Old Friends depart in Red Biker Jacket

Our old friends left for Spain. We drove them to Marrakesh yesterday and took the Tizi n'Test. They live in the campo of the Sierra Nevada but I think the Atlas impressed them. There was a smattering of snow on Mount Toukbal making it romantic but the weather was really good with no mist and wonderful views and a nice 28 degrees.
We stopped at the Belle Vue for a coffee and to use the loos and the owner there was telling us about the people who paraglide down the valley. He said he had done it once 4 years ago with someone in tandem and had flown for an hour and a half but that he had been sick for a week after. I'd be sick for a week before and never take off.
The Artist had prevailed upon her spouse to make some purchases. The main one seemed to have been planned from when they visited us in Wales and I showed her the leather jacket I'd had tailor made. The Artist is a small woman and most clothes she buys off the peg are too wide in the shoulder and long in the sleave. Her eyes misted over and she murmured "I could have a red biker jacket". Apparently she has coveted one all her life.
We duly took her off to Beni Cuir near the English Pub in Agadir, there being no-one making Western women's leather jackets in Taroudant and one was duly bespoken. It seems to be a success and is making me feel I should succumb to my suppressed Hippy yearnings so Beloved had better watchout. She also bought red sandals and a coral necklace so they were well and truly shopped out by the time they reached Marrakesh. I wonder if they succumbed?



A red biker jacket made to fit perfectly



A Fountain of Art

I always like to see other peoples view of the house but the Artist's has been interesting. She is obsessed with the fountain and has taken lots of photos and made several sketches. Here are some of the photos and I'll blog the sketches later.  The Aston Villa duck makes a star appearance.

The Stonecarver

It may be that the recent sculpture symposium came here as did the sculptor it honoured because of the local stone. There is a stonecarving tradition in the town and a number of  stalls sell carvings. My favourite workshop is Larbi Elhare's in the Arab Souk. The sculptor uses traditional tools and drills - no modern electricals here.
The Artist was of course taken with this. She is of Sri Lankan lineage and this seems to have produced a thing about elephants much as chum had about camels so she puchased a dinky one not in local limestone but in marble. I, myself have a limestone carving at home based on a moroccan folk tale of an old man whose turban is a dove. I covet some of the larger carvings of heads some of which remind me of the sculpture at the Daniel Owen centre Mold commemorating the "Alleluia" battle and victory of the Welsh over outnumbering Viking forces. Beloved and I bicker over the possibility of commissioning a gnomon for a projected wall sundial on the terrace and the impossibility of conveying this in our limited language skills.

Old friends

Old Friends have come to visit. We have known them for 30+ years but they retired to Spain 10 years ago and we had not seen them since until last month. We visited them in Spain then which must have seemed a wierd visit to them because I had fallen down the garage step a month before and was barely able to manage to hobble with a stick and then Beloved developed gout which is excruciatingly painful and he was hopping about unable to walk and we were fighting over the stick. Thank heavens they live in a bungalow.
Anyway they are now returning the visit. What is nice about old friends is that they fit like an old jacket or shoes and even after a 10 year gap you can just pick up and feel comfortable. The wife is an artist and has had creative flourish since she left work and children and went to live in the Campo. She has had a number of international exhibitions, the next is in Finland in December. You can see her work at http://nalinigallery.yolasite.com/.
They have not spent much time in Morocco, a family trip to Agadir with teenagers 25 years ago and a 2-day trip to Tangier from Spain which yielded 2 pictures. Anyway we have been showing off the new sculpture park and taking them round and the Artist is very taken with our garden and spent yesterday afternoon making watercolour pencil sketches with great concentration and enthusiasm.





The birdcage: one of the Artist's pictures from her trip to Tangier





Interior: one of the Artist's picture from her trip to Tangier

   

Bab Taghout restored at last

When we were last here they were still woking on Bab Taghout but now it is completely restored with the new arch for inward traffic and the old doors proudly back in place. If, like beloved, you are fit, you can climb on to and take photos out to Sidi Bou Kas or to town but given the area they are not as pretty as those from Bab el Kasbah (see 15.5.11)

5th International Symposium of Public Sculpture

For the last two weeks Taroudant has been hosting a major exhibition of public sculpture. Unfortunately we have only been able to photograph it today as we weren't in the country but it is pretty impressive. The sculptors from Belgium, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Japan have been chipping away to create the sculptures which will remain to grace the new park (see 6.3.11). Previous symposia have been held in El Jadida, Tangier, Essaouira and Fes but it is 10 years since the last one was held because after the one in Fes a new mayor was elected who had the sculptures destroyed. The sculptures are in the local stone for which Taroudant is famous and are a tribute to a french sculptor who died this year at the age of 85 having made his home here.
The sculptures are pretty impressive and the square was at its best with the fountains going. They were crash-barriered off although this had not prevented local children getting their football on top of the jet to see if it would stay there. Today is Sunday and market day and the last official day of the symposium and there were quite a few local people who like me were taking time out to view the works and take pictures.
Next to the fountains  they have finished a circular area with tiered seating round presumably for small perfomances. We could not help noticing the goals marked out by large stones so maybe the local kids have a different use.

Delays , hedge and Wales wuz robbed

A four hour flight delay due to an air traffic control strike in some unknown part of the world so we arrive  at 3 in the morning. We drag ourselves out of bed early to watch the rugby and Wales are robbed by an outrageous ref's decision 20 minutes into the match. The large red dragon brought to annoy the French is unecessary and we can only agree with the pundit saying that one of the worst teams who lost 2 group matches is now in the final. At least we don't have to get up next week.

All that and the hedge is as high as me. We don't have the electric hedge cutter here.  I suppose I should be grateful it's alive . Bah! Humbug! Grouch! 

Lalla Salma for Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace was an early 19C mathematician without whose work Charles Babbage would not have been able to build his calculating machine. The computing industry is still largely dominated by male nerds and my favourite male nerds out in New Zealand drew my attention last year to Ada Lovelace day when everyone is invited to blog about their favourite woman mathematician or scientist to remind us of the contribution of women which is forgotten in male accounts of history.  I intended to blog about a prominent Roudani woman but my research skills were not up to the job. Instead I will  blog about Lalla Salma  (nee Bennani) who is a moroccan computer engineer. She is one of those sickening women who are not only fiercely intelligent and bright but drop dead gorgeous and elegant putting us mere mortals to shame. Since her marriage she has not pursued her profession but has supported her husband and various charities, particularly those relating to the prevention of cancer and AIDS in Africa.
 I do not see this as a pre-feminist drop-out, more as an insertion of a computer engineer into a position of unequalled influence at the heart of government. (Sorry about the pun). Because her full title is Princess Lalla Salma and the husband she has chosen to support, His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.



This is the Princess at the British Royal Wedding. She was voted the most elegant woman at the Royal Wedding by readers of Hello magazine, knocking Pippa Middleton's infamous rear into second place.