us and I had to do something about this. There was a list of instructions about how to download the subscriber details. I needed to click first on ‘Analyze’.

But where was this word to click on? I started to search the back room of Blogger, browsing the strange terminology. Fallback subdomain. Enable custom robots (that sounds fun!).

And then purely by chance I clicked on Comments, and found more than a hundred unread comments on my blog posts. Some of them were unwanted advertising, spam, the very reason I’d activated something a few years ago that allowed me to moderate comments before they were posted. But I hadn’t also activated something to notify me of comments that needed moderating. I didn’t know they were there. So many were lovely comments from you, the readers. Some of them, especially around the time I bought my house, almost had me in tears.






Please forgive me – I didn’t mean to ignore you! Some of you had written lovely things about my books, or about visiting Tilos and seeing me, or had asked for advice. And I had no idea.

To be honest, I’d stopped posting regularly because everyone had gone quiet and I thought you weren’t so interested in the blog any more. A few of you had commented that it was a shame I didn’t blog so often these days…

I still don’t know how I will deliver this blog in the future as I still haven’t figured out how to download the subscriber details. Perhaps if you would like to continue to receive it as an email, you can send me your email address in a message. Otherwise, please continue to check in from time to time, and I’ll try to keep posting.

I have, of course, been busy, as always – and only partly with writing and editing work. With the abrupt change to a hot, dry season, suddenly the lovely wildflowers and long grass that had filled the garden all winter and spring turned to straw and needed cutting down so as not to be a fire risk. The head gardener (my mum) then arrived from England, and as if alerted of her presence, the travelling plant-sellers started arriving by ferry with trucks full of lovely plants to sell to us. 

Moreover, since the new era of freedom began, it’s been wonderful to travel again, and to have family and friends visiting. Our first trip was to Rhodes to start the process to convert my residence permit into the infamous Brexit-prompted biometric pass. So what if the SAOS ship Stavros takes five hours, going via Halki and Symi? It was a journey, on a ferry! And can you imagine a more beautiful journey, moreover taking in a coast of Symi that is so rarely seen, with its magnificent cliffs? And then once we were there, the shops and restaurants were open again...













It was a year and a half ago in winter that I was last in Astypalea, failing to meet the cheese man. So last week we arranged for people to look after the garden and Fishbags the cat, and took advantage of a new route on the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran and were on the lovely westernmost island of the Dodecanese in three and a half hours. Two days later, our return via the same route looked compromised by a predicted 6 Beaufort, so we took that as a perfect excuse to stay longer. Everyone on the island seems to be a dog-lover and the animals are mostly kept away from the village, so Lisa had some wonderful off-lead freedom too.








And so it was that on Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning, we were trying to catch a little sleep on the hard benches of the Blue Star Chios back to Tilos, with incessant announcements blaring through the loudspeakers in some form of torture, perhaps designed to make more people pay for cabins. All we’d hear was:

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please…

Followed by a minute indecipherable gobbledegook. It’s wonderful to travel, but I think we’ll stay at home for a few days.









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15 comments:

  1. I'm sure we'll forgive you, just this once... 😝

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    1. Great to hear from you, please keep posting, love your updates x

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  2. Love your updates, please keep posting x

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Thank you for posting, it's wonderful to hear of your adventures and see the beautiful pictures.

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  5. Love the pic of Fishbags on the sofa. Clearly took over the house in your absence ��

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  6. Do you have an Instagram account?

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    1. Yes, and since I got a new phone at the start of this year, I've actually been using it! TilosJen

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  7. Have just finished An octopus in my ouzo, which I thoroughly enjoyed and took me back to my early 20's when I was travelling around Greece. Actually moved to Athens in 1976 and never left until 1984 (after a short marriage to a Greek, which produced a beautiful daughter.) I worked in the travel industry at Horizon on Nikis Street and lived out at Glyfada. Had such a ball in the 70's and Greece is forever in my heart. I visit my daughter's family often and travel to the other islands when I can. Speaking fluent Greek certainly is a bonus! Have done quite a bit of research about Tilos and now have itchy feet to try and visit there one day but the ferries are so infrequent it would have to be a longer stay than I would normally like - 2/3 days here, a couple of days somewhere else! Do you know Seva's studios? Looks like a great place to stay.
    Are you still in touch with Stelios, and does he still run the cantina?
    Look forward to reading your latest book.
    Best regards,
    Susan

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    1. Hi Susan! Thanks so much for your wonderful message - lovely to connect, especially lovely to know you enjoyed the book and that you're planning to read the latest one.
      There are quite a few ferries this year linking us to Rhodes and Kos - check out the schedules on the Stefanakis Tilos Travel site. But I'd recommend more than 2/3 days if you can spare the time. Seva's Studios are great, very popular (I've never stayed there myself) and reasonably priced and run by a lovely family - they are a little way up the hill so you just need to be OK with hills. I am indeed still good friends with Stelios and he still runs the cantina (July-September).
      All best wishes,
      Jen

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  8. Just read both your books on Tilos... The second one first lol.
    Fantastic reading, you are truly living the dream.
    Thank you Rob

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    1. Thank you so much! The last book, Wild Abandon, is a little different but I hope it may appeal...

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  9. Hi Jen, I read "Falling in Honey" in June and fell in honey myself (with your writing, books and blogs!). I ordered "An Octopus in my Ouzo" and couldn't put it down. I didn't want it to end, so I had to limit myself to a chapter per day only! Just starting "Wild Abandon", and again am having to limit myself, ha ha :)

    You are living my dream and I am living it via your beautiful writing and pictures. I adore your blog, so please keep it up! I so look forward to receiving an email alert about new posts.

    Looking forward to getting back to Greece next year, and your writing has given me a new ambition to travel to Greece and the islands during the winter months for walking holidays and other adventures. Thank you so much!!

    Looking forward to your next update.

    Best wishes,
    Victoria x

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    1. Thank you so much for your wonderful message - it makes me very happy to read all that. Very best wishes.

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