We are moving

yes the move has started and will hopefully be completed tomorrow. Normal service will resume soon

After the rain...........

Merry Christmas

from a wet and windy Morocco! I hope everyone has a happy day, full of good cheer and surrounded by family and friends.

Here it is just another day....

We have had non stop rain for almost a week now (or is it longer - all the days are merging marked only by the increasing size and number of puddles).

We had been waiting for rain (or man hauled water) to fill our well before we moved in but then when it did start raining we found all the little flaws in the concreting! I think now our new house is drier than the house we are in ... but it is not a great idea to move house in torrential rain so we are waiting it out for some drier weather.

I have been ill! I was feeling rotten for a few days with a sore throat and swollen glands which weren't getting any better so I went to see a doctor. She agreed I was ill and gave me some antibiotic so I am feeling much better now. This was coupled with a burnt finger - that I didn't remember doing but started to take on elephant man appearances - and a very sore and bloody big toe when I slipped and stubbed it in the patio!

everywhere else is wet, wet and windy. The river in the valley below our house is a raging torrent of red and has flooded the road between here and Tiraluin (?) the next village along. Yesterday Mohamed went in to Inzegane to get some polythene sheeting to try and help waterproof our house (it now has a raincoat!) and had to wait an hour to get back across the river at the Paradise Nomades. I think a tree had been swept away in the river and blocked the bridge for a while.

..........and in the village when we have heavy rain the power goes... so nothing for it but go to bed.

The cats are all really pissed off with the weather and either spend the day in bed with me or perched on top of something looking miserable.

Oooh it has stopped raining! The photo was taken from the front door, looking up the road, at the start of the rainy week, I will venture out today and get some more shots of wild and wetness.

.... our reward for this rain will be beautiful greenness. Which is already starting to sprout.

Camels

Yes these are some of the nomads and their camels down in the valley below the new house. The locals don't really like them near the village as they think the camels eat all their goat's food.....

Winter draws on....

Well here I am still in the pink house. We are getting our well looked at tomorrow to make sure it is not leaking and then we will be getting it filled up so we will have washing water when we move in..... There is rain forecast for the weekend and the start of next week but if that fails we will get our truck over to collect some water to fill the well. But that is the only thing that is delaying the move now.

We had a really bad rain storm the other night, heavy rain with thunder and lightening and of course the electricity went out. You might almost have felt sorry for us crouching over a tagine lit by a couple of night light candles. And I have been feeling the cold. In the sun it is still quite warm, but out of the sun and at night I have been feeling rather cold - I suppose it is not helped that our "living room" is in fact outdoors. Up at the house it seems quite scottish with the wind blowing around.

As well as the well (?) we have a large water tanked parked on our upstairs patio/roof and Mohamed has rigged up the electric pump he used while building so that water from the well will be pumped up into the tank which then gravity feeds a small tap in our toilet (or will do when the tap is fixed). So I will have running water! I think the only other thing we need to do for now is rig a plastic sheet over the stairwell so that I don't have too much running water - since we are now in the rainy season.

I walked up to the house the other evening with some coffee for Mohamed and about 100 yards up the hill found that Honey had followed me. She skipped along in the fields at the side of the road - more cautiously when she found herself in strange lands (which was quite far up the road actually) and came with me all the way to the house. She had a good sniff round so when we move she at least will be on slightly familiar territory. It reminded me of Taroudant when Honey, Marmela, Elvis and sometimes Martha would all follow me if I went along to the local corner shop (Aretha would stay at home keeping look out for me coming back).

We bought some of the plastic rafia type matting that is very common here to put on the concrete floors as I didn't really want to put our berber carpet straight on to concrete and it will be a while before we can get the floors tiled. Anyway it is starting to look quite homely.

I had to make my monthly trip to the Police Station in Taroudant yesterday to see if my Carte de Sejour had arrived. It had not - that is 6 months now.

I collected Mohamed's mother and some of our things that were in storage in her house. She is staying with us for a few days before heading off to Chtouka to see her brother (and sister probably). I wonder if we will see scorpions as we haven't had any in the house since last time she was here. I have been reading that lavender acts as a deterrent so I am going to have lavender bushes on either side of the door and under any windows..... I have also bought some nasturtium seeds to start growing. I am really looking forward to having a garden again and this time no horse to tempt me away from it.

And that is about all my news. This picture is of the family at the Eid checking out the goat lungs. We still have a fair quantity of goat meat in the freezer - despite eating it at every other meal.....



In the village they have a jolly few days after the Eid with a few of the local youths dressed up in goatskins and touring round the houses playing music and dancing. You have to pay them money and they will hit you with some goats feet which is supposed to bring you luck. The lads all have a big party with the funds raised. I have written a bit about the leather man or goat man or Boujeloud in the blog I write. See the link for "the official blog" on this page. Unfortunately my camera battery died when we got up close to a goat man... here is a far away shot. Will definitely try to get some better pictures for next year.

Elvis is a big Mummy's Boy!

No news turns out to be good news

Yes sorry for the absence, Honey went missing last weekend and I was feeling very low about it all week.... so not really feeling like blogging. But she came back late this morning, very hungry and thin and a bit edgy but otherwise fine. She must have gone in to someone's house who then went away for the week and left her locked in.

The distress was compounded when Elvis also went missing - but he came back after only a day. I think I will have to get them all implanted with a locator chip or something.

I will write some more later but I have to get lunch cooked. Mohamed is up at the house grouting the bathroom tiles.

Hallo

At last time to sit and blog... though really I should be working as I have gallons of work to get through.

