Category Archives: Morocco

Masterchef: Final 3

Warning! This post contains Masterchef series 7 episode 13 spoilers!


Ok, it doesn’t contain many. But some. I’m sure you’re all well aware by now that one of the many old person programs which I am totally addicted to is Masterchef. Since I’ve been here there has been a new series (as there is every year) and though it’s not been as good as last year in my opinion, I still can’t keep my eyes off it.

Courtesy of The Guardian

Yesterday was the first episode of the final. These guys got sent to Australia to try out some foraging and then some barbeque cooking with exciting Australian ingredients like kangaroo, barramundi and crocodile. Then they were judged by Australians, and there is no more pleasing race of people in the world for their down-to-earth judgements.

And that is all I will reveal at present. Safe to say that I will be closely watching to see who wins finally. I am on team Tim at the minute, but that can always change. We’ll have to see.

The King is COOL

The boyfriend said this would make a good blog post and I couldn’t think of a better way to re-tell the story than to show your our chat conversation:

sallytalks: sorry for being super long

lolmarc: it’s ok : )

the king of morocco waved at you?

sallytalks: did you get my text?

OMG it was TOO COOL

lolmarc: haha sound exciting

sallytalks: basically the lights were all on coz of the kings visit

and we went down and didn’t realise we’d picked the exact time he was driving through
so there were a load of people but we made it to the front of the crowd
and then he drove past waving out the window and we waved and I am ready to SWEAR he saw us
Sent at 9:45 PM on Monday

lolmarc: hah sounds awesome babe

would make a good blog post ; )
So there you have it, readers. I saw the king of Morocco and he waved at me. Awesome!

Hot Cross Buns and Sympathy

Yesterday I baked Hot Cross Buns, and gave out sympathy. Baking and sympathy are some things I think I do very well.I woke up around 10ish, and spent the middle of the day trying to get in contact with my lovely Mum to say Happy Birthday. Unfortunately I couldn’t get through, and I’d already organised to head down to a party at the boy’s house in the afternoon. It was lovely. We played games and ate good food, and while it was slow getting started, it was still lovely. I slept over and then headed home this morning.

I walked a new way and there were no people, and that was scary. But I made it home fine, so that was ok.

I’ve spent the day still trying to get in contact with my family (without success so far) watching Dr Who – even though the Boyfriend really hates it, and doing work. Everyone else is out celebrating a birthday, but Madame Halima and Mr Aziz are worried about protests, and so I haven’t been out. It’s not the most exciting existence ever.

But oh well. Life goes on.

Happy Birthday Mum!!

Ain’t no sunshine when he’s gone

Boyfriend has gone home, and the amazing weather and lack of bother which I had while he was here has evaporated as well.Yes people, that’s right. Once again, I’m afraid It’s Raining Here in Fes…

I think that linking back to my own blog is probably the blogosphere equivalent of dividing by zero, but I just had to do it to see if it would work. And it did, which probably makes me awesome in some way.

But back to the story. If you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘like rats leaving a sinking ship’ then you’ll be able to understand how my day has gone. Fes is acting like a sinking ship under the relentless torrents of rain which we’ve had since the huge thunderstorm on the night that Boyfriend left. And like rats, the creepy men are all out and about in the rain. Its creep circus out there. Earlier it was like someone had dropped a big creep-bomb and ground zero was me. I must walk around with a neon sign over my head saying ‘Creep on ME!’

There it is in the dark,
following me around…

Let me tell you about my walk home. I began by walking with some friends. That was fine. But a minute after leaving my friend at her road (I live another 30 minutes beyond there) the creeps were upon me. We began with a guy who looked about 15. He followed me for a while, asking if I needed help getting home. My normal tactic of complete blanking didn’t work, so I just sharply told him no. He shouted after me for a few steps, asking my name. He was swiftly followed up by creepy car man, who crept his car along the road opposite me. I ignored him. When I got to the boulevard I met up with creepy number 3. For a while he just followed me, but then he began vaguely whispering at me. It was weird. But I had my umbrella up by this point to stop the rain, so it was even easier to ignore him. Creep four was the hardest to shake, he actually held the edge of my umbrella up. I told him to get lost in Spanish (I don’t like them knowing I speak English) but that didn’t work. He followed me for a good 5 minutes, and I have a horrible suspicion it was longer and he now knows where I live. Having finally got rid of him, and now 3 minutes from home, bring on car-creep number two, who stuck to the curb pleading with me to hop in and catch a lift home. If I could have hit him with my umbrella, I think I would have.

Urgh.

Dear The Queen,

Good afternoon Maam,It’s Sally and I’m writing to you all the way from the land of Morocco to ask a big favour. I’m sure that you remember me, what with us being great friends (because I’m English and you’re the Queen, and so naturally you’re friends with all the Brits).

The favour I wanted to ask is about the eagerly anticipated wedding of Williams. I have been informed by my Moroccan father, Mr Aziz (I told you all about him the last time we hung out together, if you remember) that he hasn’t actually received his invite to the wedding yet. He’s really excited to meet Williams and also of course Shaaaarlle [Charles, to anyone who feels lost] and yourself.

Over here we don’t really care much about a monarchy other than our own, so you should definitely maintain this great link you have by inviting Mr Aziz. I know you may think that sending Shaaaarlle and Camille over here to Fes* was enough, but I really think this invitation wouldn’t go amiss.

Much love,
Sally.

PS Here is a photo of us chillin’ together the last time we met up, to remind you of who I am. Shame about the quality, but it’s definitely us.

