A Day: Wednesday May 15th

Frank Gardner, a wonderful painter who lives in Mexico was asked by Alicia Padron, a wonderful children's book illustrator, to write about a day in his life.
He did, and it was most interesting. I always see lots of similarities between Morocco and Mexico.
Needless to say, this being the blogosphere, he was asked to pass the idea along......



I wake up about six, or when the light through the green glass above the bedroom door looks bright.
Tea. E-mails. Write blog.
Squeeze oranges for fresh juice.
In the morning I write. Yesterday I was editing. I managed this for about three hours.
Robert painted and the kittens did kitten things like using cherries as soccer balls.



Since we live in a busy part of the medina, the streets are always full of people.



The other day I told someone I was going to do a post on stripy costumes. So I went looking for people to take photos of.
Then I felt stalkerish.



So I went to a little shop round the back of Cafe France where they sell the material to make the stripy djellabahs and took pictures of the fabrics instead. Attention Maryam -lots of wonderful fabrics here for you!



I also took a picture of a wall - which, as usual -looks like an abstract painting.
Then Robert and I had lunch in the courtyard.
Cheese, hobz -flat bread. Small tomatoes, olives, Crunchips - potato crisps/chips. Robert loves them - they are rather a luxury and Ismail always has some whenever he stops by.



I had been promising Amina, my Berber friend, that I'd have my hand henna'd for the longest time. I hadn't had it done since before we went to America.
I told Robert to take a picture of it with the henna still wet. He said we had lots of pictures of henna already. So I said - Take it anyway. He did.
Nap time. I try not to get the still wet henna on the bedclothes.


More writing..........

This is one of the many little children who play in the derb - some enchanting, some mischevious.......
He was playing on the shutters of "Bis" our nearest shop, which was obviously closed.
We had chicken for supper with lima beans and rice - cooked by me. Followed by peaches I had stewed at home - this is what you do if you haven't gobbled them all up already. They last longer poached with one little lump of sugar.
Then we watched an episode of "The Sopranos" that we had downloaded from the internet.
Then Robert read War and Peace. I read Antonio Tabucchi on Merisi's suggestion.
Went to sleep about 11pm.
A very satisfactory day.
Gosh, we are boring!

Grand Hotel Tazi

The entrance to THE GRAND HOTEL TAZI at the end of a road that leads from Place Djemma El Fna out to a place where you can get taxis.
Stupidly, I thought "Tazi" had something to do with 'taxi' but , in fact, it's just a name.
Needless to say, as with almost anything I take a picture of, it's due for 'improvements'.
Part of the joy of Hotel Tazi is that it isn't the least bit improved.



Here some traditional musicians stand by the front entrance to entertain us.



The decor is amazing. Such a plethora of patterns. Overstuffed sofas and cut plasterwork and color upon color and pictures and who knows what else.
Glittering metallic holiday decorations hang from the ceiling.
They recently painted the main lounge and removed the yellow patina of decades' worth of nicotine stains.



Tazi's main claim to fame is that it is the place closest to Djemma El Fna that serves BEER -Heineken, Flag, Casablanca and Speciale.
Lots of people go there for exactly that reason.
Aging hippies and respectable folk and Moroccans and people who have recently been out in the desert - who you can tell by the redness of their faces.
One can sit there for hours marveling at the variety.
Taxi has a big color TV usually with the soccer on it but sometimes Arnold movies.



I mostly drink mint tea there. But they also give you lots of nuts and popcorn.
The clientele is often not in its first youth which sort of fits in with the general ambience.
Up the curving staircase, there are endless corridors with hotel rooms - lots and lots of them.
Behind the hotel there is a swimming pool which I have never swum in.

The Looking Glass

People tend to be kind to the cats and often put down food for them. Good pickings today in the metal workers' square.



The fish bones here almost look like cartoon ones - if you can see them clearly enough.

DSCN1758, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

In the square of the metal workers, where they cut glass to suit - and where all the bits of glass for above the doorways came from -my attention was caught by this large mirror with palm tree motifs.

There are always lots of kittens here - as well as lots of bits of metal and slivers of glass. I worry that the kittens will cut their paws but somehow they don't seem to.

Book Shop

DSCN1775, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

Floor to ceiling books - rather slim on the whole with very brightly colored bindings - in a very small shop near the Mousassine mosque which is a cave of knowledge.
Ali Baba's treasures......
Depressing to to realise that I wouldn't be able to read one of them.
They also sell pens and note books.
The ladder reminds me of old private libraries in England - but lots of shops here have ladders because they store things very high up.