Finn, looks like you've picked up some of my bad habits already!It was great to catch up with everyone in Uk, but by the time we left, it was also great to leave. In reality we haven't got a home in the UK anymore and thus we rely on the frequently overwhelming hospitality of friends and family, who never fail to make us welcome.
But it's still difficult relying on others, moving from place to place with a huge amount of paraphenalia that is your, mine and your mums kit. Then there is trying to keep you in a routine, whilst moving from one place to the next, and trying to find some space in which me and your mum can be..well, Paul and Beccie, two newly married people, needing to positively maintain our marriage.
This, combined with the relentless challenges in Morocco of maintaining our chantier as willing amateurs, in new languages and environments has certainly taken it's toll on us and thus we finally left UK to return to Moroc but with the intention of stopping in Jerez for a few days, just to have a holiday together.
Here's Jen Looking after you...
Fortunately we have some very good friends in Jerez, Jenny and Sebastian who own Dar Romana, a splendid Maison D'Hote in Fez. They have a house in Jerez and are always open and welcoming of our visiting. This is great, not only as it gives us a bolt hole from Fez, especially when we need to leave for our 3 month visa renewal, but because we've actually found that we really like Jerez....and Jen and Sebastian for that matter!!
Obviously there's great wine and especially sherry, but also good food, a very live and proud tradition of Flamenco and the people are so warm and open, it's simply a joy. What can you say about a place where the locals celebrate their wine, food and music as enthusiastically as they do in Jerez?
More please!
So we went off to Jerez and managed to link in to the annual sherry festival, that had us knocked out and snoring on sofas post early afternoon tastings on a number of occassions...don't worry we had you fully wraped up and snug beside us at all times.
You of course loved the horses that paraded in the town as much we indulged our taste buds and I think you even enjoyed our nights out to see live flamenco amongst adoring audiences, families of locals all suited and booted, styled to parade in front of a critical audience of peers.
There is no doubt that this has been a difficult time for your mum and I, the stresses of what we had taken on over the past year or more, too frequently showing and spilling over at times.
We've bitten off alot and much of it we are doing without any of the normal support that you get as a new family, or in starting a new business. But we've chosen to start a family, a business and a life in a new and very different country, alone. And it's hard for us all. I really think that we are up to the task, but it is a challenge that would ordinarilly be significant, made more so by our relative isolation and need to be so inter dependant.
It all being a first for all of us; being married, having a child, starting a business, building a house, living abroad as a family; we've probably not done ourselves any favours, but I am so proud of your mum, myself and you.
This, combined with the relentless challenges in Morocco of maintaining our chantier as willing amateurs, in new languages and environments has certainly taken it's toll on us and thus we finally left UK to return to Moroc but with the intention of stopping in Jerez for a few days, just to have a holiday together.
Here's Jen Looking after you...
Fortunately we have some very good friends in Jerez, Jenny and Sebastian who own Dar Romana, a splendid Maison D'Hote in Fez. They have a house in Jerez and are always open and welcoming of our visiting. This is great, not only as it gives us a bolt hole from Fez, especially when we need to leave for our 3 month visa renewal, but because we've actually found that we really like Jerez....and Jen and Sebastian for that matter!!
Obviously there's great wine and especially sherry, but also good food, a very live and proud tradition of Flamenco and the people are so warm and open, it's simply a joy. What can you say about a place where the locals celebrate their wine, food and music as enthusiastically as they do in Jerez?
More please!
So we went off to Jerez and managed to link in to the annual sherry festival, that had us knocked out and snoring on sofas post early afternoon tastings on a number of occassions...don't worry we had you fully wraped up and snug beside us at all times.
You of course loved the horses that paraded in the town as much we indulged our taste buds and I think you even enjoyed our nights out to see live flamenco amongst adoring audiences, families of locals all suited and booted, styled to parade in front of a critical audience of peers.There is no doubt that this has been a difficult time for your mum and I, the stresses of what we had taken on over the past year or more, too frequently showing and spilling over at times.
We've bitten off alot and much of it we are doing without any of the normal support that you get as a new family, or in starting a new business. But we've chosen to start a family, a business and a life in a new and very different country, alone. And it's hard for us all. I really think that we are up to the task, but it is a challenge that would ordinarilly be significant, made more so by our relative isolation and need to be so inter dependant.
