Hello there

So sorry for the long pause since my last post. So what have I been doing? Well, half of September and October was taken up with the month of Ramadan which saw our days and nights completely turned upside down to accomodate the new routine. For those not familiar with Ramadan, this is the Muslim month of fasting. The fast starts at dawn and ends at sunset. Fasting not only means no eating or drinking during that period, but no smoking, no swearing or abusive language (this can be quite difficult on occassion, especially when it gets closer to eating time and one is in a rush to get home and competing with the crowds who are all trying to do the same thing), and no sexual activity. It is a month where one learns to be patient and appreciative and, importantly, to recognise how some of our regular daily routines and rituals to which we are so attached are things we can easily do without.

Anyway, for those so inclined, the day would start at about 4.00am, where we would get up and have something light to eat before the fast started. For me this consisted mostly of having a banana and yoghurt and drinking heaps of water (to keep me hydrated during the day). Then, after doing Fajar prayer, it would be back to bed and a nice sleep-in until about 10.00am! A nice time to go wandering through the Medina without the need to duck and weave around people was during the early hours of the morning - from 9.00am onwards. The place was virtually deserted as most businesses wouldn't open until 10.00am. I managed to get some photos of the Rabat Souk (where the carpets etc are sold) which normally would be crowded with people. It was great seeing parts of the Souk that are normally obscured by bodies. The busiest parts of the Medina at this time were the streets where the fruit, vege's, fish, meat and eggs are sold. You can check out those photos here:

Rabat Medina - Ramadan 2007

So, once up and about, the better part of the morning (or what was left of it) was devoted to the usual household tasks of cleaning etc, or buying food for the evening meal. As the fast didn't break until around 6.30pm (this time reduced as the month wore on), the food preparation wouldn't start until a few hours before, so many people would sleep some more during the day, catching up on what they had missed out on during the night.

The first meal, Ftour (or, breakfast, as the word implies), consisted of Moroccan Harira soup (which is a tomato based vegetable soup, which has a small amount of meat in it, lentils, chickpeas and heaps of fresh coriander and parsley), served with dates, boiled eggs, and a variety of Moroccan sweet cakes, or halawa, that are especially made for Ramadan. After Ftour, people would either go out and visit friends, or browse through the market, or go to cafes, or whatever else they wanted to do for entertainment and return for the main meal which would be served at around midnight, sometimes later, depending on what people were doing. If I recall, the latest time we had our main meal was about 1.30am!! Anyway, by the time we finished that meal, relaxed a bit, then hit the sack, it was only a few hours before we had to get up and have our quick morning meal before the fast started again! You can probably understand why people slept as much as they could during the day.

As I couldn't drink any water during the day, I had to forego my usual hour long daily walks. Which is not to say I didn't venture out, but my strolls were shorter and were mostly later in the afternoon closer to the time the fast would break. To fill in my time during the day, I started doing the redesign work on a little apartment that Najib and I have put a deposit on. I used an excel spreadsheet as my design space, shrinking the columns and rows to make tiny squares, with each square representing 5cm. As a result of the drawing and moving of each item (walls, furniture, equipment, etc), I have given myself RSI (or tennis elbow) in my left arm. (Which happens when one uses a lap top at an awkward angle for hours at a time ..... so it's true .... ergomonics is important!). It sounds like a pathetic excuse, and if I didn't suffer from this I would probably roll my eyes and say "yeah, right" at anyone saying so, but I haven't actually been able to type anything longer than a paragraph without suffering severe pain that lasts for hours. So, I'm back to using the mouse and hoping that I don't get RSI in the right wrist as a result!!!

Anyway, the apartment. Najib and I have been wanting to have our own space for a while, but wanted something close to Najib's work plus the CBD (so that everything I need is within walking distance). Anyway, Najib found out about a little one-bedroom apartment in the CBD, located close to the park and the main avenue. He asked me to have a look to see what I thought. I wasn't expecting anything flash, and wasn't disappointed in that respect. However, as Najib and I are no strangers to home renovations, what I saw didn't put me off - if anything my mind started racing and I was planning how I would rearrange things as I moved from room to room, We haven't finalised the lease yet (deposit has been paid, but, like alot of things in Morocco, these things move slowly especially when the owner is rarely in Rabat), so we haven't started on the demolition work yet. But, in the meantime, I went for a second visit to take the measurements of each room, and took my camera with me to record how it currently stands. You can check out the "Before" photos here:

The Apartment ("Before" renovation)

There certainly are some design challenges, but we are quite excited about this little project. We've gone and checked out all the types of toilets, hand basins, shower recesses etc that are available (and Morocco, being so close to Spain and Italy, has some of the nicest European designs available), plus checked out the kitchen displays so we can get an idea of the materials available, and cost. Still need to get to the floor and tiliing places to see what is available, but in the meantime I'm thinking about what colours will work best. Anyway, will keep you updated on the progress of this project as things develop.

And that is about it for now. Hope you are all happy and life is treating you well.

Until next time, all the best,

xxx Zohra ooo