June 2010 Finn to the rescue

Finn in Dreamland.

June has seen us continuing our holiday and we moved from Spain to Tangiers and the increasingly developed Mediteranian coast. Fransesca’s dad Graham, manages a great little place there on the beach and on everyday, barr the weekends we had the beach to ourselves. What a joy, well away from the bustle of Fez and anyone come to that.

View from the house in tangiers.

At weekends however the place was packed and as such we went to have a look at Tangiers, a great city and one much maligned. It took me many, many visits to get to Tangiers and once I did, I couldn't help but return time and again. That was in the late 80s/early 90s. Then the city was pretty grimey and slightly dangerous. Certainly comming off the boat was something of an ordeal, but if you managed to stay the course, for even half a day, it would be assumed that you'd either bought what you wanted or lost what you didn't and then you could relax nd enjoy sitting in te petit soco and spending days watching the very varied world of Tangiers, go by.

Motorbike Boy.

Today Tangiers is buzzing. Hotels and boulevards are being developed at a rate of knots and it is beautiful with clear impressions coming from Spain, the Magreb, even England. Stunning. I doubt you paid it too much attention to this, but you certainly gave a wink towards what interested you. I'm afraid you’ll have to wait a while to get moving on that one….tho we’ll have you driving habiby before hand I’m sure!

We returned from holiday to our new but congested home. We began to make our presence felt in the house, though moving in and being in are two very different things. But petite a petite we’re getting there. Life however is still very much in the multitude of boxes that fill the house…Where are the cups or glasses. Where's my tool kit. Why aren't the screws with the CD case and where are the legs to the sofa? And why didn’t I put name tags on any of the boxes?

Boxed in at 813.

Because I’m a bloke, probably! Take a note from your dad, your mum would have done this better!

Firsts at 813.

One of the great things about moving in to a new...well far from new, but newly rebuilt house, is that you get to experience lots of first.....which are bound to include first times that things don't work, but so far these have been few and far between, apart from waking up and hearing water gushing out of somewhere...is it a dream, am I about to wet myself...no, the joint on the tap in the bathroom has blown and the ground flor is floding..where's the stop cock?

However much more enjoyable was having your mum cook a first meal in our top kitchen...which it must be said, is a long way at the top of the house! Good for your cardio vascular health all those stairs...if not these increasingly aged knee joints!

Finn fishing.

But that’s not to say that all was well in our nest. As I say, the years stresses have taken their toll and I think your mum and I really felt that. I've tried to explain previously at how challenging things have been.

Of course we live in some great degree of luxury. We are making our own choices but equally weare having to meet the challenges we have set ourselves, without too much of a support system surrounding us and being a foreigner, trying to build ancient houses when you are not builders, trying to be good parents and wife/husbands/business/life partners...these are individually challenging tasks. Combined..ummm!

We are both wonderful people with great strengths and very human weaknesses. But the cracks were gapping at this point. It was low, very low. To be honest I was far from sure whether we weren’t mortally wounded.

And that’s the thing you see Finn, you make the difference. You make us try harder because you are important and that means we try to find solutions because of you, when we might otherwise give up.

Thank you for that. I know you pulled me back from the edge and losing sight of what we really do have.

As for Tazi, NO we still don’t have plans, or at least those we have finally received have been rejected by the baladier…games, my son, games! But really they are slap dash, what do we pay these people for?

Their signature, is all in reality!

Aside from that, which will certainly hold us up when it comes to destroying the ruin…which is more and more ruinious by the day….we are moving forward slowly and quietly.

Arab plastering at Tazi.

Arab is a great plasterer, and his assistant looks so much like Ronaldo, I’d swear they’re related. You can see how far we are getting with this; down, down and down to the ground floor. That will leave only the stairs which are a final job.

Yes at last we are advancing. Yes there is alot to do, notably with the "neighbours", but the end s in sight....not that that means that it will all be over tomorrow. No, there'll be alot more tomorrows before that. But being in uor house and being able to see real progress with Tazi..that makes a difference!

Decappeurs in the basement.

As I say we can't yet work on the ruin, but we can work on the "lounge" that will lead on t it. The decappeurs are finishing this room that will lead on to the garden....whenever that is built. It should look great…but like all good things...that will take time!

Seb our first visitor to stay at 813

Back in Fez we had our first visit to our new house. Sebastian came over from Jerez, where we've stayed with him so often. Good to see him.

Fez Sacred Music Festival.

Seb and I managed to see a bit of the Fez Festival of Spiritual Music. It's a bit of a strange gig for me. Prices are relatively high and thus, whilst there are some free public events, an awful lot are made exclusive by their cost. But we saw Amadou and Myriam which was excellent, West Africa comes to Fez...and boy do the Fassi need a bit of that!

I also took a visit to the Glaoui Palace, the Fassi home of the fallen family from the south, described magnificently in Lords of the Atlas. The guardian is an old child of a former slave/servent from the family, and the rest of the family are now, I understand, in Europe, having been evicted by Mohamed V.

It really is stunning and like so many f the palaces here in Fez, it gives you a very real impression of the oppulance of the place at the height of it's grandeur.

Glaoui Palace.

Obviously there have been attempts to buy it. As a historical building, it's obviously priceless, though equally it would seem that it's value has so far put it beyond the reach of many hopeful investors.

I have to say that following our experiences with our wo sites, it wouldn’t be me thinking of working on this one….purely for the very strong willed and deep pocketed!

Can’t wait to finish our (in comparison) little project. Size…it’s such a subjective thing!