October/November were busy with visitors and how fabulous that was. I had lots of lovely days doing touristy things, eating out and talking, talking talking to people who could actually understand what I was talking about.

The weather is getting cooler though still hot during the day - hotter than normal for this time of the year I think.

The house is just about ready for us to move in though we are going to paint the walls before we do that. The electricity is connected and Mohamed has been levelling the ground at the back of the house so we are starting to have the appearance of a garden. I think we might move before next weekend - which is the weekend of Eid el Kbir. This is when everyone eats a sheep in commemoration of Abraham and Ismael (a particularly happy day for Ismael). We will probably go over to Ait Iazza (with sheep or goat in the back of the car) for the day of the Eid but come back home in the evening. I must remember to get Mohamed to buy some charcoal before then.

We almost had an addition to the family as there was a tiny little puppy wandering round the village and I finally managed to break down Mohamed's resistance to any dog that was not a police trained attack dog (he has totally irrational fears about my safety - well I think they are irrational anyway). Unluckily for the little dog we could not find it once we had decided to give it a home. We later found out that it was from a litter of 6 (so it might not have been the same puppy that we kept seeing) and they were all either back with the mother or had found homes elsewhere in the village. Although I had convinced Mohamed that any dog would do for barking, general security etc he is determined to have boy and there were only girls left at home. It is probably better for the cats if we wait till they are settled in the new home before we introduce a puppy to the mix so we will just wait. I don't suppose it will be long before we find another little pup looking for a home.

Mohamed has been applying for jobs - SwissAir were looking for Moroccan cabin crew so we have sent off his CV and he is now thinking of applying to other airlines. I don't know if anything will come of it as competition is very fierce but it would be good for him to have the opportunity to get out and see the world a bit and use all his language skills.

Gosh I almost forgot... wildlife highlights ... when my sister was here we were heading off to get some drinking water and met one of the wild pigs on the road! Everyone (including the pig) was so surprised that none of us got a picture.... but it was great to see it close up. I know we will probably see a lot of them at a distance from the house but it will probably be a while before we get so close to one again. I wonder if we will ever see the wolves that everyone talks about. I am a bit sceptical - probably just feral dogs... but then again at the tannery in Taroudant they have wolfskins - so maybe? I have heard some yipping up on the mountain in the evening.

The picture is up in the mountains on the way to Immouzer looking back towards Paradise Valley (and yes there was water in the river!). Ian took the picture.

Yes I am still alive

sooo sorry everyone - been too busy with visitors to blog and now I have loads of work to catch up on before I can blog properly.... so here is a picture of me talking my friend Caroline to death as we wandered off into the sunset together.

The really hot news is that EasyJet now fly to Agadir from Gatwick (and back again) - so no more excuses!

I realised yesterday that you can now see our house from the road.... I will try and remember to take a picture next time I am out.

We now just have to find a couple of doors, build a wall for the toilet, line the water tank, add toilet fittings and clear out all the rubble and get the electricity connected..... and then we will be able to move in.

oh weeks go by and I am still here......

Here is a picture of the sunset that Mohamed took last week... no filters just pure colour!

We now have (3 and a half) walls and I have been given my instructions to draw the stairs (from basement to ground floor) so they can be built tomorrow. Then all we need is a door and a toilet and ..... we can move in!

here is what we have in the basement:

Almost over

yes Ramadan is almost over..... and I am dreaming of my breakfast cup of coffee and no more Harira!

We have now finished pouring the concrete for the basement ceiling and the ground floor. Mohamed worked all night on Tuesday night to get it finished. He says it was really something seeing dawn coming up over the mountains.

I haven't been up to see it yet - but since it will still be full of the wooden scaffolding I think I might wait a few days. Then we can get the electricity in and install a toilet and move in! We are going to live in the basement while we build upstairs... mainly while we save up to get it finished as it has cost a lot more than we estimated to get the basement built - but then our estimates didn't include having a basement with 3 rooms and a garage and buying an extra bit of garden ground. Anyway it will be nice to be finally living in our own place ... even in an unsettled way.

Everyone is well - hope you all are too

Life goes on

I can't believe how the last week, (month... year) has flown by. Ramadan is just entering the final week... I am getting heartily sick of making and eating harira, but found my earplugs so at least I am now managing to get a proper nights sleep (not being woken before dawn by Mohamed and his mother making and eating food!).

Progress on the house is slow... but now the concrete base is down for about 3/4 of the house and they are getting ready to pour the ceiling of the basement. Once that is done we are going to concentrate on getting electricity in, a toilet put in and a water supply (via a tank) put in - then we will probably move in while the building goes on above.

The workers decided to do the concreting by night and I was tasked with making a huge turkey stew for them to keep them going. I don't know if I am going to have to do it again this week when they pour the ceiling.

My niece Josephine has left home... off to university in Edinburgh, and Rosie has left Glasgow to start her PhD in London. I have been thinking about when I left home - how strange it felt and how alone I was.... but not for long. What is strange now is that it was almost 25 - no 35 years ago!

Wikaren

And this is a view of the village - well the eastern end of the village. We are living in the big square pink house above and to the right of the mosque.

Elvis

Here is Elvis in our inside patio - with the rose tree

Water, water everywhere.....

On Sunday we took a trip up the valley behind our new house to a fresh water spring to collect some "drinking" water. We went in our faithful Kangoo though everyone else takes their donkey.

I wish I had a donkey.

It is pretty little place, surrounded by olive trees, a fig tree and even some palm trees. The spring water comes via a pipe into a series of 3 tanks - one for humans, one for donkeys to drink from, and a reservoir for keeping the olive trees watered. While we were there one of the men from the village came and let the water out of the reservoir to trickle into an arrangement of irrigation channels. He then went around blocking and unblocking the different channels (with an assortment of stones and rags) to make sure all the trees in the grove got a drink.

