Feb 2011.... Not The Build..for a change...lest we forget!

Hi Finn,

Here you are on The Other Side of Mt Zalagh with James, Lulu and Steve, a great day out for all of us.....

You know there are plenty of times that I...we...tend to forget the other things that go on as well as this seemingly never ending build, and it was only when I'd finished putting the text to pictures regarding the work on the hotel, that I realised that we had also done quite alot apart from the infernal toil on 27 Zkak Rhouah....

So here's something of a brief account of that.

Mummy's birthday.

Yes there we have Beccie celebrating her being 21 again. It has to be said that Mummy is a difficult person to throw a surprise for. We'd put together a small private party with a few friends invited...a few that actually became quite a few by the Glorious Day...something of a testimant to the fact that whilst we may struggle to be as sociable as we'd like after a night of your wriggling in our bed, or a day at the chantier fighting the good fight, we have got a few good friends here!

Anyway, of course mummy didn't want to celebrate anything and the whole thing became such a palaver that by the end of it, it was left to you, Gail, Franchesca and myself to indulge ourselves of the rather wonderful cake we'd ordered from La Villa...to be recommended...cakes from La Villa...if not organising a surprise party for your mum!!

Zalagh..opens up and what joy.

As you know I've put together a small company called Tours Around Fez

http://www.toursaroundfez.com/

which will do exactly what it says and which I hope is now being put out in Lonely Planet, so that should give it a boost. The difficulty is tho that being full time on chantier, I rarely get out to expand on the tours. So it was bliss to finally get out on to Zalagh and explore some more routes.

Finding walking routes up here sure beats a day at the chantier!

Here's a few images to give you a taste. I know that you like it as you've been with me a few times and have recently completed this walk...tho I'd say it's still a bit long for you. However I'm sure there's alot more beautiful places up there to wet the appetite, let's hope it works!

This ancient olive press hidden in a valley is one gem I found on my way! Which is one of the things I love about being up on Zalagh, there are just so many gorgeous little hidden peaches, each of which makes me ooze happiness when I happen upon them.

Spring Cherry Blossom, even this early in the year, is simply inspiring. And that's the thing, after years deep in the medina...or at Tazi/Dar Finn, deep in the bowels of the medina, getting out in to this fresh air and space, with this sense of nature around you, is beautiful.

The route down to Fez offers yet more stunning views of the medina and it's quite something as an approach, something that has been undertaken by travellers for ...1200 years! Still all the way you pass local farms, and farmers, and there are a multitude of tracks to get lost on, so watch out!

And these finally bring you out on to very clearly well trodden, ancient paths, through decades, if not hundred years old gardens and old river routes. These final stages are slightly more effected by their proximity to urban areas, but then, having taken this route several times now, I've passed flocks of herons flying through the valley at dusk...simply breathtaking!

And finally you come out at a mausallium that is currently being renovated. This really is a beautiful walk and I look forward to improving it as part of Tours Around Fez...I just need to get out of the chantier first!

Volubilis and Mikes' Gaff at Moulay Idriss.
This wouldn't ordinarilly be part of our tours, but then I didn't go there as part of a tour, but as a day out from Mikes place at Moulay Idriss it's actually a real treat, especially if it also includes a jaunt to Hotel Volubilis with it's empty rooms, wonderful pool overlooking the famous ruins and a cold beer and hot pizza, what a treat.

Volubilis is actually quite sensational and each time I've been there it only get's better. However try to get there early morning to beat the tourist rush and of course to ensure more beautiful light for any photos! As with other places in the north of Morocco, the general lack of "development" of a major historical site is certainly something that adds to being there. As yet, despite intentions to protect and develop Volubilis, it's still relatively low key...which is great!

Mikes new place in Moulay.

Is a real treat too. He's done a great job rebuilding and gardening through the place and the views over the Mosque are quite extraordinary.

Equally a jaunt in to the countryside near by is a real joy especially when combined with a dip in the Roman Baths. It's such a luxury to be able to go to places that are special in their own right, and to differing degrees off the beaten track, such as Moulay, Vollubilis and zalagh, but to do so in combination with both local knowledge and contacts. This is so much of what I am looking forward to and what so often gets lost in the depths of a third year in the chantier.

The aim of this work is to free us/me up, to be able to enjoy this really rather wonderful country, where there still remains so much to explore and in which we now have a netwrok of good friends and colleagues.

This will, I am sure only add to the life we are hoping to lead, and the business style/product/model, we are trying to develop. we know some really wonderful people here and I look forward to enjoying both them, you and our aspirations more fully, as soon as we can!

Right, let's get that chantier finished then!

Feb 2011 Another Big Push

Hi Finn,

Now as ever it seems that I’ve been absent from this story telling. But infact I haven’t. You see time seems to go by so quickly that I never get round to matching pics to writings. The thing is tho’, as I’m realising, I do actually do a bit of writing and imaging, but just don’t Bloggit!

