Stepped away for a moment

We spent the last couple of weeks trying our very best to get a visa, again! My beloved spent a lot of time holed up in the hotel room squinting over his computer, I spent a lot of time shopping and visiting Museums, we caught up with the children on the first weekend, wow who would have thought flying to Aberdeen from London could be almost as expensive as our flights from Algeria...Maybe we should deduct said expense from this years Christmas expense, yeah right, I can see how that would go down, like a lead balloon.

We caught two West End shows and managed to catch the second weekend with my family, flying through one birthday party, a catch up with an old school chum, the quickest 30 plus years I've experienced, two baby meet and greets, and a roast dinner. I caught up with another old friend who's health is not as it should be, and thoroughly enjoyed my trip around London, had we known we would have stayed so long maybe other things could have been planned, but such is the life of a nomad, you just never know how long you will be in one place, my oyster card got thrashed, at some stages it was smoking with the amount of tube trains I was jumping on and off, I went from one side of London to the other as far as my Oyster would let me, and as far as the end of zone 2 would go, the times I did extend my tour across all the zones was when visiting the family, everything was done by train or tube, or little brothers taxi service, well that was when he eventually remembered where he had left his car on the Friday evening, it was Sunday after all....

The shows well Book of Mormon was the first, and having booked the tickets I then had a melt down, 'what if I don't like it?', 'What if I can't take the swearing?', 'I don't like Southpark', well let me tell you from the moment the curtain went up I was enthralled, I laughed, I giggled, I gasped and cried, but only tears of happiness, from start to finish the show was a hoot, God love the Mormons and God love America! The second show we were lucky enough to see was an unexpected gift, Wicked it was and wicked it WAS, for a second evening in a wonderful London Theatre I grinned from ear to ear, I love a musical, I love the theatre, you gotta love a show, and where better than London Baby!

We now have our visa and having been given our passports we both were down trodden as we had only been given a 30 day visa, it wasn't until my beloved took the passports to work was he told 'no you have a 90 day visa, but you have to leave the country every 30 days to renew it', the visa process is a miraculous one, miraculous in that I am amazed by the process and how it actually works, or doesn't depending on your viewpoint, we now have only six pages left in our passports, and will be needing a new multiple entry visa, my beloved needs a work visa, then we both need a residence visa, and a Vietnam visa and a Cambodian visa, I think we will be needing new passports very soon, and lets hope we get all the visa's in one passport, THE NEW ONE !!

Peckish

So we are sitting at the airport in Algiers waiting on our plane to London, we have no idea how long we will be away, as we are applying for visa renewals from the Algerian Embassy and as is usual with any kind of visa from any country not just Algerian, we have no idea of a time scale.  We could be a day, we could be a week, we could even be 10 days or more, how do you pack for that type of trip, well let me tell you, the answer is LIGHT! And why? I here you ask, well I will tell you now, it is beginning to get a little nippy in Algiers and we both have fair weather clothing only, so the cases are more than half empty so we can fill them with warm clothing and wolly tights, those are for my beloved obviously….We will hit London late this afternoon with a bang, and shop till we drop, or at least until the shops throw us out. 

Somewhere in between times we will eat but today it is all about travel and clothes shopping. I have picked us out a lovely looking Japanese restaurant on Regents Street, so fingers crossed we are not so carried away with our shopping we forget to eat, although I have to say anyone that knows my beloved will know this will never, ever, and I do mean ever happen.  A creature of habit he is, but the weirdest thing is when working in the office he can go all day with no food, and recently often without breakfast too, but once he is out of the office his belly roars and he needs fed, today is a prime example of his belly getting the better of him, we had breakfast before leaving the apartment, we traveled to the airport, checked in and already he has eaten his first little snack, why? because as he said he was a ‘little peckish!’, I fully expect him to be ‘a little peckish’ again in around 10 minutes, and as anyone who has travelled will know, there is no such thing as a healthy option in an airport…..

A little too much right now!

The trouble with spending so much time on your own is your always right, and even when your wrong 'NOBODY KNOWS', trouble is this tends to lead to a false sense of your own cleverness, and yes that is a word, it's a quality you know.

Azzadine and I chat away as best we can, me with my broken french, and he with his broken English, I ask questions and he answers with a mix of Algerian, French-Algerian and English, we manage, we get where we are going and we are not late, often! 

Lessons are still on going, and I continue to practice on the computer when I am alone, I turn the sound down so the neighbours don't get sick of the sound of 'Où est le chat?' or 'l'éléphant est rose', although I think the neighbours baby will be speaking fluently in under a year... just ten months to go then.  I understand far more French now when people are speaking, well unless it's really fast, then I just give my best puzzled look and things slow down enough for me to catch up, sometimes!