The road to the well has only just been made passable for cars, and soon the villages up the valley will be connected to the electric grid, though I suspect it will be a while before they have piped water!

Back in the village I have been working out what to do with household rubbish. There is no collection service here. I put all old bread and vegetable peelings outside the gate and in the evening donkeys come and eat it up. They really enjoyed some watermelon the other day. I think I am going to have burn other food waste and paper and then I will just have plastic (excluding the bottles we use to collect water from the valley) and tins to worry about. I have been sneaking bin bags full of rubbish in to Agadir and leaving it in the eurobins in the street where we used to live in Dhakla.... But I suddenly realised the other day that the heavily loaded horse and carts that I see wending their way up the hill as I am driving down into Agadir are full of rubbish and are heading off to dump it somewhere in the countryside.....

Plastic waste is a real problem here and Moroccans are really bad at just dropping litter. I am sure I have talked before about how the countryside is strewn with old carrier bags - usually black plastic which scurry along the bottom of the hedges and hang in bushes. If you just catch the movement out of the corner of your eye you think there is a big black hen rooting in the ditch or a blackbird in the bushes (depending on the size of the bin bag)... actually that reminds me of the time I came across a plastic wrapped silage bale that had rolled onto our road at Slaggan Croft. It was early in the morning in winter so quite dark and I thought at first it was a dead cow on the road!

Well I had better get back to work... this week mostly tidying up my movie script and setting up a new website or two.....

Quiet Days

Well we are a week into Ramadan now and I am getting back into the swing of producing harira everynight... and sleeping part of the day! Mohamed and his mother get up before dawn to eat... but are under strict instructions not to disturb me - not that they pay attention to those strict instructions.

Cat wars have continued.... Marmela was the latest victim with another infected wound - this time on her leg. I managed to hold her down long enough the other day to get a hot pad on it... and sure enough yesterday it burst and we had puss everywhere. It seems to be healing nicely now.

The house site is getting ready for the concrete to be poured.... at least now we have 3 rooms and a garage. If the electricity is connected it will be at least as well appointed as the house we are in just now. Oh no I forgot - no toilet.

Well that is all the news for now.

She's back!

I had the brainwave last night that maybe we should check the old house.... I figured if there was a fight and she ran away, she would have run downhill and maybe got lost and wandered until she found something she recognised but the wrong house.

So Mohamed went down and shone the torch through a gap in the back door and sure enough there she was sitting in the patio. He tried to catch her but she ran away, so I went down and managed to get her to come to me (ok I had sardines!)

Anway she is home now and seems quite settled after eating all the food she could find. We kept all the cats in last night but I have opened the door this morning and will just have to hope she doesn't wander off again. She is sleeping quite peacefully now - though with her ears open!

Thank you everyone for your kind words.

It is Aretha's turn for injury - limping badly on a back leg but no sign of a wound. I think it might be a pulled muscle.

.... and then there were four

my sad news today is that Martha has been missing for 3 days and 3 nights now. Her paw was getting better, on Wednesday the swelling was down and she was putting some weight on it. That night there was a terrific cat fight somewhere close by and we haven't seen Martha since.

I keep hoping she will turn up as she has been gone for a day or two before.... but it is getting less likely now - and the village is not so big that she could get lost.

Aretha is in season and doing her seal impression - so if Martha doesn't hear me calling she must surely hear Aretha.

surely not still scorchio

After a day and night of blissful cool I discovered the drawback of air conditioning.... it only works if you have electricity! We then found out that our neighbour (with the meter) had been watching the meter whizzing round and decided we were using too much electricity so switched us off!

Now when we moved in and Mohamed was negotiating how much we should pay every month the neighbour had said that we probably had all sorts of electrical apparatus and would consume a lot. At the time we had not dreamt of air conditioning and so Mohamed argued back and showed him our last bills and eventually settled on a reasonable amount. When we got the aircon we should have gone straight away to the neighbour... but it was very late at night before we got it going, and we just never got a chance the next day... and then he found out for himself. Anyway there were some words and Mohamed came home and said we would be moving!

So here we are in another house, actually a better house than the last one and about 3/4 of the way up the hill to where our house will be. The rooms are much larger (so we can live in them and store all the unpacked boxes etc) and we have two patios - an indoor and and outdoor patio. The drawback is the water is much further away - out of the house, through the patio, through a gate and round the side of the house. Mohamed is doing all the water carrying now.... definitely.

The cats are just about settled in, having done battle with previously occupying tomcat. Only poor Martha has a problem.... she is hopping about on 3 legs with one really swollen paw. I have had a close look at it and can't see any cuts or thorns so I am guessing she has been stung by something..... She seems to be OK apart from her paw so I will leave it for a day or two and see how it goes. She doesn't really like being handled much so if I push it too much she will retreat completely. It was only with a lot of difficulty that I managed the examination I have made.

Meanwhile up at the house, floors have been concreted and walls have gone up in the basement. There are still a few huge boulders that need to be broken down a bit. Mohamed did have some notion of leaving some of the boulders exposed in the wall/floor of one of the rooms.... but I have persuaded him not to do that. They have started building the wall at the front of the house and I hope will be doing the floor/basement ceiling soon.

My friend Kate has arrived with her 3 children for their holiday in Agadir and I went and spent the day with them yesterday. Bizarrely enough it was "Moroccan Day" in the hotel ..... so all the people who never leave the hotel grounds can go home saying they were in Morocco and have a miniature tajine to prove it.

