OK I'm set: printer (HPcopy2) reinstalled and behaved itself. Settle on my bed with Mrs Bradford and Dr. Chambers. The preamble looks nasty. Good, only 7 thematic clues, but what does “relating to that number mean”? It seems that no answers are entered normally. I'm hopeless on clues with no helping letters.

A quick look through the clues and nothing comes to mind. Try the last clue, it's often a way in. “New band EP” must be an anagram but the answer has 5 letters. Maybe thematic. Panic sets in and I fall asleep for 20 minutes.

8 p.m. Time to go out into town to see who's around. Ekselans Beer House, my usual place, now has a wireless modem so I take the lap-top with me. Check emails and book my flight to Istanbul for next week. Transmit money to the carpenter? No, not from a public place, I think.

Friends turn up and I make no further progress.

Midnight, I'm at home with a toasted sandwich and no clues solved. In desperation I run some of the longer clues through Crossword Maestro.

“Held rope fixed around pole” gives me PHENOL RED. Hmm. Should I have spotted that “fixed” is an angrind? Yes. Further panic and time for bed.

Saturday 6 a.m. I'm usually best with clues first thing so I open my eyes and have another look at the puzzle. Still nothing. Golly! Can I write in and say I was ill this week? Surely all the other blogs have been by successful solvers? This is getting embarrassing.

8dn. Uncle is EME, I'm sure, so “abase” is DEMEANE. Can D = brother? Surely not. BESHAME?

Decidedly unhappy, I go back to sleep.

16ac. Look up “push” in Bradfords. HUSTLE has “the French” in it. “Thus, when cycling” = HUST? Huh?

POAT is rapidly becoming my new nemesis, replacing Pieman who replaced Schadenfreude.

Ah 18ac. is easy: W moves inside WHEN to give HEWN. So why hadn't I got that earlier? Nerves, I guess. Can we enter some letters? No.

My only thoughts are:

14ac must be CUR + close to treE??
15ac terriers are TA – so??
34ac “Dales town” – is that Hetlea? “the sort” could be HET
6dn train 201 could be *CCI
11dn “type” can indicate anagram, so do Azharis come from Iran?
23dn *sportsground can yield GO TO RUN etc etc aaargh
26dn Superman's girlfriend was Lois Lane(?)

Aha! 28dn BEDPAN! Check the definition in Chambers. Eeew, but it can be “one warming the sheets” in 29ac. Then “was beguiled” must be WILED. Can we fill that in? No the space is too short! Aaargh!!! all the down clues have one letter too many for their grid entries. This is awful.

Try a different tack. We have two of the letters of the writer: B and W. Boswell, perhaps? “Author of The 6, 6, one line of which….” So surely it's a poet we're looking for? Bradford's lists, 7 letters, gives Newbolt. On to Wikipedia. What did he write? Nothing useful.

Midday and it's time to meet the plumber and architect to go over final snags.

I decide to take a break and drive out into the countryside. There's a fabulous valley nearby full of cherry orchards, vineyards and olive groves. I stop for lunch at a village restaurant. Totally ecological and proud of it, they serve simple specialities with only local produce. I have a 'meze' of aubergine salad, marsh samphire and sweet, garlicky beetroot. Then “manti” a type of ravioli served in garlic yoghurt with chilli in melted butter poured over. The sort of thing Marco Polo introduced to Italy, I guess.

And they have a wireless modem too! I make no progress on “Reappearance”, but I check emails and the new web-site for Aegean Rentals, and write this blog. How do you guys cope with a job and a family as well???

Sunday morning and I now have a total of 12 clues solved but not a single letter entered in the grid. I now feel my best chance is to find the writer's name. I have T, B, Y and W from TEASPOON (little agitator), BEDPAN (one warming the sheets), YESTEREVENING (last night?) and WILED (was beguiling). I can't find an 8-letter word for “lustful” and can't begin to see what “ticking” might mean.

[[Decide to move house after all, so I spend my first night in the Olive Tree House. Downstairs stone walled bedroom is cool, silent, dark as tomb which I suspect it may have been. No. The Greek priest's house, I am told. Morning tea on the balcony looking down the hill to Ephesus and Isa Bey Mosque. The Temple of Artemis is long since gone (though I reckon I have some of its stone in this house) - and a single column has been re-erected by the Austrians for tourists to gawp at from their bus.

To my right the vast "Gate of Persecution" leads into the restored ruins of St. John's Basilica, where the Evangelist was almost certainly interred.]]

Look at the grid again: all down answers are odd-number length but have to lose a letter. All across answers have an even number of letters. So what?

Monday: no progress on “Reappearance”. To the dentist for trial fitting of my new porcelain crown. She makes some adjustments and sends it back to Izmir. I go home for a nap. Well, I fit some lights and chrome stuff in both bathrooms. 52 drill holes in all.

Tuesday. Still no progress. Quite depressed about agreeing to do this blog. Idiot.

Wednesday early morning. Look at those letters again. T, B, Y, W. Maybe a 6-letter poet with one initial. Yes!! 2 initials: YEATS it must be. Back to the old house where there is still a wireless modem and ODQ (nothing useful there). Google search gives me an archive of 300 of his poems. The SPIRIT MEDIUM. Print it off and take to the bar in the evening. Nothing. Depressed again. (Meanwhile, however, despite a 7-hour power cut, my dentist managed to fit my new tooth and it's settled in well. We didn't discuss the cost yet, but I know it'll be a fraction of UK price.)

Thursday. Still convinced it must be Yeats, I go back to the internet. A new archive soon shows up The SECOND COMING. How had I missed that? And why not in ODQ (my copy is old, though)?

