It's been a while since my last post. That's not been because there's been little to talk about. For one reason or another life has taken over. I was first tempted to say 'gotten in the way', but that would imply that the desired state is writing lots of blog posts all the time and what actually happened – having a really enjoyable and interesting time – is a somehow less fulfilling enterprise. No matter. Life has afforded a break and I'm here now.

I've got a string of half-completed blog posts from the past couple of months but reading through them never created a huge desire to finish them off. If you're reading this then I suppose I finally found one I liked.

Let's start with a short list. It's been about three months since we arrived in Italy for our first workaway. If anyone's ever looking for a basic guide to working as slaves in foreign countries we have a couple of pointers. Some of these seem desperately simple but remember all it takes for anyone to be stupid is about five seconds of not thinking.

1. Be clear how much you are there to do and don't be blackmailed into doing more than you are comfortable with.

2. When you go shopping, buy what the locals buy. It's cheaper and if you've got to buy something, you may as well try weird stuff while you're at it. The island's local delicacy is Turkish delight (I don't think they call it that here in Greece though!).

Our first host here wanted an animal taxi in Athens and called up a number she found in the phone book. On learning that the dog was coming from Syros the taxi driver's first question was not 'which ferry will you be coming in on?' or 'how big is the dog?', it was 'Syros? You must bring me some Turkish Delight!'. Maybe this is just a reflection on the Greek male's relationship with their stomachs (no comment), but it's a lot better than Fry's. It comes in many flavours including an amazing bitter orange and a lovely strawberry one with nuts and coconut wafers instead of sugar, on the whole, exquisite.

On the other hand, I bought this amazing looking cake from a local bakery. It was covered in this scrumptious-looking icing and these wonderful glazed apples. It was the size of a smallish loaf of bread and cost £5. I got it home in anticipation of great things and it turned out the icing was a revolting excuse for custard, the apples were sparse and flavourless and the cake itself was a stodgy Victoria sponge such as you'd feel cheated by at any church fête.

3. Remember that you are doing them as big a favour (if not bigger, sometimes) as they are doing you – if they're not treating you as equals and it's getting to you then nobody is going to be happy.

4. Don't turn up and expect a holiday. It's not. At the same time don't turn up with the expectation that you'll be doing a 'job'. You're not. It's a 'workaway' – this is distinct and different and the experience benefits from you treating it as such.

5. For proper live streaming news download 'livestation'. Sure, it's not a biggie for most people. On the other hand I think I'm becoming addicted to C-SPAN and Al-Jazeera. This is the place you can find both - legitimately, too. This of course is only relevant if you have internet.

6. Get internet access of some kind but don't use it very much. (don't watch C-SPAN or Al-Jazeera).

7. More of a general lesson for life, this one. You don't have to accept every time someone offers you a drink.

With all this in mind, the whole thing can be really quite special.

Walking dogs along a warm idyllic beach sunset in late October was one of the perks of this particular engagement. The being in another country and not to be working, not to be holidaying, I want to say 'and then just to be living'. It sounds glib, but by 'just to be living' I don't mean to imply a simple existence, that there aren't complications – I mean that there are.

I won't bore you with everything that's happened since last time, so here's the plan. First some photos and then a 'part II' post with the story of the Norlangos dog sanctuary, there's some sadness and there's even a couple of happy endings. I'm experimenting on a new way of bordering the photos and as yet I'm not settled on what to go with. For now, just have some pretty pictures and we'll see how it goes.

First, a couple from our brief jaunt in Athens before we got to the island.

Now I'm saving a lot of animal shots for the next post but there was a blind cat it was our job to look after. She had been abandoned, and instead of doing the humane thing and putting her to sleep the owners had dumped her by the roadside in a plastic bag. When she was found a volunteer pleaded for her life with the runner of the sanctuary and so instead of being run over she was taken in and fed. She is now a part of life there. On this island there is a general poor treatment of animals (which I'll talk about later). For now, let's just say I'm not a maniacal animal rights activist. I would certainly rather give money to the NSPCC than the RSPCA, but the way they treat their pets and strays...well let's just say that 'you wouldn't treat an animal that way.'

As for the Island itself, it's one of those places that veers from total occupation to total wilderness in the blink of an eye. That's a facet I dearly love in places.

There is, as always, more. Stay tuned for part II.