Still Scorchio

I really need a book on bugs. I have been amazed at the variety of ants... from teeny tiny ones that decided to drown themselves in the cats water to some huge ones - that looked as if they could carry the cats off! The cats have great fun hunting mothzillas at night and crunching their way through the various mantis type bugs that appear every now and then. And I found this dead locust type thing in the patio the other morning. ... picture posted at last

Now what I want to know is - what is that stinger is for? and don't say popping eyeballs!

The latest worry is huge spiders. I am normally OK with spiders and given that they eat flies (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) I usually let them live and build their webs.... but I know that there are some in Morocco that can give us (and presumably the cats) a serious problem if they bite. Which ones? There are some scarily big ones and I am ashamed to say I am resorting to stomping on them - assuming I can catch them.

ps I have now had my first close encounter with a live scorpion.... late the other night just back from Taroudannt I walked across the patio into the kitchen, came out of the kitchen and there it was in the middle of the patio! One shout of "Mohamed Scorpion!" and he came running and stomped it. So in response to the request for more pictures of the bugs.... yes as long as they don't come running at me when I have the camera on them! I just edited a bit here in case I never get any visitors.... :)

Well it is getting really hard going with the heat ... we have been sleeping out on the patio for over a week now but it is still really hot at night. The poor cats are all under the bed panting... sadly it is too small a space for me to join them as it probably is the coolest place just now. But not for long.... after spending a fair bit of time at the weekend in Marjane because it is cool we decided to buy an air conditioner. Unfortunately so did everyone else in Agadir. It took us all day yesterday to find one and now we are on the hunt for a technician to fit it.

Scorchio!

Phew it has been hot.... Sunday and Monday were super heated - must have been over 40! Too hot to sleep on Sunday night so was feeling very wabbit on Monday morning. Then we had a power cut and then I got stung by a wasp.

We headed off to the coast and had a cool swim which was lovely. Very stupidly I forgot I was wearing my glasses and they got swept away by the surf! Somewhere in the Atlantic now.

When we got home we had a flood of phone calls from Taroudant. Rashid's daughter Aziza had been in an accident. She fell off the ladder (to the roof) and had to go off to hospital in Agadir. The phone calls (translated by Mohamed) had it that she was in a coma and had damage to her head and eye.... so it was a terrible worry. Yesterday morning we headed out to pick them up at the Hospital as Aziza was now conscious and being sent home. Although it must have been a terrible shock, Aziza had not been as ill as I thought... she was unconscious for a while - not in a coma! Apparently she has a hairline fracture but no permanent damage. She is going to have a stonking black eye and was a a bit shocked by it all... but by the time we got back to Taroudant she was starting to get some of her bounce back.

Getting back to Taroudant took a while - we first of all had to go back to the flat where Rashid and his brother and sister (Mohamed and R'kosh) had spent the night. So we had to have tea... and then it was nearly lunchtime so we had to have lunch! We finally set off and then had a puncture and had to stop by the side of the road and change the tyre. Aziza, R'kosh and I sat under a tree and found some argan nuts which we opened. The nut itself is not edible - well probably not enjoyable is more accurate. It has quite a small amount of flesh which has a soaplike texture. You need to shell a lot of argan to get any amount of oil out of them

In the village here, most houses have argan fruit drying on the roof and they use the shells in their ovens. We will have to buy some local argan oil this year.

As I said it was around 5 pm when we finally made it to Taroudant. J'mia and Mina were just about besides themselves with anxiety but everyone was much relieved to see her up and about. J'mia's dad had been feeling dreadful as Aziza had climbed up to the roof to see him - they were sleeping up there to try and catch some cool breezes. No doubt the story of Aziza falling will be retold again and again whenever there is a family get together.

Mohamed and I headed off to the flat and did some more packing and came back to Wikaren around midnight with another car load of stuff. There is still a lot to move .... and of course some cleaning to do.... but it shouldn't take long now. The little house here is now full to overflowing and I don't know where anything is or where to put anything else!

Settling in

Marmela has found her favourite place to sit and watch the world/patio (which you will see if I can get a picture to load).

Despite Elvis going missing for 36 hours (there were tears) and Honey being awol for a time this morning ..... the cats are all very settled and happy here. Though I realised the other day that Elvis has stopped shouting at us - which is a bit sad as I miss our conversations.

Elvis: Raalph
Me: What's that Elvis?
Elvis: Rawaaalph
Me: Really Elvis?
Elvis: Let me out you idiot or I will spray all over the house (ralph)!

I have had a really miserable week - you will have to forgive me in advance for feeling sorry for myself.

I overdid the moving boxes and strained my back, which was aggravated by all the water drawing and bending over that is required in this house.... so sore back. Then I ate or drank something (I think I might have got the drinking water mixed with the washing water) and came down with a seemingly never-ending (though it felt terminal at times) bout of diarrhoea - and of course we have a squat toilet.

As you dry your eyes (from sympathy and not from laughing I hope) you will be pleased to know that I am feeling much better.

On Wednesday I had to go to Taroudannt to get my Carte Sejour temporary form stamped for another month. This turned out to be good timing as Mohamed's sister Khadija had just had her baby. She is in Ait Iazza for the summer as usual but had complications so had to go in to Taroudannt to have the baby, I think they thought she might need a caesarean. She ended up delivering a normal healthy little girl all by herself!

As I drove home in the evening it felt nice to be coming back here. I passed a herd of camels grazing the argan woods around us and the village looked really peaceful from the road as the sun set behind the hills.

Of course I had forgotten to take my camera with me so I can't share those images with you.

