Harvey finally makes an appearance on my blog...well of course he came to the UK and of course he visited Morocco!Just a quick update tonight. I know it has been over a month! I have been flat out at work doing at least a full day each weekend and working until 10:00 or 11:00 most nights. I have not put in this amount of effort for a long time, but I have to say I am loving the challenge.
A lot has happened in the past month. I have turned another year older....well only a few days older in reality, but you know what I mean. (I think I have been hanging around too many Aspies) I had a wonderful day on my birthday with lots of wishes from my beautiful family and friends. Richard gave me some new paints and would you believe they have not even been opened yet! I need to beware that all work and no play does not make Ali a dull girl! I have been practicing my saxophone (so at least some play is happening) and have even bought some new sheet music which I am working on.
Our trip to Marrakech was great. It is a very bustling place and quite unusually for this time of year there was a heap of rain while we were there. The riad we stayed in was gorgeous. The souk (marketplace) was astounding and the whole of the old area of old Marrakech where we were staying was an amazing labarynth. Each time we stepped out of the riad our question was 'I wonder how many times we will be lost on this little jaunt'. We got lost three times on the last Saturday we were there... an amazing adventure.
The inner courtyard of the riad
A view of the square on our first night 
One small view of the soukOur plans for breaking out the warm weather clothes were well thwarted. It was actually quite cold while we were there and so the two jumpers and jacket I wore leaving London hardly came off my back the whole week....mmm so much for temperatures above 20 most days!!! They were the only warm clothes I had with me and as I had taken mainly dresses the two pairs of trousers I had were well worn too! The locals must have thought I was such a grub!
How else do you end a meal in Morocco than a plateful of Moroccan pastries and mint tea....yum
One of the strongest memories of Morocco for me...so many donkeys!We took a couple of day trips. The first up into the high Atlas mountains into Berber territory. It was gorgeous. The drive was a couple of hours through the countryside. On the way, we saw a river in flood. All the locals had gatthered to stare and our guide told us in the hope that something valuable would come down on the flood waters. Apparently it was usually dry or just a trickle and the rains had been extraordinary so they were somewhat in awe of it all.
We stopped at one of the carpet places. The range and display was gorgeous, but we didn't buy one...the colours were just not what we wanted. When we reached the end of the road we went for a short walk with a local guide who was such a gentleman leading me over the rocks....many of the photos look like we are dancing!
The carpet place we visited.
No way was I going out there!
A view at of the Atlas mountains
Dancing with our guideI will leave further adventures for later and head off to bed, so stay tuned!!!
2 comments:
Hi Ali
thanks for the update. great photos, love the donkey. he looks like a bit of a "Bruce" dont you think? i do hope that in time, less of your spare time will be taken up with work. that said, it sounds like you're thriving on it, so that's a good thing. is Richard enjoying his work? happy weekend, lv Jane xx
Now who is Harvey? We had an 'Ernie" (remember Bert and Ernie?) who accidentally came with us one day from Robert's sister's house when Connor was 6 months old. So we took photos of Ernie wherever we went and then sent the photos to Gillian as if Ernie was away on holiday. It was a lot of fun....., then Ernie went overseas with sister Wendy on their honeymoon and sent photos to Gillian from Germany and Amsterdam. Lots of fun.
Its really wet here and the mary is flooded.Expecting it to be at the bridge by Thursday, to the concrete at the bottom, not over they say.Its very flooded out at Roma, Charlaville etc. Very wet!
School is driving me crazy at present.... can't stand the politics of it all. JUST LET ME TEACH!!!!!!!! please... So very envious of your adventure. I wrote to a couple of overseas teaching sites and I am too old! You have inspired me and now its too late!
So make sure you tell us all about your adventures so I can be really jealous and really excited fro you both... how are your "boys"?
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