April

Still working away at my recovery.... doing my exercises everyday (though maybe not as often as I should during the day) and feeling much better, though a niggling pain in my hip, knee and ankle.

I am starting to get further afield in my walks, and as we have daylight saving at the moment I am able to get out a little later in the evening and enjoy a bit of coolness.

The day before yesterday I was late setting off and Ruby and I just went along the hillside - which was just as well as I looked behind us and found not only Trot and Snitch following but also one of Snitch's puppies! We are getting to be quite a procession - especially when Marmela comes.

What other news..... I know I did promise you some.

Well I finally got my new carte de sejour and it is valid for 3 years (though only just over 2 years are remaining since it took 9 months to arrive!)

We have taken the first, crucial steps to getting the land at Ouled Said titled. We managed to avoid the inconvenience of my name being on the papers (ie a foreigner therefore not allowed to do anything with the land without the Minister of Foreign Affairs approval) and so now we have to go through the process. I think it takes a bit of time but hopefully no more snags. ... and then we will sell it. Although we originally intended to go back there, I really love it here and don't want to move, and it is much better for Mohamed to be near Agadir - especially now he is doing his university course.

We are also working on getting a license to build the house, Mohamed is in town today with the architect who is drawing the plans. I am hopeful that this will mean we can get building in a couple of weeks (but that might be a Moroccan couple of weeks - ie a few months).

The villagers have managed to get the aqueduct cleared of earth and stones washed down by the rain this spring and we have water running as far as and into the river. The pipes that crossed the river were swept away so will need to be replaced before we have the water running all the way into the village. I think this year they should build a suspension bridge - input from any civil engineers (or budding civil engineers) would be welcome.

There has, despite rumours, been no progress on getting the mains water running in the village... no progress on the building of the water tower and no prog.... and electricity has just cut for the second time today... so bye for now