Busy busy

As promised some photos of the house building. The walls are made from local stone "stuck" together with local mud.. .though we are using concrete and steel uprights to give it a bit more strength.

You can see why it is called "the place of stones".

Because of the lie of the land we have decided to add some basement rooms - these will be much cooler in the summer. They are just about finished building the walls now and should start filling in the land to level it ready for the platform.

Mohamed came home on Monday night really pleased with himself. He had gone off with one of our builders who had spotted a bee hive lodged between some rocks along the hillside, so they went and raided some honey. Mohamed came back here late at night with a few honeycombs and the next morning I woke up to a patio full of angry bees..... I don't know if they were the same bees or not but there must be some proverb about "he who steals the honey must face the bee"..... (yes of course Mohamed was sent to deal with them!)

Mohamed is also trying to get the village together to get a better water supply. They sank a well last year which has lots of water but it is apparently not quite drinkable so they just left it. He is going to see if he can get an association together to buy a filter for the water and even if it is not good enough for human drinking it will do for animals and for washing etc.

I had 3 goats on the roof the other day! I think every one here keeps goats and what with their bleats (and the patter of their hooves on the roof) the donkeys complaining about something or other and the insects (I keep thinking I have left the pressure cooker on) life is never quiet in the village. Mohamed has been talking about getting a goat or two but we will see if we can buy a bit more ground for garden and goatpen or not and I would rather have a donkey than a goat.

Apart from that all goes on as normal... weather is hot, cats are sleeping all day and roaming at night and I am just about managing to work despite a terrible internet connection. My Maroc telecom mobile has a really bad signal in this house. I discovered the other day that I could only make a phone call if I stood on a chair in the corner of the patio, held the phone above my head and shouted into it! I think the signal is better up at the top of the village. We also heard that the Hotel along the road had started to lobby Maroc Telecom for a fixed line but they said it wasn't worth it for one customer. Perhaps with us and the French guy living in the village also lobbying we might even get a fixed line in? I must be feeling particularly optimistic this morning.

Just a quickie

I am here in Wikaren now....trying to adjust to life without running water (apart from me running backwards and forwards with buckets). We have electricity (borrowed from neighbour and with lots of extension leads) and internet... though it can be quite slow. Here is the kitchen

Note the built in cupboards and handy supply of argan nut shells for burning in the oven. (I might have to leave posting the picture till later as it is taking ages to upload - watch this space)

The cats are loving it.. I kept them locked in a room the first night (what was left after moving) and let them out one at a time the next day ... but they are really happy being free to roam at night defending the rooftop from all comers and finding cool spots to sleep in during the day. So far Honey has caught a lizard.

I have a load of stuff still to move from Taroudant and then work out where I am putting it.... and trying to work out what I can live without for a few months till the house is built.

Work is progressing on that ... will try and get some pictures to post soon.

So basically you can't contact me by the old phone number but my mobile still works (though it is not great reception in this house).

Hope you are all well

Back to the Future

So we have rented a place in the village Wikaren. It has a nice big patio with a well in the middle..... which is the only source of water! I will need to post you a picture of the kitchen which is sort of stone age in its fixtures and fittings. I am trying to approach this with a spirit of adventure.

the good news is (pause while I touch wood) that the building is going up quite quickly so maybe I will not have to live there too long. I know as I write though that things in Morocco always take much longer than you think they will.

Not sure yet when I will be moving... we need to sort something out about internet connection before I can move anywhere so it is not going to be immediate.

Is there anyone out there? When I started with Blogger I got quite a lot of comments but it has all gone quiet... so I have no way of knowing if anyone is reading this.

I have been busy all week writing a business plan for a client, including a marketing strategy.... which always make me think of Ratbert. Hope you all enjoy the cartoons.

June 17th

Just a quick update today as I have a mountain of work waiting to be done...... I am about to embark on writing a marketing plan! First I have to work out what one of those is.

It has been really really hot here this last week... so hot that even inside my lovely cool flat it has started to get very hot around midday! All the cats come home and throw themselves onto a cool bit of floor somewhere and drowse around for the rest of the day. Finally yesterday we had thunder and lightening and rain and this morning is much cooler.

I have at last managed to get all the paperwork done for the renewal of my Carte de Sejour... now I just have to turn up at the police station once a month to get my receipt stamped again and see if the new card has arrived....... I have just realised one of the bad things about moving to Wikaren will be that I have to go to the awful police station in Agadir to renew my card next year. They were really unfriendly and unhelpful - as well as being inefficient. At least in Taroudant they are friendly and helpful.

Mohamed has been getting up every morning and heading off for Wikaren. He has been gathering all the building materials and getting a temporary water supply sorted out. The land has more or less been cleared of stones .... and more stones gathered for building and I think they have started digging the foundations. We are going to build as much as we can of the outside walls in stone as this will be cooler in the summer than concrete blocks. This will make the building process much slower though.

Mohamed is on the look out for somewhere local to rent while we are building - to save on the 70km round trip every day. But I dread moving twice!

Anyway I had better get on with some work

not last night.....

At last the land is registered.... all we need to do now is build.
I am in the throes of renewing my carte de sejour - must go out and get a new letter from my bank manager. I am not sure the relevance of this... would they throw me out of the country if I didn't have any money?
We currently have grandchildren visiting. Well actually 3 little kittens who bear a striking resemblance to Sami and Elvis/Marmela so they could well be offspring from Max or Elvis. I know that we can't really keep them (five cats is quite enough, 8 is more than enough) but at least they will be a bit stronger to deal with what life throws at them. Yesterday Marmela decided to be a surrogate mother to them and she is keeping them licked and cuddled - I am not sure if she is actually producing milk or not.

