Morocco

Its been a while since I have posted up here. Christmas has been and gone, family arguments have emerged and then faded away again. I am a little more tubby and a little more grumpy than I was before. But all in all, fun was had.

Last week I was in Morocco where we stayed i

n an amazing Riad just outside of the Marrakech city walls. Marrakech is essentially one massive maze of small streets and souks (covered marketplaces) which flog a mixture of tourist tat, Moroccan crafts and items for the locals. More often that not when you buy anything from these places you get massively ripped off, but after a while (and much shopping) you begin to understand the value of things and learn to offer a quarter (or less) of what they are demanding. 

The formula seemed to work well for us. Lucy proved herself to be an excellent bargainer (I am particularly poor, being too polite for my own good).

I thought I should post up  a few of the better photographs from the trip. Morocco is a photographers dream, vivid colours and unusual people are everywhere. You can spot snake charmers, storytellers and street apothecaries in the main squares at dusk, and during the day the sunlight breaks through the rough souk roofing an casts all sorts of interesting shadows.

Only one thing prevents the photography -  it is nearly impossible to take photographs of people because they will either a) become offende

d, or b) demand some money. therefore the majority of my photos are of places, animals or of people I have bought something from.  

The Berber village we stayed at, in the High Atlas mountains for one night whilst doing a bit of walking:

The football pitch below is approximately 2300m above sea level. The local kids hike up 

the mountain to the only bit of stone free, flat land available. I just wonder what happens when they lose the ball down the hill.

A couple of mules that we saw on a tannery trip in Marrakech. I guarantee to you that the one on the floor is alive as it lifted up its head about five seconds after I took the photo. I was unsure of its health though as I was for a number of other animals we saw around the city:

A very colourful orange cart:

The main square in Marrakech at dusk. Street performers and street food everywhere:

One of the more interesting souk shop-fronts in Marrakech. I spent about half an hour standing outside it as my mother bartered hard for an amber necklace across the road:

If you are interested, want to see the photos without the sides chopped off, or are a stalker the rest of the photos are on my Flickr page linked on the right. If you have any advice on how to display photos without the sides chopped off. Please let me know at the usual address.

Renault Clio 1.2 v Toyota Prius T4

I got delivery of my new company car this week - hurrah! Strange considering those who ordered Fords in my company wont have theirs for another three months and there isn't even a Prius manufacturer in the country.

So this week I swapped this:

Renault Clio 1.2 (2008) hire car with about 4000 miles on the clock.

For this:

Toyota Prius T4 (2008) with about 150 miles on the clock.

I settled straight into trying to prove to myself that the Prius was the right choice for me. Over the last 6 weeks or so of driving the Clio supermini, I kept a careful check on the miles per gallon I was managing to get over my normal driving route (mainly heavy motorway traffic on my commutes to Leeds and country driving on my commutes to Manchester). With the supermini 1.2 I was able to get on average 39.7mpg over the full 6 weeks. There were a few drives on which I managed to get it up as high as 43mpg with some concerted effort.

So in my first week of driving the Prius I have tried to use my normal driving style (albeit a little like a grandad as Lucy would tell you). Just to get a fairly like for like comparison (although the Prius is obviously much more spacious and heavier). So far I have managed an acceptable 52.9mpg.

In future weeks I plan to increase the grandaddedness of my driving style to see if I can't get that up a little. I will probably be going to Rattling the Kettle for a few tips on how to go about it (this may have to wait until late January due to the impending Morocco trip and some business in Canada).

Based upon my cig packet calculations the Prius would save me £460 of fuel per year (plus the additional tax benefits it holds). I think I should be able to get that figure up a little.

On Being a Scrooge

I have noticed a significant change in my other half over the last couple of weeks. She is noticeably more 'cheery' and 'enthusiastic' at the moment. Not that she wasn't 'cheery' and 'enthusiastic' before, just that it seems to be more obvious. 

I have found that more and more I am having listen to her 'enthusiastic' conversations she has at me, and they are getting longer and longer. 

And the whistling is kicking back in (I thought I was rid of that). 

Its not that I don't want to listen to her yarns. Its just that whenever she has an extended conversation at me, my mind fills with the last good tune I heard on the radio and I feel the need to whistle it out loud. 

Over the top of her talking. 

This evening it was 'This is a Low' by Blur (who incidentally are re-forming and touring in the summer) which got me into trouble.

Other strange things have been happening too...

....Lucy has been going on mysterious late night shopping trips and coming back laden with cheap tat

... the house is becoming decidedly more sparkly an Lucy appears to have acquired a bazillion small pieces of gold foil from her Nan which have taken pride of place trodden into the hallway carpet - twinkling in the moonlight when I go for my midnight toilet trip 

... and most bizarrely my bank balance seems to be ridiculously low for this time of the month.

Whats that? 

Oh ... its nearly Christmas!!! Well that explains it (particularly the bank balance thing).

I generally have a bit of a love / hate relationship with this Christmas thing. 

Whilst I don't mind the festivities of Christmas day - I can only take it in small proportions, and the stress of prolonged Christmas tends to put me a little on edge. Though Christmas Eve can be fun.

This generally evokes the response of "Dont be such a scrooge!" from a number of corners (mainly Lucy) followed by extended efforts to get me in the Christmas spirit by telling me how great it is and making me feel inadequate for not being a Christmas lover. Those Christmas promoters just love to try to turn a scrooge.

This Christmas, however will be fairly different to other Christmases. This Christmas my Mum has taken the step to attempt to avoid Christmas altogether. This Christmas we are going to a Arab country - where there will be NO Christmas!

On the 19th of December Lucy, myself, my little mentioned big sister, her boyfriend and my mum will be traveling to Morocco where we will spend time in Marrakesh (hopefully with a little spell in the High Atlas Mountains).

(High Atlas mountains - not my photo!)

However due to this, the Lucy clan have opted to postpone Christmas to Boxing day - so I will be doing it all anyway. Plan foiled.