Twin tub

HYPOTHESIS:

There is something rather romantic about doing your washing in a twin tub. Last time I used a twin tub was the early 80's.

METHOD:

You patiently wait while the first side fills with water by a tube from a tap on the wall. Time to make a brew while you wait.
Then you add your soap powder and set for a few minutes to spin. When that's done you transfer small amounts of clothes into the spinner and rinse with water from the hose. You stand there thinking how nice it is to just take your time over a job instead of pressing a button and rushing on to the next thing. You fluff up the clothes and hope the spinner works. You squash down the clothes and hope the spinner works. You repeat the above two instructions about half a dozen times. The spinner works. You tell yourself a slower pace of life is good thing. You hang up those clothes and start rinsing off the next small amount of clothes. You continue battling with the spinner for several more small loads. You drink some of that cold coffee you made. You hang out the last of the clothes and start on the second load. You wish you could somehow be doing something else at the same time. You crouch down to avoid leg cramps.

EQUIPMENT:





RESULTS:

Wrinkly hands, overly damp clothes, a whole morning gone, wet floors & questionably clean clothes.

CONCLUSION:

There is nothing romantic about using a twin tub.


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Not too shabby!

Not an absolutely awful place to sit and do language drills...






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Out of the classroom

Having a couple of weeks further south to get some non-classroom language learning (LAMP method)

It's going really well! Hard work but worth the effort.

In this culture where we can naturally spend a lot of time hanging out and chatting, we have decided to find a story that we could learn and memorise. We are about half way through and so far we have a guy who was travelling between two cities here but was set upon by thieves, all his stuff taken and badly beaten up. Someone has just approached him - a religious Christian - but I don't think they are going to do anything for him because they don't want to get their hands dirty. I think I can see someone else on the horizon who might help...

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A rum couple of weeks!

I attend a Moroccan wedding that is so utterly different from other weddings I've been to down here that I'm nigh on scandalised to see the bride
1) smiling
2) in public
3) with the groom








I recreate the fresh cream Belgian bun experience for Sarah who has come out to see me for a week and with whom I share many a fresh cream Belgian bun story








Hannah decides to mutate into a cat with limited success








I meet a waitress who screams when I speak to her in Arabic (not as common as you'd think!), tells me she likes me, exchanges numbers, invites me to meet her family and have Friday couscous, shows me the family goats and offers me one when the next kids are born! A doe is currently pregnant. I cuddle a baby goat who sighs deeply and falls asleep on my neck.








I turn 42 and celebrate this milestone in maturity by horsing around in the desert with palm branches.








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Little fish rooms!

With a raison d'être of upcycling things that are normally considered waste and finished with (spot the obvious parallels), I have been playing with bits of rubbish and making (I think) cute things;



Local style lounge with 'frash', cushions, Arabic newspaper and lamp shade made from petals and plastic bags.



Washroom / utility room with washing machine, clothes line with 'mlhfa' hanging out to dry and pegs made from a cork.



Kitchen with shopping list on a cork board, tagine, worktop double gas ring cooker and locally themed tile patterns on the back wall.



Bathroom with hand towel on wall ring, toilet rolls and a basin made from half a water bottle top

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There are no words...

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Lunchie munchies

...for 25 dirhams each. That's about £1.80!


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Another wedding...

...another mlhfa (or 2)



A large wedding present (top left) and party central in a tent (bottom right)

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Bedford; the final throes

The day before leaving for the sand pit, I visited a new café in town that is about as atypical of Bedford High Street as 'Noble Rot' is of Tavistock Street.

It's called 'Coffee with Art'. Check out the wall;


If Pinterest was a café it would be this place

A beautifully designed space with paintings and photographs on the walls


A book theme to make any bibliophile weak at the knees and a refreshingly novel cake selection to keep an ADD gourmand indecisive


The pièce de resistance for me was a wildly eccentric installation at the far end that looks like books are exploding through the wall


I picked out one tiny book and found The Book of Common Prayer inscribed with 1916

This is the kind of place that you hope is so successful it stays for many years but conversely you hope not too many people get to hear about because its your hideout!