News

So sorry for the gap.... I was waiting for some final details to get sorted - but then I realised that final details always take longer than you think they will....soooo



We have just bought another piece of land. This is a small piece in a little village on a hill about 15 minutes from Agadir. The idea is that we can build a little house and live in it till things sort themselves out in Taroudant (land registration, title, development of University etc etc). The piece of land is called Place of Stones in a village called Wikaren (which is Berber for the place of Karen - I think Karen must have been someone's name (not as in the Scottish girl's name)). We are in the process of selling one of the trucks to finance the house building and I have more or less finalised the house plan. The land was very cheap (I bought it with part of my oDesk earnings!) and it is a great spot at the top of the village - the photo on this post is from Google earth and our plot is right at the top just to the left of the middle. The photo on this page is the view north-ish. The drawback is that there is no mains water. OK that sounds pretty bad but the water is being put in along the road and should get to the village in a couple of years and in the meantime we will buy a tank and get it filled periodically.

In the paperwork the land is described as bounded on the West by the road - which I find quite funny as the road to the west is a sort of stony sheep or goat track. You can see it on this photo on the left of the thorn boundary hedge. We have bought just 200m sq of this ground.

We have the necessary paperwork to register the land as ours so we should get that done this week (though we are playing it safe till we get the house built and just doing it in Mohamed's name so the Tourist card isn't played). We should get started clearing the ground and building the platform (as opposed to digging foundations!) pretty soon. Well I need to remember this is Morocco but I feel that it is the light at the end of the tunnel!

I had the idea of doing this because I thought it would be good spot to use as a holiday rental when we finally build our house here. It will be close enough to Agadir to tempt people who would like a bit of both worlds, it is also close (but not too close) to the new Agadir-Marakesh autoroute and of course Taroudant and the Atlas mountains.

Being closer to Agadir will be good for lots of other things as well, I think Mohamed is thinking that finding work there will be easier than in Taroudant. He has done some translation work on line but it is not really very steady.

I have finally got a writing job! I will be writing a blog about living in Morocco...... I will have to make it a bit more interesting and informative than "This week I have mainly been eating couscous.." or whatever. The blog is for a Danish lady property developer currently in the UK but planning to move out to Morocco. She already has a house in Marakesh and a property development business and wants to include a blog about what life is like here. I will let you all know when the blog goes live.

A smaller purchase but very appreciated was a water filter jug - the water here is very very hard and my coffee machine gets very chalked up. What a difference using the filtered water makes to the taste of the coffee. But if anyone is thinking of coming out can they bring me one of those metal fur collecting thingies that you put in kettles.... thank you!

What else... well Honey has a bit of a bladder/kidney infection so we are taking her to the Vet this afternoon. There is a new vet in Taroudant with a cat drawn on his advertising - so hopefully he will know one end from the other. In the meantime poor Honey is desperately trying to find the right place to pee - but wherever she tries she still cannot relieve herself, poor girl.

Ooh and last time but one that I was at the land (in Ouled Said) depositing the compost vegetables and watering Little Grey (she has lemons!) I spotted a critter crossing the road in front and diving into the bamboo bushes. When I got home I looked it up and it was a Mongoose! Just as well since it has been reported (by nervous sister in law) that there are snakes in our land!

We also had our own domestic wildlife adventures. The cats were very interested in the tiny space underneath my desk the other night and on investigation we finally found quite a large lizard hiding in the tubular metal of the desk leg! I was a bit worried it might have been a scorpion................... if I ever get cut off in mid blog you will know what has happened to me! Anyway the lizard, without part of it's tail which I had found earlier in the week, was released to the wild (much to the digust of all the cats) and I will be looking for some rubber stoppers to fit over the ends of the leg posts.

I think that just about covers it for now.

dogs, horses, trucks

This morning I am sitting with a little puppy at my side....... I just know this will end in tears. She was sitting outside the house last night and Mohamed took pity on her enough to let her sleep outside the front door wrapped in a blanket but I don't think he will be keen to keep her (the blanket was his idea). True enough the flat is not really big enough for a little dog as well as 5 cats. She was hungry and full of fleas and has a sore leg. We have fed her and sprayed her to deal with the fleas but I am not sure what is wrong with her leg. Little girl dogs get put out on the streets because no one wants the hassle of constant puppies. Update... little doggie has gone :(

Wednesday was our wedding anniversary. We went out horseriding for

the day at a new place that has opened just outside Taroudant. What a lovely day I had - and I think Mohamed enjoyed himself as well. The horses were Berber Arab stallions, very well looked after. I set out on a four year old chestnut called Aloueen - which means "God Help You" (yes I know - it put me off a bit as well but actually this is a common term used almost like a blessing in Morocco - the sort of thing you would say if someone walked past carrying a heavy bag or was about to start a major task). He had a beautiful trot and a nice smooth canter but was rather full of energy and shook his head a lot and tried to buck me off at one point when I was holding him back in canter. I didn't want to overtake Mohamed - as this was only his 2nd time riding.

Aloueen also at one point decided that a sandy part of the track was the perfect place to get down and roll! I thought at first he was just trying to grab a bite to eat - and was not at all ready for him to go down onto the ground. I managed to get my leg out of the stirrup and as I put one hand on the ground to try and get myself away from under him he realised that he had me on his back and had better get back up. Luckily I managed to hang on!

Lascen, our guide, made me swap with him so for the rest of the ride I was on Kalel - a very nice dark dapple grey. We rode through fields of ripe barley, along little tracks and dirt roads till we came to a small village at the start of the High Atlas and then turned back towards Taroudant. They do run overnight treks into the hills... a definite for a trip sometime - maybe when I have some horseriding visitors! You can see that although things are getting dry, there are still wild flowers growing along the tracks. It would have been truly lovely just after the rains earlier this year.

