Hi Finn, here you are with Joe who came over to see you in April. We all loved that.Funnilly enough, having just about gotten up to date with news from the build, it seems more than important to try to address the seeming imbalance in my accounts of what we do in our life...as in, do we have any other life than that at 27 Zkak Rouah...it is difficult, and I am sure we'd both agree this project has demanded more of us, financially, personally and in time consumed, than we'd have hoped and there are times when it feels that we don't do anything else.
It is only when I look through our images that I'm reminded of how much...or how little else we are doing. One day I hope that we'll be able to gain more freedom from this project, that of course, being the ultimate point of doing it!
March saw us venturing out of Fez for a bit of early spring camping. with James and Lulu Despite a desire to venture further afield, we only got as far Dayat Aoua, which is about 17km from Ifrane. OK so it's not particulrly adventurous, but actually it was really beautiful, and simply wonderful to get out and camp.
The Dayat, which is a seasonal lake was quite full and looked beautiful in the morning light, tho' it was pretty cold once the sun had set...well it was only March!!!, but we all snuggled and cuddled up in to the tent and that kept us warm enough. I loved that we were able to go up to the gurdians at one of the kings palaces and ask for wood for our fire that night, I doubt Charles' would have been so accommodating. The saddest thing was that there was so much broken glass around. It's strange the level or absence of environmental cleanliness in such beautiful spaces.
It may have been a bit early to go camping but back in Fez it seemed that the circus had certainly come to town. In Europe there is Cirque Du Soleil who perform a sort of human circus, stunning. A troupof similar artistes had come to Moroc and were training youths in human circus. The result was magnificent, with crazy magrebi/rock music, light shows and stories based on the legend of lakes Isla and Isli. The local audience, including me loved it, tho I think you found it a bit scarey!
In contrast was a local human circus made up of huge puppet style figures of Disney characters, clowns and pounding music hall tunes that everyone knew. This happens annually in a local cinema and reminds me of being a boy and going to Saturday morning cinema...oh those were the days....you loved this....probably we'll go next year...and then we'll try to ensure we get a proper seat...not that you minded, you just wiggled and danced around!So what else have we been doing? well as alluded to above, Uncle Tim, Auntie Michelle and
family came over again to see us. It was wonderful to finally be able to give them a house to stay in and they certainly seemed to enjoy 813. It's great to get a feedback from outside, just to gan a bit of perspective which is easilly lost in the neverendingness of The Chantier. It's great now that they've come over so many times we are all comfortable with just hanging out together.
Last year we all went over to Asilah and you stayed in Chefchaouen for a few nights, which was great fun for all. this year you went off to Tangier but the house you al stayed in, where we didi n May last year, was unfortunately less than well maintained and it also rained, which put a dampner on things. Having said that we all talked of the next tme over, so we'll look forward to that. Certainly you all put the house to good use...including abit of footie coaching here with Louis and Joe.
Whilst we moan about the progress we are or are not making, again having visitors who've seen us throughout the build at Tazii...oops Dar Finn... is useful as a sounding board for how things are going and what we are producing. Tim certainly seemed to feel that the terraces and bar area were relaxing enough..yup he definately made himself at home. Personally i think the view from the bar is outstanding!
Prince Finley with his Princess Francesca....Even better than the real thing eh! As I've said earlier, you also got s chance to meet your first princess....Obviously Franchesca is your own personal princess, but this time you got to meet Camilla at Cafe Clock. You did very well to ask all the right questions like "Are you a real princess?" and made a great impression, tho secretely I think you still prefer Francesca.
Back in fez we also enjoyed a chance to see some Flaminco, which is something of a rarity, despite the Al Andaluch connections. I love getting to understand the links between northern Morocco and Andalucia that is so clear in Grenada, Cordoba and Seville, but also within the White Villages and say Chefchaouen. again this was the first time that you seen anything like this and you loved it, dancing and shouting. We'll have to get Sebastian to take us out in jerez and show us the real Macoy.
Other trips around Fez took us to dodgie Bin Souda Souk which had absolutely nothing as a "famous" Saturday souk, tho you did manage to find something of interest amongst the animals for sale! We'llhave to wait for Chaouen to get any of these.
As ever at this time of year, we began to get to see the Wedding Season begining with, yes even more princesses being carried through the town all dressed in silver and gold, carried high on silver chairs and musicians, drummers, trumpeteers and singers, yululating through the streets. Brilliant. i look forward to more of this.....bring on the end of the chantier and we'll get ourselves out to see more of everything everywhere...ish allah!
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