Over the weekend I kept forgetting to get meat out of the freezer, so it was really unfortunate but we had to visit the Taj Mahal twice, once on Thursday then again on Friday, on our departure Friday the cheeky monkey on the door said 'see you tomorrow', it was only shame that stopped us going in yesterday, although we very nearly walked round for a take away....

iTranslate, NON

This week once again I am alone, my beloved is away to the sandbox, but not the Saudi one you understand, but the Algerian one. So since Sunday morning I have been left to my own devices, never a good thing, I have had one coffee morning, one French conversation group and two french lessons, and still I am no further forward with the Français, although now I can count to just over a couple of mille, and recite the passages handed too me, it's not pretty, it is only marginally French, but it's definitely not English.

In the middle of the pink area you can just make out my beloved waving...

I have often wondered about the language that we find ourselves the mother of, me I speak one language and it's a mixture of English, with quite a bit of Scottish and a wee smidgen of 'what the hell did she just say', that would be the swear words then! But it's not until you sit with someone and dissect your mother tongue that you realise just how odd it is.  For instance today with my French teacher we were talking about coffee, and how in Scotland we use the term fly or fly cup, this amused her no end, and then when I informed her that tea was in fact nothing to do with tea where I came from and was in fact the evening meal she was very perplexed and asked so when do you drink tea, the only logical answer to that question is 'whenever there is work to be done'.........So you see the language we use is not always the language of teachers, it is taken apart-reconstructed and thrown out there in a format to suit the occasion, and for me every occasion should start with a fly.... 

I learn't today that in France le goûter is a term for a tasty treat at 4pm, and yes it is that precise most especially for children returning from school, and is as much part of the French culture as tea is to the English.  So if I'm clever I can go from breakfast to fly to lunch and afternoon tea, and to le goûter without breaking stride, and then I can have tea, followed by supper and if god forbid I'm still peckish I can have a late dinner, it just depends on which friends I'm visiting as to which meal time it falls across, oh and don't forget there is always snacks in between times.....

Tonight I had the washing machine technician pay me a visit, the new washer does not like washing anything bigger than say a pair of knickers, and if you do try it will vent its disapproval by smashing the inner drum on the sides of the outer drum, I have tried everything to get it to wash and spin my towels and without success so the technician was called. So of course the machine was started (empty of course) and would you adam and eve it, no noise. C'est perfect! errr no could you please try it with some washing in this time, anyway the damned thing behaved until the last spin cycle when it banged just a little.  I was told I must use the synthetic cycle only or the quick 15 min that was for lightly soiled clothing, my eyeballs were rolling at this point, and my head was beginning to twitch, so I took out my computer and google translate was put to good use, now this would be ok if said gentlemen(there were two by the way), could spell, neither one was any use on the keyboard but we managed and eventually I accepted I am a dumbclutz and must do as I'm told, only use synthetic wash programme and all my problems would be resolved.... So just before leaving the technician decided to look under the machine into it's innards and low and behold in broken English I do believe I have a broken spring! God give me strength not to kill a technician, so I have it on a promise that the spring he has removed from the innards of my machine will be replaced tomorrow after midday, Inshallah - and remember tomorrow is Thursday my beloved comes home on Thursday with his washing and if the machine is not fixed he will be going back to Hassi on Sunday with the same bag of dirty washing....

Stitch playing dress up

Stitchworth of Arabia

Last Wednesday I received a message which started an avalanche of emails, texts and Facebook posts, I had just finished my French lesson, and was waiting for my driver, whom unfortunately I had given the wrong time too, mainly because my lessons started earlier and I forgot to adjust accordingly.... even timings are difficult when you don't do numbers, and I had been so proud of myself to be able to instruct said driver of my finish time in french, just a shame I was an hour out...


Anyway our boy Stitch needed rehousing ASAP, for reasons that are not mine to tell my poor friends had to ask for us to find someone to take him, now this is no easy feat especially when you are in one country, your friends and Stitch are in another country, and neither of those countries are home countries, so to Facebook I went and after a very stressful few hours back and forth between my wonderful friends we had a new home and family for Stitchworth. 

The King of the compound was going home to Scotland, Gods country! although I think when his little paws hit that tarmac he may wish he was back in the sandbox, this boy is not used to cold.  I was lucky enough to have three families wanting to take Stitch, and in the end it came down to first come first served, and the family that are taking him responded straight away with a unanimous 'we want him', I will always be grateful to all my friends and their offers of help with little Stitch, a very stressful situation indeed made easier by the animal lovers of Scotland,  that boy has a piece of our heart and we miss him terribly, but we just can't bring him here, and we don't have the luxury of turning down work. Like most people in this industry, that is just not an option in this climate, but that means for us we have to pass the reigns over to someone who will be settled enough to keep a dog forever in their home.