So I can just about sit down and walk normally again now.... I must try and get some more exercise this year.

We have a house full of visitors again... Mohamed's mother and two of his cousins. She had been staying with her brother for a week and the girls (one from her sister and one from her brother) came back with her to visit Aicha and have a look round Taroudant.

Things are just getting back to normal following a huge transport strike. Morocco has a really awful road safety record - in 2000 there were 10 fatalities a day from RTA - 1996 figures show that there were 20 deaths per 10000 vehicles compared with 1.5 in the UK. The figures have only gone up since 2000. So the new minister for transport is trying various means to improve the situation. He has tried education campaigns and is now looking at implementing stricter fines and sentences for people speeding or driving under the influence of alcohol (yes it does happen).

The problem with this is twofold (or is it threefold?).

Moroccans do not generally respect the LAW - there is a deeply ingrained belief that you only need to obey traffic law if there is a policeman watching. This is only reinforced by the corrupt and lazy police force. The increase in the level of fines just means that you have to pay more corruption to the police when you are caught... and so the average moroccan is at a big disadvantage.

Morocco is a poor country. Most people subsist on wages that allow them to keep a roof over their head and food in their family's mouths. People do not have the cash to buy anything other than the minimum daily requirements, the smallest packet of washing powder, single helpings of cheese or sachets of shampoo - they do not have extra money to buy in bulk never mind save for holidays etc.

As a country it gets by because fresh food is cheap. As a developing country it is trying to expand its export market and here the countryside is full of orange trees and polytunnels growing courgettes and aubergines, tomatoes, bananas etc etc. To be able to sell to the west, it needs to keep the price of production down.... so for example in order to keep the cost of oranges down, the factories pay trucks like ours to transport loads that are in fact twice the legal limit for loading (we carry 16 ton when we should only load 8!) If we carried less we would only get half the price and that would only cover fuel and driver costs and we would go out of business. So everyone overloads... and as you pass the frequent police stops you just hand over 10 or 20 or 30 dirham. With this new law we would have to pay 100 or 200 or 400 dirham just to keep on the road.... so no profit in the trip and the reason for the strike.

What is the answer? The factories should pay twice the price for the loads..... but then will Tesco and Asda continue to buy oranges from Morocco if the price goes up?

I said threefold but maybe I should have said fourfold or more .... the other elements are that most Moroccans have not passed a real driving test - pay the right level of corruption and you are guaranteed to pass. So the standard of driving is not high..... and then there is the fatalistic approach to life in general. Inshallah!

random

I have an ideas hamster in my head.  Now anyone who grew up with a hamster (or maybe a gerbil) in their bedroom will know exactly what I mean.  Your hamster gets up in the middle of the night and runs and runs on its treadmill.... not like a directionless drudge but actively working that wheel.... really getting somewhere.

 

Well that is how my ideas hamster is .... it works away at ideas until they either arrive as a good solid concept or the whole thing spins out of control (sometimes both).

just thought I would share that with you

Babylon 5

I just remembered this old tv series the other day.  I used to really love it - Channel 4 Friday night I think.  It was sci-fi and started with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"  so guaranteed to pull me in.  Anyway apparently the world is full of Babylon 5 fans (I only know 2 - Rob and Stewart that's you) and the whole 5 series, tv movies, extras and the follow on series (Crusade) are all available for download.  My days now revolve around checking my torrents to see how the download is going.  Unfortunately not many other people are downloading so it is taking forever.  I don't think waiting is the best part!

April Showers

We had some wild weather at the weekend, thunder and lightening, rain and HAIL! As things were starting to get dry and yellow/red again it was nice to get some more rain for regreening .... back to sunshine again now though. We really do need wet springs every year - though I don't suppose the scandinavians who come here to escape winter would necessarily agree.

They have started harvesting the barley grown in the field at the back of our flat.... poor cats used to love running around in there hidden from sight. This early harvesting is one of the reasons why I keep getting confused about what month it is.... that is July and August activity not March/April.

So What is New

Well I realise that I forgot to say that my arabic classes have been cancelled. Well I had to abandon them because the French guy stopped coming and the cost would have gone from expensive to exorbitant.... I had a feeling that he might drop out but there was little I could do. It is a real shame as I was starting to make progress. I will keep trying to practice what I had learnt and maybe learn some new verbs and hope that either the mysterious 3rd person (who was supposed to start classes with us but didn't) shows up or we find another class.

Marmela is much better. The day after the vet came the abscess burst. I think Marmela got a bit of a fright when it happened and ran around so we had blood and pus all over the flat. However it is starting to heal over nicely now - though she still has a big scab it no longer takes up half her head.

The pictured cat is Smokey Robertson (yes well the vet's assistant was too young to realise that she had got the name wrong on the vaccination card) who recently moved in with my sister (Aberdeen). He is a lovely big fella and really does talk to you - though a limited vocabulary (so far) "Why?" was a favourite and I am pretty sure I heard "Allah".

Catalog - Aretha

Last but not least - though she is the smallest as well. Aretha is my little home friend, sitting in the chair behind me or on top of the pc or sometimes on my lap when I am working. She rarely leaves the house for any length of time and gets very anxious when everyone else does. Apart from that she is very like her mother. She likes to be brushed, likes to eat cake - if I make pancakes I have to make some for Marmela and Aretha..... I should get a more up to date photo for you - but she was such a cute little kitten - I can hear you all going aaaah.