So this is a piece that I wrote up at the end of Feb. Reading it back and with hind sight, of course there are a whole lot of things that should be elaborated…I’ll see how I can do this as we go along.

February has been a funny month that has shot by and left us …or at least me, wondering where it has gone. I’m currently sat in the chantier at Dar Finn where we’ve been “pushing forward” for probably the best part of a month and I find myself wondering where has been the real progress.

Empty space...Do we call this progress?

The issue is of course that there has been progress, tho given that so much of what we are doing is again new, we find ourselves staring up at another learning curve wondering when it will all normalise…other than the ever present feeling of being engulfed by the Great Cloud of Unknowing!

Look at the size of this job…

I thought it would just be a case of knocking down and making a garden…but then we found the river, and then we had this whole beton armee structure, and after we’d emptied several hundred bags of foundations…we got started.

What is good is that we are now working more methodically, which is to say that we are finishing from the top down. This has meant that we have focussed upon the terraces and are trying to finish these before moving on to anything else.

Work on the terraces.

The focus upon the terraces has been something of a shock. It is often that familiarity breeds blindness and as such we really have failed to see the amount of work that we needed to do up here. We’ve also had to finally make a decision regarding the solar panels and given the vandalism of some neighbours and the cries of blocked views from others, we decided to completely change our water heating system to electric. Hardly “eco” but it’s all that we can do.

Thus this month we’ve managed to complete the ceiling of the “Pashas’” bathroom, put in a bar and seating, complete part of the façade/balcony facing Fez and also re do the halka cover/grillage around the halka. It’s good to bite the bullet here and get it done, but it feels like this should already be finished.

Driss and Rachid...Troublesome Twins?

This is being done by two new masons, brothers Driss and Rachid. Again it’s difficult as we both end up feeling that they are working slowly, but feel that there is little we can do about that other than sacking them. We now spend all our time, one or other of us at the chantier, trying to chivvy things along. Does it work? I don’t know but it feels like watching paint dry!

Mason Kiff…gone in a puff of Smoke.

Around the house we also had another mason who’s been doing “bricollage” which is to say the bits and pieces that need doing. We call him Kiff as he takes the odd toot. Again we don’t like it but he works and thus we let bygones be just that. The aim is to get the brothers to finish the terrace and then be able to move down in to the basement where they’ll complete the work that has been ongoing these past four months down there....the only thing was he was useless and had to be shown the door early! Back to the twins!

More of the basement.

I simply can’t believe that this has taken so long in the prepping. As I said earlier we found a river running through it and had to check the foundations. Would others have done the same? I doubt it, but with our ridiculous engineering plans, oueds and need for depth, we seem to be forced in to a huge amount of excavation.

Rachid closes ancient sewage systems.

Fortunately it would seem that we are now close to finishing the prep and moving on to the building. I’ve just come from a chantier where they had 20 pottos, instead of our 13, and they completed that in 20 – 30 days…this should mean that we’ll have the main part of the building completed by the end of March…remember you heard it here first!

Ferroniers.

Of course one of the other problems we face is that we are now needing to employ a worker/skill that is new to us, that is a ferronier, he’s the guy who ties all the metal skeletons together. We had one recommended to us by The Brothers and he seemed expensive and slow…like The Brothers…so we’re out searching for another. I’m hoping that Michelle will come up trumps on tis and thus we can limit ourselves from too great an employment through The Brothers.

Do I sound paranoid, lacking in trust? You see it’s like that exactly! These guys on the roof are also ferroniers but instead work on metal doors. what a racket they make, but again, we hope they're part of the Great Thrust.

Hamid....another Carpenter..what'll be his story?

Apart from the masons we’ve also managed to get in Hamid a carpenter who’s from Absalam and is great…if ever so slightly slow..you get where I’m coming from! He arrived and soon brought his “mate”. Now of course a mason needs his mate and logically so might a carpenter. However on his first day I came across this “mate” doing nothing but watching the carpenter, a few times. And so asked what he was doing. Obviously he was passing the carpenter nails and tools..all of which were piled in reach of the carpenter..sorry? I said, can’t he do that himself.

And so a storm erupted and they explained the role of the mate, which made sense for big work..but not for every day. And thus not too long after, he again stormed off and was gone.

That’s also something, I hate the amount of conflict or potential conflict on a chantier. All mualem are primadonnas, if you ask, question, let alone criticise, that’s it, trigger pulled and they’re off. So you massage egos, tread lightly and pray for the whole bloody thing to end!

So who else is here. Well finaly we’ve got Rachid and Bushta to come in and complete the electrics and we’ve got Mustapha and his team (see above) to do all the metal work on the terrace, seating, bar doors, parasols and the like. This again feels great and makes me at least feel as if we are taking this “push” seriously.

On top of that Ali is doing the plumbing and Absalam should be in to complete the carpentry for our Mezanine in the RDC room. But that’s looking forward.