So please friends one more request, keep your fingers crossed for Stitch who flies on December 1st with another lady who is returning from the sandbox to Aberdeen, Stitch will fly as excess baggage and his new family will meet him in Aberdeen, he will be their Christmas present come early, and not from the North Pole but from Saudi Arabia, I bet this little lad never thought when he was dumped at the beach in Cyprus he would be this well travelled.......

We had offers from friends in Saudi too but for one reason or another these offers would not work out, so it was decided the best place for Stitch was home in Scotland where the dog lovers of the world live.

New House Mean Time

So Azzdine and I escorted my beloved to work with the car loaded to overflowing, we then headed to the new apartment for the first of four trips back and forth, taking with us 6 suitcases and numerous household items I had been collecting since arriving in Algeria.  Everything was left in one bedroom, and once we unloaded the last box it was time to start unpacking and organising, today is Tuesday of the following week and I still have what would amount to one full case to sort out, everything else has found a home, having a kitchen with loads of cupboards is a blessing, even if most of them are empty, when you don't eat food that comes from a packet or most of the time not even a tin your cupboards can look pretty bare thats for sure, just means I have more room for kitchen utensils....

The apartment has a verandah which runs almost completely around it and is a beautiful sun trap, and after the scorching sun in Saudi it is a pleasant change to be able to sit outside with out the insides of your eyeballs beginning to boil. 

So over the next few days I sorted out my new habitat and settled into the area, our first night in the apartment was spent trying to adjust the air con to suit, I have yet to work out how to use those damned zappers, as it appeared I had set a timer and after 30 minutes the air con went off and we began to cook, now it is winter here but the apartment having three open sides would lead you to believe it would be cold, but once the metal outside shutters are down everything gets real cosy.

We decided to head to Taj Mahal for our supper well it would be rude not too.  So our local curry house is around a km walk from the house which gives you ample time to work up and appetite and plenty of time to walk off your excesses.  We also popped in again on the weekend so even though they don't sell alcohol it is now our local.

We took a couple of strolls over the weekend as my beloved needed to get out from under the computer, and get some cobwebs blown away, we found a nice little cafe not far from the house, and on our second venture out we found some really nice shops not too far away.  More investigations need to be done as I have found nothing to compare with the market in Golf and the shops surrounding it, well so far anyway.

 My very clever ironing board that doubles up for short people to gain access to high cupboards

Burning down the house

We arrived in Algiers very tired and then waited and waited for our luggage, three bags arrived relatively quickly, but the last one just wasn't appearing, it wasn't until they shut the carrousel that we really started to panic, my beloved was standing with a group of gents who likewise were missing their luggage when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a little red shoe lace attached to a black suitcase, I ran over and hauled the thing off the belt and suddenly realised that we had in fact been waiting for the wrong colour suitcase, my beloved was still gurning when I called him over, he still didn't notice the case I was standing in front of, we had waited almost an hour and a half for a case that had probably been trundling round for most of that time, lesson learnt, remember what colour your cases are.

We arrived home and decided there was no point unpacking as we were signing contracts in two days, so cases were lain open upstairs and the basics were removed.  My beloved had a fantastic surprise for me when we sat down to eat, he had in his hand luggage my wedding tray, the one I had made just after we got married, and also the digital photo frame that has our wedding photos on the memory card, having had to pack all our belongings and send them home to the UK this was an absolute delight that my beloved had been so thoughtful and managed to stuff three items into his hand luggage and all without me knowing, the third item was my 'your so blind you need magnification mirror', for those times when I don't wear lenses but need to apply make-up and not look like coco the clown.

Sunday was Independence day so no office for my beloved, which just meant he worked from home, internet permitting. We then took a walk in the afternoon to get a little shopping, my beloved dragging his man trolley behind him. We are so lucky that we don't care we don't speak French, and the Algerians don't care that they don't speak English (for the most part), but between us all we get our needs met and our purchases paid for, and when my chicken butcher said Grande supreme he wasn't kidding, now I find it odd that mainly it is chicken butchers I find on my travels, its not always the case that you find a store that sells both beef and chicken, most interesting indeed! 

I have been searching for quite some time now for coconut oil and ghee/clarified butter, neither of which I can find, so I have resorted to making my own ghee and last night was the night, and may I say I am rather impressed with myself I now have two jars of the amber nectar which should last me quite some time, or at least until I find some in one of the many stores around town, now don't misunderstand me I can find vegetable ghee all over the place, but that stuff is not for me, blaaaaah its animal ghee I'm needing so I had to resort to making my own.