Catalog - Martha

What can I say about Martha - she has the most beautiful face. I named her Martha because she looked like she was wearing lashings of eye-liner when she was a kitten. She keeps herself very much to herself - never going very far from home but happiest if she can avoid contact with all humans.... though she doesn't mind lying beside me if she is there when I get into bed at night. She is the one who brings home stuff from outside, paper bags, bits of rubber etc etc. She was obsessed by my leather gloves and worked out how to open the bedside table drawer from underneath so she could get them out. She is now targetting her efforts at getting hold of my pink foam rubber toe dividers (nail varnish for the application of).

Catalog - Elvis

By some strange fluke we named him right. He is the noisiest cat in town. He yeowls to be let out, then we hear him shouting in the street, then he is hollering to get back in. 30 seconds later he is asking to be let out again. He also does a really good Darth Vader impression... when he was a little kitten he got a chest infection and he still wheezes a fair bit. He is not quite as cuddly as his father was but he is a big soft teddy bear... despite trying to live up to the fact that he is the only boy in the house.

Catalog - Honey

Next comes Honey. She was picked up in Ait Melloul when we had the chicken shop and will be 3 in November.

She keeps herself to herself - going out every morning and coming back at lunch time. I have no idea what she gets up to but it is obviously something very interesting and important.

She likes to sleep on top of me all night - luckily she is not too heavy

Catalog - Marmela

By special request here is the current cat population. We currently have 5

Obviously first and foremost is Marmela, queen of all despite the scabby blue face. She is a true Berber cat who loves to eat bread and cake. We found her in the Talborjt area of Agadir and she will be 3 in May. Favourite colour - ginger, Favourite pastime - being brushed.

party frocks galore

I really like all the colour in this photo. Last week there was the wedding of some family connection (Mohamed's nephew's wife's father's good friends) in Taroudant and they asked if we would take movie and still photos. It was a really long day as I went along to shoot the henna party in the afternoon and then we stayed right till the bride was safely delivered to the groom's family home - so didn't get home till about 5 am.... this is probably the reason I came down with a cold. A great time was had by all.

Phlegm and Puss

well yes it has been as horrible as it sounds!

I had a horrible cold and Marmela has an abscess.  Cold has been managed with paracetemol, oranges and honey but we had to get the vet in to deal with Marmela.  Her little head had bulged hugely for a couple of days but no sign of the original wound.  The vet lanced the bulge (jets of pus) and gave her some antibiotic.  He will come back tomorrow and give her another going over.  She is looking very miserable - face shaved and sprayed blue - and we are not laughing at her.  I don't think I will post a photo of her - it would not be respectful.

I did find the best way of restraining cats for the purposes of pills etc.  Two pillowcases one inside the other - pop the cat in and then swaddle with some crepe bandage. It is pretty escape proof - though Marmela did manage to bite the vet!

18th March

The weather has turned hot again, though things are still pretty green.  I have finally got the house to myself again following the most recent visit from m-i-l and it is lovely and quiet so I thought I would take 10 minutes to write something before I get stuck into some accounts.  

Last week we went to Agadir where I got my crown fitted but I still have to go back in a couple weeks to have it checked over.  That is a tooth crown - despite now having followers I have not been promoted to royalty.

While there we went to Inzegane to see if we could find a good cheap iron and I went to see the little old bone sorter man..... if you are a long term reader you will remember his miraculous cure of my sprained ankle.  I bent my elbow the wrong way a few weeks back and it has been giving me gip so I thought I would see if he could help.  It did feel much better after he had handled it, but it is sore again now.   Mind you he did say I should put something cold on it when I got home and I was so tired by the time I got home that I forgot and then the next day I tackled my ironing mountain - probably not the best exercise for injured elbows.  

Anyway as he was manipulating my elbow he told us about how as a young man he was recruited as an acrobat for a circus and spent 8 years in Australia.  He comes from a berber mountain village famous for raising acrobats!  Since coming back to Morocco he has featured in an advertisement for tea, and now he sits in a little alley in Inzegane and heals sore and sprained joints.

We are definitely in orange blossom season now, though I still think it looks strange to see the oranges on the trees while the air is full of the scent of blossom.  The pomegranite tree in Ait Iazza has blossom as well now.  I must go and see if Little Grey has started any fruit yet.

Followers?!

 It puts the pressure on having "followers".  Well here is Mohamed and his uncle Hamid (or Ahmed - I am never very sure).  This is his mother's brother so in arabic he is Khali rather than Ammni.  ps Posting pictures seems to be easier than in Yahoo.

We have had some more rain - Yipee!.  The day before yesterday was Mohamed the Prophet's birthday - Mohamedmass - so holiday from school, work etc.  There was a sort of market down by Bab LeKhmis selling the usual range of grot but this time with some interestingly coloured nutty nougaty toffee type sweeties.  It looked like it had been made in large washing up bowls and turned out once it had set.  Lots of stands selling it - in huge chunks.  I tried a bit but it just seemed to taste like sugar.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera so no piccies.  Well there is always next year. 

Anyway I had better get back to work 

International Womens Day

Its the 8th March again - a significant date for me. .... but I hope that all that happens today is that I start a new blog.

The day is marked in Morocco - my Moroccan teacher was well aware of it and I remember last year that there was something in the news but I am not sure what is happening locally.

Anyway I thought I would make a mention of it.

New Blog

Well as I mentioned Yahoo are no longer supporting their 360 site, so I had a look round and have decided to try this blogger.com. I will post a message on the old site with the new site's address and see if there is a way I can link to the old blog (if anyone wants a trip down memory lane)