A Dongle

Ammar now has a dongle so that he can communicate from home instead of going to the net and using the dirty computers there.We went to Rissani yesterday and did some shopping. We got some baby clothes,a baby duvet, perfume for Aicha, threads for my family shawl, a dongle and two cables and a scarf with fluffy balls on it. We had our lunch at Rissani, the same as the other day. Ah also I got to print out my boarding pass. I was getting a bit worried that I wasn't going to be able to do this as I had tried twice at Merzouga. So nice to be able to do this blog using the dongle. What a fantastic invention.

Today we went to see the new baby, who still hasn't got a name, but he may be called Marwan. The baby party has been postponed until Friday as some people couldn't come on Wednesday. We won't be going as we will be travelling to Marrakech then. We will go to Ourzazate tomorrow and stay at La Vallee for one night.

Another thing  did yesterday was to buy a jellaba, which was made for me. It cost 400 dirhams, which is about £33. A jellaba is an outer garment that has a hood. Men have them too but they are not so decorative. Mine is light green with some embroidery on it and trimmings all made by hand to match the cloth. There is a tassel on the hood which is made of beads.The tailor who made it is trying to be more modern in his approach to tailoring. Ammar got his jellaba from the same tailor.

Something nasty to report. I think I have bites from cat fleas. I have two on my face and two on my left leg. They are round and red and do not bleed. They feel very hard. I must have caught them from Shrad as she got to my face a few times. I will go to the chemist when I get home and get something to get rid of them.

Don't think I wrote in here about my bee sting. I got it one day washing clothes in the courtyard which is a place that Zaid's bees can reach. Something got on my face and I wiped it away, unfortunately it was a bee and it stung me. The pain came straight away and got worse. Then I got swelling and that got worse and lasted for about 4 days. All is fine now, just a little scab there now.

The weather is getting hotter. I was hoping to wear my jellaba today but it would have been too hot.

We had a meal at an auberge the other night. Its one of the best auberges in Merzouga and is called Riad Nezha. They had cous cous but it was too expensive at 80 dirhams each. We asked if we could have chips and an omelette with onions and tomatoes.They obliged. I couldn't eat any of the fruit after as I was so full. In fact we left some of the omelette. It is not an omelette as we know it in England as it is not folded over at the end of cooking but stays in the tagine.

Back to the preparations for the baby party. Khadija, Zaid's daughter, was starting to make some biscuits. They had made some round ones earlier and I was given a parcel of them wrapped in cellophane and tied with a bow. I will eat them at home. We visited Youssef's house on the way home and there was also some biscuit/cake making going on. This was different though and something that I had never seen before. Hyatt made small squares from the dough and then wrapped 3 squares around a small stick of bamboo. The squares were put on corner to corner. Then she lowered them into a pan of hot oil to fry - bamboo stick and all. A photo opportunity was missed  but I want to go there again to see if I can take a photo of the finished biscuits/cakes. I think the term sweetmeats is more appropriate.