Monday morning and it was a meeting at the new apartment to take note of the things I will need for moving in, and to be fair I don't need much, an ironing board is a must and everything else we can manage with until we have settled.  I now have a set of keys to our new home, and tomorrow the engineer will be to adjust the tv or at least the satellite dish so we can have english channels, now I have no idea which English channels they will be, but to be honest as long as the internet is working I really don't care! I am saying a little internet prayer as I type............

ps... I forgot to mention for the second time since moving in I have tried to burn the house down, we had to take the battery out of the fire alarm as it was so sensitive it kept going off when we were cooking, unfortunately on Sunday I completely forgot the cauliflower bake I was cooking and only realised when the smoke started billowing under the kitchen door, I pulled the bake out of the oven and threw the blackened mess into the sink where I made the mistake of dousing it with water, gads the smell was like horse manure and had my eyes streaming and my head pounding, windows and doors thrown open and the smoke was allowed to escape, I swear I could still smell the horse poo when I woke the next morning................

Hidden tigers, Dodgy teeth

Well the last few days have been a blur of downsizing, packing, unpacking and downsizing again.  The downsizing involved tearing apart the contents of the wardrobes, picking the clothes I wanted to keep, the clothes I needed to keep, and crying over the clothes I wanted to keep but didn't have the baggage space for.

We were meant to be here around 10 days or more but as is the case with a box full of sand things just never come out the way they are supposed to, we had to decide double quick on a sandpit escape date, this involved a quick trip to Bahrain, a causeway pass that had expired and had to be renewed, only to get it cancelled the next day because if we didn't we could not get an exit visa, we also had to hand the car back or this too would have held up our exit visa, so now carless and compound bound we organised everything we had to so as to be ready for the packers.

9am Thursday morning and the packers arrived and slowly and methodically worked their way through our packing, I'm sure they went as slow as they did so they would not get sent anywhere else on a Thursday afternoon just before the weekend.  Eventually they finished and we were alone again, just us and our cases, we are also very lucky in that the Emirates flights were full and now we fly Qatar Airlines which means 40KG each, happy, happy days.

We went for our last supper with our good friends Pam, Lionel and Evan from the compound, our numbers have dwindled over the last few months with all the comings and goings on the pound and illness and deadlines that need to be addressed, but the five us of had a great meal.  Unfortunately not having a car meant we had to ask for a lift but we are lucky to have very gracious friends who don't mind a couple of strays in their passenger seats. We finished off at the recreation centre, but the coffee shop still has no coffee! lucky for us not only gracious but our friends are also ingenious and Lionel shot home and back toot sweet with a bag of coffee, handed it to the staff in the coffee shop and coffee was made and delivered to our table.  Where else in the world can you go to a coffee shop and have to provide your own coffee.......

My beloved has been having some weird and wonderful dreams, just last night he spoke to me in the dark about his car he no longer has being swapped for another, a tiger in the zoo and his tooth falling out, I think that part of this was a premonition as part of his tooth actually did fall out today, luckily we have seen no tigers though, but we did see a Stitchworth today. Kevin and Sari had tried to visit us last night and poor Stitch had sat at the door crying, he knew where he was and obviously was very disappointed we were not home. 

This morning we ordered a taxi and headed over to see him, and to say he was delighted to see us was an understatement, he really is a beautiful dog and I know he is happy with Kevin and Sari, and they are happy to help us out, and this is for a long time but not a life time.  This boy is one hell of a lucky dog, he has lived like a King since being rescued in Cyprus, he has been transported around the world, and given a set of step parents any doggie would be delighted with, he most definitely is spoilt rotten and he has taken it all in his stride, he is King of the compound once more, just a different one to the one he started in..

Stitch sitting on Kevin's knee

A Pam hug, better than a bear hug

So having arrived in Saudi it must be coffee time, it's always coffee time in the sandbox and who better to share the experience with than Shery, Pam and Laura, we arranged a meet and greet at the rec centre and off I toddled to see my ladies, well just a few of them to start with.  Now you would think that as the coffee shop is in the rec centre that coffee would be readily available, you would be wrong, for some reason I know not why coffee is out of stock, arabic coffee is available though and unfortunately tastes like scented coffee with added gung.  Now I love arabic coffee having been introduced to it by Reham some time ago, but this stuff is obviously an acquired taste, I did manage to get half way through the cup before I decided that I didn't have the stamina to finish the other half. We chatted about Algiers, and things that I had missed in Saudi and we are now fully up to date with our respective little worlds.

My afternoon was spent looking at our belongings and walking back out of the room again, walking back in the room and walking back out again, I was beginning to feel like a yoyo, I may very well have to tie myself to an immovable object just to stop myself from finding something better to do when I really should be organising.

Next coffee meeting was organised and this would include breakfast at Madeleines, we hi-jacked the compound bus and it's driver and insisted he take us to Madeleines, but after he dropped the ladies who were genuinely using the bus to their required drop off points of course. Madeleines was busy as usual and we arrived and found our table, it was so nice to be out with ladies who are great fun, and like minded when it comes to the little idiosyncrasies of the country we find ourselves in.

