November 2011 Mazel Ma salitnass? Tick tock, tick tock....Naaasssssssssssssss

It's late now Finn and I'm desperate to sleep, but (not quite) like your mum, I want to finish...to put this, before I put me, to bed. Your mums off celebrating Vinces' 40th at Mikes in Moulay, it'll be a great gig, but we've all been really ill around xmas and New Year and we've some serious travelling to do before we lie on that beach in Kerala, so I didn't risk over indulging...tho' I'm not too sure what you would call this...anyway!

So with days to go before our first guests, who are also our first reviewers (no stress there!!) arrive and all workers leave for weeks at family homes to gorge themselves on ram's stomachs, we were still far from finished. Of course we were seeing progress but no matter how hard we tried to coax extra work out of the guys, it never seemed enough to get everything completed. The tadlakers are a fine bunch of chaps, but how much did they chat, how long were their tea and lunch breaks and when would they arrive to start work...but they came day in, day out...we progressed and the clock tick tocked..tick, tock!

Saviours in all of this were Arab the plasterer (0663630709) who did a fantastic job in both houses and is a joy to work with.

Absalam the carpenter proved to be a complete .....carpenter and Ali was consumed with having his land taken by a guy he was trying to prove was dead....a challenge at anytime, but a costlier one closer to Eid!!! Rachid of course wasn't answering his phone...oh yes it was the elections..remember those? Another Islamic party wins power in the Magreb, these are interesting times outside of our microbe, very interesting indeed.

And all this time we were trying to empty the RDC/foyer so that it looked the cool loungie funky area we envisaged and not still part of a building site. Plants edged out slowly...but only ever slowly! Tick.....Tock...Tick...Tock!

By the time we had our end of chantier dinner (that reminded me so much of the meal we'd put on for our frist week of building so very long ago!!), it was clear that we weren't going to get finished in time.

None theless it gave us an opportunity to celebrate where we had gotten to and to celebrate with friends...Beccie let her hair down and boy did she deserve it. We've both played our part in this and we've both had times when it was all too much, or when we took the lead. But at this final furlong, it was your mum who stood up and just did it...ground it out...well done Beccie xxxxx

Of course just because there are no labourers left in the house doesn't mean there's no work, and with the onset of a reviewer who already wasn't going to be able to stay in the hotel, but who needed to get an idea of the "vibe" of Dar Finn, we needed to move on to another finishing stage, one which we are still, if not struggling with, perhaps enjoying the challenge of completing. Lights, curtains, loo roll holders, latches, you name it and it's in the detail and even then there was still work to be done by Rachid Bni and Rachid electrician...if we could ever get hold of him.

One of the benefits of having a finished home built in the medina is that when the hotel isn't finished, you can invite people there for an all together different experience and our home is beautiful...and so are you, which helps melt hearts and minds...thanks Finn...

And yes we did get in to Jigsaw guide as a recommendation for style gurus coming to Fezzzzzzz, which is what we did when everyone had gone home...Eid? Don't know mate, I was chilling or sleeping..........tock!

And this time that we began to get has already paid dividends, I decided to take you out with Omar of the Fez Camera Club (0659661502) and we ended up in Derb Sidi Bni Yahyaa...which is of course where we live. It was only whilst there that I entered his mausolium, a shrine to this holy man, about whom I must get to know more. The shoot was about "children" and I got some great shots of you, but also of the kids we see daily...there's some great photo opportunities here, let's hope I take some.

But as I say again, with my head out of the chantier I can see clearer and I love that we have an amazing mausolium next door, I love that I buy my coffee freshly ground, along with my spices, from a local grinder, or that our local baker makes fantastic hot bread, that we have a huge fresh food market at the end of our street, a well for locals and horses to collect water from near by and a brilliant aged hamam within 5 minutes away, or that another neighbour makes candles by dipping wax and designing in his tiny hanoot.

I love that, and I know that, because we've finished the bloody chantier...well almost!!!