DSC01915
* I think I forgot to mention that while I was back in the UK, Charles and Camilla visited Fes. As far as I can make out, it was spectacularly uneventful. Which explains that bit.

Oh Morocco

I am a terrible blogger, and had a few posts planned which have been set aside due to spending all night booking a summer holiday. So here are a few things which make me sigh and say (the catchphrase of the year, may I add)

Oh Morocco!
 
1. The Spiderman shaped children’s ride outside Acima which was singing ‘Who let the dogs out?’ today.
2. Walking out of my room to discover that the house is full of people I don’t know, and no-body warned me (or will tell me who they are).
3. Eating dinner at 11pm.
4. Mr Aziz insisting on his little word-jokes with me.
5. One of our newly aqquired house-guests insisting on speaking to me only in fairly wonky English, made more awesome by his use of Arabic grammar.
6. Seeing a dead rat on the pavement and not being freaked out in the slightest.
7. Big Moroccan women wearing small American clothes, because it’s hot and they’re ‘modern and western women’.
8. lt raining outside, even though it’s been ridiculously hot all day. Confused country.
Oh Morocco. You make us laugh with your quirkyness.

Hair Removal

Lets have some fun stories and facts about hair removal. It’s been a theme of my life for a few days now.

So, let us begin. As a girl, I have made the decision to remove the hair from certain parts of my body. These principally include my legs and underarms. I use a razor. But no more, once I get back to England. Want to know why? Because I have been introduced to the world of epilating. It isn’t as painful as it sounds.

For those of you who don’t know, an epilator is a device which consists of a set of HORRENDOUS SPEED-ROTATING DEATH-TWEEZERS. Which is enough to put anyone off. But having been persuaded to give this implement of doom a try a few days ago, I’m converted. It has left my leg smoother than shaving, and doesn’t hurt horribly.

Another thing which people sometimes shave is their eyebrows. Some girls completely shave their eyebrows and draw them back on, some have tattoos even. Some people just shave or pluck the bridge of their nose to stop the appearance of a mono-brow. If you’re my boyfriend, you might spontaneously decide you need to do this (for no reason, may I add. Boyfriend does not have a mono-brow in the slightest) and you might use your shaver, and you might take a bit of your eyebrows off at the same time. He still looks good, just a little like his eyebrows are set too far apart.

If you’re a Muslim, I have discovered, there are bits of you which should be hairless. This is for the purposes of staying clean, and I have to say, I can definitely applaud that sentiment. However, one of the bits which should be clean and hair free is the pubic area. Now, I keep my bikini line neat, and I am perfectly comfortable with how I have it. I would not manage very well were someone to tell me to be completely bare.  I am not a waxing fan anyway, since it is akin to self-harm in my books, and I can only be in awe of the Muslim girls over here who get a full wax down there. Ouch.

The Wall

Today I hit the wall, again.This happens to me frequently. Life is chugging along, being happy and minding its own business, and then I just stop, and realise how unhappy I have just become.

I’m unhappy because The Boy is leaving Morocco in a few hours and I just can’t think of many reasons to stay here without him. We’ve had such a tremendous week, but I don’t have any drive now to go back to school. Also, I’ve not seen much of the Moroccan family, and so I am feeling a bit at a loose end, and not sure what to do with myself. I feel like I’m going to need  a couple of days of settling back into a routine before I can answer that question.

I know I have a lot to look forward to though, so rather than letting myself slide down the wall into a little sad puddle on the floor, I’m going to try and take this feeling as a wake-up call, to remind myself that I have two and a half months left in this fantastic country to get lots of things seen, get some good grades, and learn a lot at my work internship. And the fact is, that though I am going to really miss the people I’ve seen over the last few weeks, especially The Boy and my family, I don’t need people to support me night and day. I’m an independent young woman, in an awesome position, and by golly I’m going to make the most of it!

Meet the parents

I accept that I have not necessarily lived up to blogging expectations over the last few days. I have been busy entertaining The Boy. He has seen the old medina, the mausoleum of Moulay Idriss, the areas of Rcif, Batha and Bab Boujloud and of course the famous Fes tanneries. Alongside that he’s visited the Ville Nouvelle, walked along the boulevard and had a few nice stops at cafes and restaurants.There are photos, but he won’t put them on Facebook until he gets back. He can be backwards like that. Good thing I like him really.

Today he met the parents. Again. He’s met my actual parents more than once, and they like him, and he is moderately not-scared of them. All good. Today the plan was…

I’m hyping it up a little bit, because actually it was a lovely chilled out lunch. Mr Aziz wanted to be there but unfortunately he was called away to Meknes, so it was an introduction to Madame Halima principally.

We ate good food, had a lot of fun understanding each other in a variety of languages, and then The Boy and I left to let her carry on with her day. As far as meeting the parents goes, especially across a cultural boundary, it was pretty good.

More photos to come of our other adventures here in Morocco, and normal posting will resume on Monday when I get back into the regular and depressing school rhythms once again.

Toodleoo.

I have not been

I am sorry guys. For the past two weeks I have not beenBlogalicious
Blogtastic
Blogarific

Or even

Blogified

The reason for this of course is that I have been in the UK, having a holiday, but I arrived back in Morocco this evening, with none other than The Boy in tow. He is visiting for a week, so expect sporadic posting, some (hopefully) fantastic photos (finally) of where I live and what I do, and some fun stories of the touristy things he and I get up to. I’m hoping it will be a fantastic and memorable week, so let’s hope I can pull it off!