We should never underestimate the power of friendship, lady power, call it what you will, a miserable day can be uplifted by the simplest of gestures, a smile or a few kind words, but let me tell you the best gesture of all and one that not everyone will be lucky enough to receive, I have been lucky enough to have had many and it is a Pam Hug, it is a very precious thing, there is nothing to compare with a Pam hug, it is like being wrapped in your favourite PJ's, cocooned in you comfy chair whilst drinking your favourite bed time drink in front of a roaring fire, warm, comforting and full to overflowing with friendship.

Ostrich I am

We left Algeria with a feeling of dread to be heading back the way, something neither of us was looking forward to.  We arrived in Dubai at gate C19 we then had to make it across to gate A6 it wasn't until we stopped on the bus to the plane which I swear was taking us way back around to gate C19 that I smelt the smell of smoke, it was in fact my inner thighs from the chaffing of having to walk half way across Dubai to change planes, anyone that has seen my beloved's airport walk will know exactly what I'm talking about! Now my beloved was actually walking, but to keep up I was in fact running, hence the smell of smoke, my little legs are not used to travelling at such speed when in fact it is
supposedly walking speed, it was like having your car in the wrong gear, everything was just grinding....

We eventually took off and soon arrived at Dammam airport, and how pleasurable that experience was, we strolled on through passport control, collected out luggage and headed home, it was all very civilised, happy days, let us keep everything crossed that things will continue in a civilised manner.  We arrived home around 5am and went to bed, packing was left, belongings dumped in the hall way, sleep was required.

What I have noticed over the years is I have a habit of burying my head, thus I don't have to think about the very important things that are stressing me, this is not a good thing. One of the things stressing my brain and my beloved's brain right now is our boy Stitch. Stitch has been living the life of Riley with our good friends in Saudi Arabia whilst we scoped out our new country of residence. We have investigated doggy day care, and doggie doctors and the results have not been the best, we have spoken with people and found that dogs are not appreciated in Algiers like they are in the UK or other countries where ex pats are plentiful, so the decision had to be made after a lot of soul searching for Stitch to remain with our friends, so now my boy Stitch has a new mummy and daddy and we were off to visit him.  When we arrived he spotted us from his guard position on top of the sofa in front of the window, and he yapped and yapped until we were let in. Oh man it was good to see him, he was just as delightful as he always is and he went back and forwards between us and then followed Sari around, then back around to us again, he really is a beautiful boy and we are going to miss him terribly, poor Stitch would not appreciate the crazy traffic of Algiers, the lack of pavements and having to fly in and out every time we left for what ever reason, which is what one expat I met does with her dog, and this poor lady gets abuse every time she takes her dog out for a walk, it is a crazy situation to find yourself in, and we are lucky enough to have friends who can help us out with a very strange set of circumstances.

Restored Faith

Well arrivals into Algiers was positively pleasant, baggage reclaim was almost efficient, and the drive to the house uneventful, that was were the niceties ended, my beloved ran in grabbed the safe, stole my cash and ran out again, so now I am once again broke..

I decided in my infinite wisdom whilst wearing my pretty travel dress to sort the sink drain pipe and give it a damned good clean, I tried everything prior to leaving and decided to have another session, I took the knife because everyone knows when you need to unscrew a sink you need a knife! I threw bleach and gunk spray down prior to the knifedriver as I like to call it but to no avail.  So I preceded to unscrew the plug hole to allow me access to the drain away pipe, wooohooo it was free and man I thought I would puke with the gunk that was stuck under the rim, so I doused it with more bleach, let it sit then scrubbed it.  My problems only started when I tried to use my knifedriver to put the sink back together again, how can my plug not now fit the hole it came out of, I pushed it, I stood on it, I pulled it and I growled at it, but no it was not moving, it was now sitting proud of the sink by at least half an inch, I would have told you that in metric but I have yet to figure out what half an inch looks like in metric so I will stick with imperial for now. Exasperated I sat down with a coffee to see if by a miracle the plug would just pop back into place of it's own accord, unfortunately there is no magic in my kitchen and I was still looking at a sink in pieces.

I then realised that one of the problems with the sink hole was the screw was still attached to the threader and I couldn't removed it from the plughole, this is where my faith was restored for the third time this week, I had to take my plughole with the screw and its attached threader and bolt down the road to the plumbing shop, the first one was closed as time was cracking on, I then found the second one and asked the kind Algerian gentleman if he could help me by hacking off the threader which was attached to my screw, oh and can I have a new screw and please sir my husband took all my money I only have 2500dz! And do you know what he said? 'Money is not important', he then preceded to hack the screw in half, he then gave me a new screw and two threaders ( I think one was for luck), this lovely guy who I had never met before would not take a penny for his time, his screws or his threaders, my faith in human kind has been thoroughly restored, twice in London and once in Algiers.

