Saturday, July 12, 2008

Sunny days are here again

Although they might not be where you are. I have heard that certain parts of rural Hampshire, for example, are experiencing showers although this does appear to be in direct correlation with dog walking.

I am not finding that, seeing as I am in Morocco and not rural Hampshire, and I have no dogs, only some rather cute, if scrawny, kittens loitering in the street below. I also have some rather bizarre red marks on my arm which can't be explained in the usual way.

From what I have seen of Casablanca so far, I like it. I haven't been staying in one of those package holiday hotel prisons but with a friend who moved here. The area is rather third world but that makes the whole experience better in my humble opinion. The driving is providing much entertainment for me and I think I will do a spot of filming of it tomorrow. The way to turn left appears to be to get lots of cars in a melee and to honk horns loudly. Anyone turning in the opposite direction sort of does the same thing and then when enough cars are together then lurch forward, trying not to crash into each other or the crowds of entire families on one putt-putt. The other day this didn't work and the traffic ground to a halt. After ten minutes, the inevitable happened and the Moroccan drivers got out and shouted at each other for another ten minutes.

In other things auto-related, my friend has a man on the street who he pays some money to to sleep on the corner. I understand the other people in the street are supposed to do this too. As we turned into the road after our eventful drive from Marrakech airport, which we punctuated with various episodes of swerving all over the lanes and veering off onto the verge to try to appear authentic (not really, he was looking for a CD case and I had to steer from the passenger side with my left hand) the man came along and told us to park in the tiny wee space available.

My friend tells me that he pays him 'to look after his car...well, no, not really. I pay him to persuade members of his family not to steal my car. I don't pay him enough to stop the kids scratching it and sitting on it.'

It maybe third world but it provides me with entertainment. I'm sure that as soon as I am dribbled upon by these overflow pipes from the balconies I may be less encouraging. But until then, I'm satisfied.

No comments: