April 2009; At last a bit of sun, the begining of the picinette and letting yer hair down.

Ahhh, Finn, at long last it seems that the rain has stopped, or at leasdt that it's stopping. We had a moment there, a false stop, where the sun began to shine, where our hopes were raised, when I thought it was all over. But it was afalse dawn, and instead those few days of sunshine were followed by yet more rain. But, and I say this holding on to anything wooden around me, we may at last be through it.

It's been a disaster, I've never seen so much rain. I don't think it even rained this much in Mozambique when I was managing a flood response.

The up side of this however, is that not only are we able to at last do something other than hunker down at home come our weekends, but wherever we go at present os gorgeously green. As such we've taken a few day trips away, which we've all loved, but it's such a joy to see you out in nature. You've been stuck in doors for too long and even in the nedina there's nowhere for you to go and play. It's a real issue.

Of course there is Zalagh and thank goodness we've got the car to just go up at our leisiure, but it's still not the same. This again draws me to Xaouen where at least you'll have a whole mountain to play on. Let's hope that this time next year we're able to begin work up there and you get to benefit.

One of the other difficulties about the weekends is that it's just one day, a Friday. Six day weeks are simply killers. It would be so nice to luxuriate in doing little but loitering, but we don't have the time for that, we've got to have time together, make time together. So we tend to go away.

Barrage El fassi and other sites.
There are some great places near here, Zalagh, Barrage El Fassi, this side of the Middle Atlas (you haven't seen the monkeys yet!), but with the exception of zalagh, all require a treck and that can be a real chore, especially for bex who's less of a fan of the road trip than I am.

In xaouen we've got mountains, waterfalls, the sea, monkeys all within an hour. Umm, sounds good for next year...better get the places finished here first.

Fin and Skin.
Your skin is bad again. I hope the sun and summer will help, certainly I frequently feel helpless trying to do anything about it.

Tazi.
Things at Tazi have been stunted by yet further attacks from Shameless, who recently threw a mettle grid down a shaft at us. They're complaining that we haven't finished work in their house. But it made no sense to do so until we had finished the area around it on our side. They are such a nightmare.

The Deep.
Beccie brings in the materials, with a bit of help from John.
Anyway, we've launched ourselves in to the cellar of the house and are clearing that, which will be a large and important area in the house. We managed to find beldi zelig on the floor which might save us some money, and have lain drains in to the river.

This is a huge piece of work, clearing floors, digging through drainage systems, cleaning and clearing old kaduces and zelig. And it's all down in the depths. It's a funny place down there and desperately needs us to move forward with the buying of those neighbours so that the whole area can be opened up.

Mohammed Teeth and Said, playing about in the dirt.

On that we've been in significant discussions with the neighbours re buying and I think we are close. You never know and certainly the bottom neighbour, who is actually sub terranian to us, are very difficult to negotiate with. Watch this space!

Work on neighbours.
Outside of this we've been working doing repairs to the houses of many of the other
neighbours here.

I thought this wouldn't take too long, but it's probably taken up the best part of this month. many have been very accommodating, some, Shameless, are a nightmare, and Abdullah is trying to get every penny's worth out of us. I feel guilty re his as there has been major water damage caused by our twat of a plumber. He's desperate to get started and i can totally understand, but he needs to let his walls dry first, which he seems loathed to do.

813. Hirching completed.

And the begining of our picinette.

At 813 it's been all action. The hirsching has finished and the house looks fantastic, but now we start a couple of really big jobs. The first is to try to complete the building of a piscinette between the bartal on one side of the house.

Beccie is far from sure about this, but I've been here for a couple of summers and it's hot, roasting hot. Whilst it's usually definately cooler on the ground floor compared to the top of the house, and acknowledging that the floor space isn't huge, I thought that it'd be a good idea to put in a small pool that we can cover in winter and enjoy in Summer. I am also sure it will add value to the house, especially if we sell in summer!

Ground floor bathroom.
Another project started is the ground floor bathroom. This is the only bathroom we have, the others being shower/wet rooms only. The idea is to build a huge arch in it and have smaller archlettes for candles etc. I've seen a design and am working with razi to interpret this in to 813.