I headed home again and continued on my mission to get my sink back together again, to no avail, have you ever tried to fix a sink when your bent double with one hand under the sink to hold the drain away and the other trying to screw the think back together, to say I was frustrated is an understatement, I believe that when my sink was manufactured they must have used a heating process to get the plug into place, and let me tell you I even considered putting it in the microwave to see if that would warm it enough to allow me to push it in place, unlucky for me part of it was metal, not a big bit of metal, but enough to make my microwave spark had I tried it.....

Frustrated with the sink I went and unpacked my bags, everything was tucked away nicely and I headed back downstairs to the wash basket to get the dirties sorted out, that was when I discovered the ants, a lovely long line of them up and over the kitchen door frame and along the wall and on top of the dresser that is used for storage of pyrex dishes, plates and glassware, I HATE ANTS... my beloved had informed me that twice whilst I was away he had been infested with the bloody things, which appear to arrive out of nowhere, I am convinced they are mutants and actually like RAID because I'm not shy when it comes to using it. I sprayed them once more cleaned up and down and then squirmed for the rest of the afternoon.  I called my beloved and told him we needed a plumber and in true male fashion he informed me he would have a look when he got home......................................(yes dear!)

I cannot wait to leave this house, the rain comes through the walls, the ants obviously surf on the rain, the automatic gate is not so automatic and null and void, and especially if it has been raining, the oven has a temperature setting that only it knows about, although I have to say if your in a hurry it's a great way to cook a roast chicken, I think it was raw to ready in around 30 minutes, the black smoke in the kitchen was a bit of a pain, but the chicken was lush, and luckily we took the battery out of the fire alarm when we first arrived as the slightest notion that the oven is on and it screams the house down.

PS my beloved too stood on the plughole, pulled it and pushed it and then concurred that YES we do need a plumber.....

Washing Money

All day Friday was spent on the phone to the UK, to the bank and travel companies, it sounds glamorous but the reality of it was far from exotic.

Having to organise cash extractions and international currency exchanges with a British banking system that cannot help with your exchanges, and systems that will only allow certain amounts of money to be changed can give one a rather big headache.

In Algiers we work in cash only, we buy dollars we then exchange them for Dinar, the problem comes when you don't have any dollars because we have yet to find an ATM that works, even in the airports they are out of order, so I spent the day on the phone with my lovely bank organising and reorganising how best to get my wonga, I would love to know how in the movies you see people with suitcases full of money because I couldn't even get a bumbag full, well that is not strictly true I could get a shed load of pounds but that currency does not work in Algiers it was the dollar, dollar, dollar was what I need.... I spoke with numerous ladies and gentlemen all of them extremely helpful, but no one could help me with one transaction, so my bank informed me of my best options, this entailed me taking either cash or chip and pin and going from travel store to travel store to collect the money I needed.  You can imagine how stressed I was feeling by this time, but there was nothing I could do about it and the bank were unable to assist with the money exchange, apparently they don't work in large sums of travel money!!!!

So I ordered my own money from my wonderful Scottish Bank to be delivered to a Halifax branch somewhere I knew not where but I had the address on a slip of paper, I then organised transactions from certain travel shops that could assist me, wrote that on my slip of paper and I was ready to leave on Saturday, not happy but ready.

I landed at Gatwick and decided to take out cash from the travel store next to the baggage reclaim, a word of advice to my traveling friends NEVER take money out at baggage reclaim, they were amazingly helpful with all the problems that I had which will become apparent soon, and they gave me lots of dollar for my pound but I think Ali Ba Baa was there name as the exchange rate was so poor that I think I actually funded the staff christmas night out! Never mind I had a pocket full of dollars and was feeling very happy, they even let me use their phone to call my driver as the transaction was taking an age.

I left Gatwick and attempted to find my driver in his white Mercedes, when all around me were black cars, all kinds of black cars, but luckily for me this lovely 6ft tall African gentleman who was I believe the traffic warden for the airport took pity on me, and loaned me his phone to call my driver, what a lovely man to take pity on an inappropriately dressed fruitcake looking bewildered and cold, I was only inappropriately dressed due to the flimsiness of my attire, there is not much stopping that cold getting through a dress made of net curtains....

I arrived at Lou Lou's house and then it was off to meet the family, two new babies have been added to our numbers over the last few months and I was needing snuggle time, there really is nothing better than a snuggle with a newborn, or a giggle from a nearly newborn, I had both over the course of the next few days, I was even vomited on, so now I know I am loved... it wasn't even a little spit this was full on puke right through to my undies, and I had to borrow a rather fetching Ralph Lauren T-shirt from my nephew because there was no way I could go shopping in my wet clothes, the bra had to stay as the nephew doesn't wear them!