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Reverse culture shock

I can't really claim to have been away long enough to be experiencing reverse culture shock. I have, however, been surprised at my heightened awareness of normal life experiences in the UK since returning;

Brushing my teeth with tap water

Overhearing people talking in English

Eating a meal with a fork, rather than fingers

Pavements you can walk on

Getting into a taxi with £2.40 already on the clock

Toilet paper as standard!!

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Cereal nights

Everyone knows a bowl of cereal for dinner at quarter past eleven p.m cancels out a day of eating junk food, right?


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Day 2 in town

The fox socks were reunited for two days in London!


We found more quirky joints to hang out, drink coffee, eat cake and chew the cud in Angel


Later we continued making a dent in the Christmas shopping (not at the Sainsbury's in the background!!)


then upped yesterday's wood pigeon and quail with elk in Kensington.

Not too shabby



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Down to the smoke

Cake I didn't have but looked spectacular.


Thank you Hummingbird Bakery, South Ken.

Then on to a place I've wanted to go to for years!!! MOMO!



I don't think it's too hard to see why


Fabulous lighting casting Moroccan patterns everywhere


Wood pigeon Pastilla (not had wood pigeon before)


And the Momo grill with another first; roast honey quail


Grand day out with Sarah :)

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Landmark moment!

I'm allowed into a local kitchen to cook!! This really is a special moment as I sit with one of my sisters preparing 'lardus' (lentils) and fish.



I prepped the lentil part of the meal with interjections about how to do it properly :)


Lentils, 'madness & kuspoor' (parsley & coriander), skingerbeer (ginger), kimown (cumin), bsla (onions), madisha (tomatoes), thm (garlic) bubbles away on a single ring gas bottle.


The fish steams with onion and potatoes and a salad is prepared.
Grated cucumber, peeled tomatoes...and we chatter away in a unique combination of French and Arabic!

Later I'm given the job of finishing off some embroidery she's never got round to finishing



I was given a typically Berber item to wear for the task!


Next I was taught how to make one of my favourite types of bread here; msmn.
Kneading in a traditional bread plate


Rolled into balls, flattened into pancakes, folded into squares then fried until they look like this;


The saucer on the left is amlou. A pretty good day in my book!

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Deblij...

...which means 'bracelets'

I've been up cycling random objects and makin' pretty fings!


Looks like I may have a market in the next town (4hours away) with a friend who is opening a boutique



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Haima

Went out to buy dates and some thread.

Came back having wandered into an interesting looking shop, where i drew a picture and put a deposit down...



...on a tent. It will be ready on Friday!!

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All creatures great and small

Two rather splendid ginger kits at a service station


(Where you pay a dirham for no loo paper, no soap, no lock on the door, a hold on the ground and a small bucket of water!)

A silver slick of fish caught in the Laguna


(Where the coast is unspoilt and the beach is small but private)

A stunning hummingbird moth-hawk with a long proboscis and wings that beat to a blur


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On another planet

Never have I felt less Christmasy. It's weird.
This afternoon, friends took me out on their sail dinghy. The weather was great and it was a warm, sunny day.


Coming back and seeing people's comments on FB about Christmas was just odd. It was like someone telling me in June that they were putting up their decorations!





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Huh?

What's the difference between laying an egg, painting something white and lightening up a dark picture?

Nothing!

In Arabic it's the same verb.


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The very hungry caterpillar

In four days I ate;

2 apples
3 bananas
2 portions of plain rice
Some bread
3 yoghurts

...and on the 5th day I turned into someone with rather wobbly legs and an intolerance to light!

I have been ill. I am 99% better. Thanks for p's. got hands henna-ed for a wedding I missed!




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