It all being a first for all of us; being married, having a child, starting a business, building a house, living abroad as a family; we've probably not done ourselves any favours, but I am so proud of your mum, myself and you. We can see this and at times we suffer the consequences, but in the end, we want to succeed, as a family, as parents, and husband and wife, as a business. We want to succeed and as such we are not giving up. But boy is it difficult at times.
Apart from the joys of music, food and drink on offer in Jerez we also managed to use it as a base to visit the region. This took us out to the coast, where you had a great time on the beach, but weren't too keen on the sea (umm, must admit I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic myself), Cadiz and to several of the white washed house villages in the mountains.
Finn on the beach.
We also used the time to begin looking at "stuff" for the hotel. This had us running round bathroom furnishing outlets, IKEA, and local design and eco outlets. I loved the sun tubes that we found, tho' I can't yet see where we can use them. I think your mum prefered bathroom shopping, which you loved too, given the amount you charged round shop floors, with me desperately trying to marry the twin demands of your freedom to play and our fear that store exhibits might at anytime go flying!
I also looked in to completing my paragliding course and found a school but unfortunately just as it looked as I'd be able to book a course...it started raining.
We crossed back in to Moroc at Tangiers, a great town that I have known for years and love. It was still Ramadan and I was sure that this would lead us to encounter guards made mardy but days of abstinace. This however wasn't to be the case, they gave us a cursory look in the back of Habiby, bags and boxes, heard you babble at them, and with half hearted questions as to if we had any guns, let us through with beaming smiles.
Our secret weapon at Moroccan Customs..is Finn!
The drive from Tangiers was hairy to say the least. The rains that had hit us in Jerez seemed to have followed us over the continent but here they fell much more ferociously to the point that eventually, even in our trusted 4x4 we were pushed off the road by torrential rain, flooded roads, bellowing winds and cracks of lightening that lit up an otherwise pitch black sky.
Fortunately we managed to get our selves in to a petrol station where, wet, tired and looking fairly bedraggled, we were offered fathur, the ramadan meal to break the fast, where you were taken by adoring old men who cooed and grinned with toothless mouths and then refused to take anything for our meal, other than offering us more and the option to stay the night if we needed to.
There are times it's great comming "home", especially when we've got you to give us such a helping hand..or are you trying to tell me you need your nappy changing?
Apart from the joys of music, food and drink on offer in Jerez we also managed to use it as a base to visit the region. This took us out to the coast, where you had a great time on the beach, but weren't too keen on the sea (umm, must admit I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic myself), Cadiz and to several of the white washed house villages in the mountains.
Finn on the beach.
We also used the time to begin looking at "stuff" for the hotel. This had us running round bathroom furnishing outlets, IKEA, and local design and eco outlets. I loved the sun tubes that we found, tho' I can't yet see where we can use them. I think your mum prefered bathroom shopping, which you loved too, given the amount you charged round shop floors, with me desperately trying to marry the twin demands of your freedom to play and our fear that store exhibits might at anytime go flying!I also looked in to completing my paragliding course and found a school but unfortunately just as it looked as I'd be able to book a course...it started raining.
We crossed back in to Moroc at Tangiers, a great town that I have known for years and love. It was still Ramadan and I was sure that this would lead us to encounter guards made mardy but days of abstinace. This however wasn't to be the case, they gave us a cursory look in the back of Habiby, bags and boxes, heard you babble at them, and with half hearted questions as to if we had any guns, let us through with beaming smiles.
Our secret weapon at Moroccan Customs..is Finn!The drive from Tangiers was hairy to say the least. The rains that had hit us in Jerez seemed to have followed us over the continent but here they fell much more ferociously to the point that eventually, even in our trusted 4x4 we were pushed off the road by torrential rain, flooded roads, bellowing winds and cracks of lightening that lit up an otherwise pitch black sky.
Fortunately we managed to get our selves in to a petrol station where, wet, tired and looking fairly bedraggled, we were offered fathur, the ramadan meal to break the fast, where you were taken by adoring old men who cooed and grinned with toothless mouths and then refused to take anything for our meal, other than offering us more and the option to stay the night if we needed to.There are times it's great comming "home", especially when we've got you to give us such a helping hand..or are you trying to tell me you need your nappy changing?
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