Anyway back to the money problem, my first refusal came on Sunday.  Having left the UK in 2012 our post is redirected to Lou Lou, but I decided to change my bank not the beloved's just mine to Lou Lou's address, BIG MISTAKE, this now meant that my drivers id and one form of photo id was not in sync with my bank account address, I had never even thought about it before, well until I tried to get out more of the lovely dollar and was eventually refused because of the differing addresses, I could have cried because I had only the day before taken out the dollar from Ali Ba Baa with no problems, so I came away empty handed and downtrodden and headed back to Lou Lou.

Little Bro collected me and transported me across to his for the next few days stay, we had a glorious evening in the Shampan indian restaurant, Debbie and Gel also joined us and chatted away about all things that seem relevant to table chatter, like automatic doors in London toilets, and when you forget to lock them, to dodgy toilets in foreign countries, what a nice family I have. 2am and rather a large amount of alcohol later it was time for bed, I am only grateful I didn't partake of that falling down juice because I had to wake the relatives the next morning as they had slept right through their alarm, oh and it was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination....

My taxi driver arrived and drove me to the Halifax branch to collect my wonga, and the fantastically helpful gentleman who in fact was the same gentleman I had spoken to on Friday when I ordered my cash helped me with my transaction, he also helped me change my address back to my Scotland address, so all my id's now are fully in sync and I will never ever do anything that silly ever again, I hope.

I had an escort now in the form of Jack Lou Lou's step son, I have no idea how tall this lad is but he is the type of lad you would not want to tackle on a rugby pitch, or even upset in a dark alley so I felt quite safe walking around with my money parcel, we blethered about all sorts, took a little lunch and then headed for M & S and they were fantastic with my next transaction, everything went like clockwork, then it was back to Lou Lou's then more baby cuddles and collection for my return to Little bros', conversation was pretty monosyllabic for the rest of the evening and an early night was required for the drinkers who had struggled through all day with their feelings of 'woe is me' and 'never again', well until the next time. We have all been to that dark, dark place but it's when you forget how dark it is and you venture back in, that is when the problems begin.

My beloved now has decided to fly into Gatwick and fly out again to escort me and share some of the pain of carrying large amounts of wonga, so now I feel a little more confident but only a little...poor guy doesn't even get to leave the airport grounds, now that is love.

This has been a stressful trip, but also it has been a great trip, I have caught up with all my gorgeous nephews and their respective better halves, and all the beautiful babies and children, I have seen Lou Lou, Rob, Jack and Sam, even had my own body guard. I have seen Dave, Dee, Debbie and Gel and it has been for the most thoroughly enjoyable, although sometimes I think enjoyable and family are two words that don't always go hand in hand, sometimes mental and pedigree can be more appropriate!

Eggs Florentine no muffin but plenty of bacon
and delicious it was too from Loch Fyne Bluewater

Coffee, Cake and Conversation

So this week has been a blur, possibly induced by too much caffeine. The first coffee morning of the week was Sunday, and took place at The Patio in El Biar, I asked my beloved to organise for Azzdine to collect me, and gave the preferred time plus a little extra for tardiness. I have found over the last few weeks that tardiness is a fact of life therefore I always add tardiness to my travel plans.. And as usual I was correct in my assumption, so as we were on time we arrived not first but just a little after first.  It was a lovely day and we sat outside in the sunshine, lots of ladies arrived little by little and name tags were written, never underestimate the value of a name tag, especially when it is written in large print. So many ladies, so many nationalities but at least you could see what their names where as they were emblazoned across their chests.

I met ladies from France, Turkey, Russia, Switzerland and South Africa, plus ladies from England and Ireland and so many other nationalities I have forgotten, it was really lovely to chatter away in English because this was the English speaking group after all.  Whilst we were there another coffee afternoon was organised by the French speaking group but it was for English speakers to meet and organise a French conversational group for beginners, so I had my name down for that one straight away.

Azzdine collected me and we headed home to La Maison, see my French is improving...We are still waiting finalisation of our new apartment, Inshallah this will not be long now because I really don't want to be in this house much longer, there is a rain problem and you can't even walk to the street without being attacked by ants, nasty nippy things they are too. The rain which was torrential through the night Tuesday welcomed me into  La cuisine on Wednesday, it comes down through the walls trickles over the work tops and actually managed to get right across to the washing machine, I was working the wrong way thinking the machine had leaked which I thought was odd as I had not used it for 24hours, but no! when I investigated by slip sliding across the kitchen it had in fact been through the wall, the sooner we leave the happier I will be, and lets hope the ants don't follow us, surely not if I don't leave any Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs....

