still WIP

Well we are now into our second week of building. The patio is completely surrounded and just about all the internal walls are up. I think the next step will be the archways on either side of the patio .... and the then roof and the stairs up to the roof and then the balcony outside the living room. The picture shows the view diagonally across the patio to the kitchen.

I have to stop myself thinking that the work is almost done... we then have to get the electrics sorted, plumbing, "paper" ie render in cement all the walls, windows and doors, paint, think about what we can afford to tile...

We finally have our car back... it died last weekend some issue around the work that was done previously. I hope it is solved now. Mohamed spent half his time last week hitching into Agadir in the hope of getting the car back only to come home around 10pm with no car. I gave him a short shopping list on Thursday - essentials for couscous etc and he came back with no garlic but 2kg of carrots, 2 kg of turnips, 11kg of oranges and an assortment of melon. When I asked what on earth he was thinking of (no car!) he said - but they were really cheap!

It is almost melon season proper now. Pickups filled with watermelons parked at the side of the road selling off melons to passerbys and the men staggering home with their fat friend under their arm. Watermelons are great when they are sweet (and in the summer here they are) and so refreshing - but they take up all the fridge!

Marmela is still sneezing... though she does seem better she has given me a lot of anxiety this week by disappearing all day (I was convinced one day that she had gone off to die). If she is no better tomorrow I will try the vet. I couldn't take her without the car - we would have had to put her in a bag and maybe walk 5 or 6 km or wait an hour before the minibus came along (the bus service that used to run has been stopped). On top of this our experience with vets in Agadir has not been good. It is typical that we just found a good one in Taroudannt before we moved. The vets here just don't seem that interested in cats... they are either large animal vets or have practices that revolve round the various little pedigree pooches that the french expat residents are so fond of.

Her neck is healing up and I can now see distinct tooth marks where something - probably a dog - has grabbed her by the neck. I am wondering if her infection has anything to do with being bitten.