The line must be “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. I had already thought the down clues might lose the central letter, but even a complete anagram of across clues wouldn't fit.

While on internet, I Google the line; writer DEEPAK CHOPRA comes up, so we're there! With not a single letter entered in the grid!! An absolute first for me.

11 am. Have a cappuccino at Tat restaurant. It's now very hot.

Idiot – forgot you can fill in 1ac and 35 now! Talk about making a meal of a puzzle.

I have YESTERVENING (sic) at 9dn. 1Dn looks like ST??H?(?)???C??. “Ill effects” suggests staphilococcus or something. SECOND definitely looks helpful, fits with CALPSO (sic) – put that in. And TEASPOON?

It's still a very blank grid.

I decide to fill in all down clues I have, losing the central letter.

CAL(Y)PSO
EMB(R)UTE
YESTER(E)VENING
PHEN(O)LRED
NYM(P)HAL
WI(L)ED

Not much to show for 6 nights' work, I know! Knowing Deepak Chopra has to appear symmetrically should help, but I'm surprised to find it doesn't.

I go back to my old computer and open up TEA and Chambers.

STAPHY(L)OCOCCI (of course, idiot) goes in and unlocks the other thematic clues.

I seem to have CYWN at 27ac. That looks like the back end of HEWN from 18ac. So 27ac must be CYTE!

Yes!!! Across clues are broken in two (of course, hence the even numbers) with symmetrical counterparts.

The next hour passes in a whirl of ruthless use of TEA and Chambers. The grid is filled, apart from 15ac and 26 dn.

To Kusadasi to look for second-hand furniture. Awful. Koctas aka B&Q has some overpriced stuff but I find a mattress cover to fit my new bed.

Thursday evening. I check the structure of every clue. Now I see I have crossed off every across clue, so I'm satisfied they work. GREGSON or someone will give the details so I won't.

7dn is ROBIN HOOD a local district?
11dn IRANIAN ? I don't like it.
25dn presumably STAMNOI, but can't see how the clue works.
26dn I have ?LO?ON and she could still be Lois! TEA didn't help.

FRIDAY (30th May)

Check those last clues – ONE OF STAMNOI = SAFE+NO+MOTION*

15 ac is one of a pair of clues linked by …'s So it's BALATA, a tree, not a dog.
26dn ?LO?ON should be ?LO??ON (yes, I'm losing my mind. Can't forget that DEEPAK CHOPRA just won't fit). Acknowledge gives CON. I have been reading almost every clue the wrong way round.
6dn ACYCLIC. So “Young Conservative” (from 29ac) is YC – I didn't find that in my Chambers. And “most of ticking” = CLIC(K).
Don't much like 20dn. Who would think “empty vessel” meant “vacant urn” AND have heard of the word VACATUR? I guess I'm not doing enough crosswords these days.
Nor19dn: “Carlsisle's back” = E. OK that helps the surface reading, but I never heard of “number nine” as a purgative before.
I do like 33ac/1dn: EROGENIC being a reflection of “bloodshed at the movies”
1dn/6dn – clearly STAPHY(L)OCOCCI. “train 201″ = LOCO + CCI. “metal piece” = TAP, but how does “swerving” become SHY?

A final check reveals NEBUAE and CLOION in my grid, instead of NEBLAE and CLOSON.

- and I'm ready to go to the post office!

NO!! I still have to find DEEPAK CHOPRA and highlight.

Back to the Pink House (on my new motor scooter which I somehow acquired this week from a local exprat) print out a fresh grid and enter only those letters DEPAKCHOR, wherever they appear. Surely the symmetry will be apparent! Only one K, so work from there. Nothing! This is just not fair.

Midday: meet 2 Californian history students as agreed to visit Claros or Metropolis or Magnesia, but we all decide the beach is a better idea. Checked the water temperatures online at http://www.meteoroloji.gov.tr/2006/deniz/deniz-denizsuyusicakligi.aspx which suggests a healthy 20 degrees C. On diving in I find this is thoroughly over-optimistic. Still, it's great to have the first swim of the year. I leave the two guys who have swum off round the point and retire to the beach cafeteria.

Just as my grilled sea-bass with rocket salad and tsatsiki (and a rather nice “sos” of olive oil, herbs and lemon) arrives, a military helicopter swoops low over the headland. I assume my friends have been sighted and someone fears they are trying to swim to Samos, but I'm not very concerned. Only met them yesterday.

Friday evening: back to the internet I discover to my astonishment people discussing the latest Listener solution – it's been Friday all day! I print off the new one: it's arithmetical and looks grim, confirming my view that this is probably the last Listener I shall attempt.

FRIDAY NIGHT. My very old pal Adrian Saunders looks in at the Ekselans Beer House. He's on good form, the vacation at Universities here having started already. I always like to tell him how my Listener struggles are going and he listens politely. W.B.Yeats? Excellent poet! Oh yes “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” – that's a book by … “Stop!”, I say, “I know what you're going to say! Write it down.”

He writes CHINUA ACHEBE. And then adds “He's the same generation as V.S.Naipaul, whose books you will remember I lent you. Also a major influence on de Bernieres, I believe.” (Yes, he really talks like that.)

As he passes me the grid back across the table I can see CHINUAACHEBE snaking across a diagonal.

21:25 Friday night and IT'S DONE.

What a relief. And what a thrill. And the best thing is that it actually involved a little human input in the form of a knowledgeable friend in the right place at the right moment.

I wanted to say this was “the perfect Listener experience”, but Adrian tells me not use such a pretentious phrase.