Razi's great and whilst he does tend to slaken at times, he's even tempered and workls well. Infact the whole team are great...I think the sun must be getting to me!

The drains.
The third big project we've been doing at 813 has been to finally try to finish the drains. This will mean that we decide either to pass thro Slonge or through hassan's a very exciteable neighbour. There's lots of negotiations to be had and whilst I'd rather go thro hassans, he's too up tight and I fear being cornered in the street by him if anything goes wrong.

Re Slonge, it's more a case of questioning whether her drains work in the first place and whether we'd be building upon problems by joining to hers.

Outside of Fez.

Akchour and xaouen.
Above xaouen.
After a while managing both builds I decided that I nneded a few days off, a mini break. I felt exhausted and was getting crabby. So Beccie said she'd look after the fort and I went up to xaouen for a few days. I took the back route along the old Ouazzin road, across zalagh and up through Zonga (I think). It was so green, Ireland green, amazingly green.

Camp site near Akchout.
I spent a night camping with the car near our land in Loubar and then headed down to the national park near Akchour, which is simply stunning. I found a camp site down by the river, just 1 - 2kms from the entrance to the national park and Gods Bridge. This place is run by local Moroccans who lease the land from the government. They've done an amazing job and I'd fully recommend it to anyone. Clean, well lain out, deeply and subtly mixing with the natural environment, next to a river and surrounded by trees and mountains. What more could I have asked for.

God's Bridge.
The next day I went off to treck up to Gods Bridge, a naturally formed bridge over two dies of the valley. It's also beautiful and the area is slowly being developed with assistance from the Andaluscian Junta in Spain. Thus small, discreet cafe are popping up. There's home stay type lodges on walking paths from Xaouen. I'd like to do a bit of walking from Xaouen.

Funnilly enough I'd been in touch with Jules in the Uk who had friends coming over to Fez and the Rif. They had been going south but I advised them there was much untouristed fun to be had up here. I'd expected a call from them in Fez but nothing happened. Then, on God's Bridge as I was babbling in Deriga to a guy, a woman came up and asked if I was Paul?, A friend of Julie Edgecombe, Did I live in Fez?

And it was them. They'd just hiked from Xaouen and were loving every minute.

Amazing.

Infact I really fancy taking off for a month to walk the length of the Rif. D'you fancy coming?

The time at xaouen was well needed and did just what the doctor ordered. After a couple of days I felt refreshed and ready to get back to the chantiers.

Girls night out in Rabat.
How did it start like this?
Beccie also decided she needed some time out and as such she, Jen' (dar Romana), Justine (of Justine and Didier fame) and Jenny (of Jenny and Jon fame) planned and executed a night out in Rabat. It sounded like it was going to be a hoot; good restaurants, bars and a spot of clubbing. Whilst the cats away however, I decided to have Jon and Didier over for a spot of chicken tandori and a few rounds of cards..along with all the other poisons that are part of a quiet night in.

Get to this?
At some point in the morning I was awoken by beccie calling from rabat...it was still dark outside and I was, well, not feeling quite myself. there'd been an incident...several incidents. Yes everyone was Ok, if a bit tired and emotional, and would I come and pick them up with a spare set of car keys. Jen's bag had been snatched, it was a long story... Fine, and back I went to sleep.

And end up like this, who's in charge?

I arrived in Rabat to find that a quiet night by budding self employed professionals had morphed in to a classic of Brits abroad. All the classic traits of our excessive anglo saxon culture had exploded on to an unsuspecting audience in Rabat. Punches had been trown, words exchanged, tears shed...all after several large clear spirits....

Just as well my wife has a husband to look after her...I laughed!!!

Outside of the joys of our own chantiers, I 've also been spending quite a bit of time with Dominique, who also rehabilitating his "small" house...as opposed to his bigger one! At times this is real therapy, you can moan and complain together, and advise and aid eacjh other. But there was little to say when he told me that he'd been away for a couple of days and came back to find the whole side of his house collapse.
These are the times when you think, well at least that didn't happen to me!

And around Fez it seems to be the begining of the wedding season. For the next 3 - 4 months the streets are regularly filled with processions of families, brides and grooms, bands of musicians and pall bearers.