Paradise Parking

These pictures are of the Guardian's hut in the main car park in town. When he first started having pots I thought he had a sideline selling them but in fact he has made a really good little garden; and yes, those orange flowered bushes are the French Marigolds we grow as bedding plants.

Strikes and Purchases

Well we've been back a fortnight. It has been unseasonally hot -39C- which is quite enervating and leaves me like a wet rag under the air conditioning but it has been more sensible the last 2 days and even about 10 minutes "rain". (What, if it had lasted,  the Irish would call a "moist day".) 

We have had to upgrade our online facilities which we had intended to do in order to be able to watch UK TV but our techie told us we would have to anyway as 3G was now so slow that you could "not even watch Youtube". He was shocked when I indicated that I saw no reason to wish to do so. Anyway he helped us with the forms and Maroc Telecom were incredibly efficient and had installed a line for the internet and phone within 48 hours so we now have a proper phone with 30 free minutes of international calls a month as well as fast internet.  We then had to buy a new television although there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old one except that it did not have an input socket for a computer and then whilst we were in the shop I spotted a nice table top oven with a fan facility which was serendipitous as the handle had come off ours again , and then Beloved craved a full size deep fat fryer for his chips and I fancied some electronic cooking scales so we had quite a splurge at Electrique-Menager.

Techie upgraded me to Windows 7 too as the XP is no longer supported so I am just getting used to my notebook looking different and Beloved plays with the new computer and we sit  like the Kiwi boys playing with them; although we have not yet started emailing each other when only yards apart.

The plants have weathered the summer well and are thriving and the bits that got knocked off the prickly pear and we stuck in compost in hope rather than expectation have grown into plants.

 This is just as well as there is a strong wind today trying to move the sahara into the house and it has blown the babies over knocking bits of them We will plant these and see if we end up with grandbaby cacti.
There was a major strike yesterday involving 3 of the main 4 unions. Government offices, the electric and water companies, and schools were closed. One of the main greivances of the strikers is that the government intends to raise the retirement/pension age for employees from 62 to 65. We explained that our government was raising it from 65 to 67 and that Sweetheart would probably have to work into her 70s and they looked aghast at the vision of things to come.

All set!

Well we're back next Wednesday, currently weighing and re-weighing the bags. We have 3x 20kg;; one a small backpack weighing the full amount in tinned pies and curry bases. We have about 30 books to fit in as I can't be doing with Kindle, two tapestry kits and a frame, various complicated electrical leads and connections, a portable ipod dock and a handblender. By Tuesday we will have added pork sausages, sliced cooked meats (mainly ham) and english hard cheese. I travel my summer wardrobe too although Beloved is only taking a pair of chinos and a dozen Tshirts to supplement  the ones he keeps out there. The clothes suitcase is quite conventional but what the customs/security will make of the rest of it heaven only knows.