My next coffee event occurred on Tuesday and this time it was at Sophie's house, and a lovely house it was too, once again I was early so as not to be late, I think I have that driver sorted now, everyone began to arrive and we chatted and chatted, oh and ate some cake, what a beautiful spread Sophie had laid on for us, I felt quite posh sitting with my little pinky finger in the air nibbling on my melting moment, homemade no less.  Names and mobiles were taken for us non speakers of French and hopefully that will be us getting organised very soon for a French conversational group,  whilst there I was asked if I would lead an English speakers group for the non native English speakers to which I agreed, oh lordy, lord I hope I don't teach anyone conversational English with a hint of London Baby!

Autumn colours

The last few days have been a mix of rain, the torrential kind where you think the sky has opened up, causing chaos in it's wake, only to disappear as suddenly as it arrived and the world is clean again, well your little bit of world anyway, because there is a whole lot of it out there that needs a hard toothbrush taken right over the top!... Then there was the sunshine, glorious blazing sun, warming your back and making your little bit of world all sparkly and bright and happy and gay, oh how I have missed weather, wet weather, hot weather, dull weather and bright, never again will I moan about the changing seasons, well as long as I get my hot summer that is.

We currently have suicidal oranges in the garden, still green and young but for some reason jumping off the tree and landing forlorn looking on the path, I am beginning to think it is the sun that makes this green and far too young fruit pop off the tree, I turn my back and there goes another, they smell delicious when you cut them open, but call me a traditionalist but I like my oranges orange!

We made a dash for it in the misty rain, only to have to step inside a store and purchase an umbrella, my beloved wishing he had put on sensible shoes and not trainers with air-rated material across the toes which let in all the rain, he squelched alongside me to the market where we purchased our veg, and ground beef and then just as we were about to leave the cover of the market the heavens opened once more, it was time to buy a second umbrella and a trolly cart as no way could my beloved carry his supplies and hold and umbrella, and keep our supplies dry, he just doesn't have enough hands, so I purchased a lovely two wheeled trolley and everything slipped inside nice and snug and very, very dry. 

My beloved was now complaining that he really should go back to the UK and man up a little, because he would not be seen dead in Turriff pulling a trolley and carrying an umbrella, and god forbid anyone see him actually wearing a jacket........I blame the the Geordie in him. Whilst in the market we had also purchased a coffee grinder the traditional type, but unfortunately when we got home I could not get it to grind my spices, although it did knock the skins off my cardamons, so I had to resort to a pepper grinder, I threw all my grindables into the pepper grinder and ground them quite easily, although my right arm now resembles Popeye!

We took a walk the weekend, off into the sun we strolled and from Golf to Ben Aknoun we walked and our final destination was the Taj Mahal, indian restaurant, and delightful it was too. We arrived around 1.30pm and were taken to a table upstairs, the food that followed was an absolute delight, and only 1km from (fingers crossed) our new pad.  Our meals were delicious, although I preferred my beloved's to my own, why does that always happen, usually I have to say it is the other way around, and my beloved wishes he had chosen my dish, but not today, so I sulked just a little until my generous better half offered a halfies situation to which I jumped with both hands extended outward.

Our bellies full we headed home again, sun still shining and with only a small detour to Hotel El DJazair, known locally as the George for a quick very small, but very expensive bottle of Heineken for my beloved, and for the price of it he really needs to sip slowly, because it could be a while before he gets another.

Whizz Bang

Well the last few days have passed in a whizz, but haven't so much banged as fizzled out really, most especially the internet, who would have thought it would be so difficult to update computers, and iPhones and iPads, I think I have broke the world wide net!

Neighbourhood Watch back in Saudi

In Saudi I gave up trying to update anything of an apple persuasion since arriving in January from Bahrain via Cyprus, I thought yahhh don't worry once we get moved we will have great internet and things will be such that you will have lightening speed at your fingertips and life will be grand, ops so needless to say the speed reduced to such brain numbing speeds the I could have wound the devices quicker had that obviously been an app option.

On arrival in Algiers  we were informed that 10gb was added to the house line for our use, and within a week we were struggling with slow page changes and if you wanted to open a video of any kind, and I'm not talking full length film here, you had to wait, and wait, and then wait some more, by which time you gave up and moved on.  This is what was happening in Saudi but because we knew we were moving there was nothing we could do of a private nature to increase our home speeds.  So we contacted the office and the lovely Amel and asked if possibly, please and we would be grateful, please Madame if  we could have some more giga, of course came the reply and we were newly rebooted and up and running, but apparently our area is quite partial to dropping signal on a regular basis, so sitting waiting for your pages to refresh is becoming a regular occurrence, we have even considered the fact that someone is piggy back stealing our line, but because we can't get onto the network we can't do the eye spy thing and catch the little sneakers, but really they would have to be sitting outside the window to be fair, and could you really be bothered, so it is what it is a slow area for the giga, and we have to accept it. We also have to pray our new place will have great internet speeds and make our little hearts joyous at the page changes, and previews.

Cyprus Calling

So my beloved is away again, this time Monday to Thursday he has left me in charge of the money again, I really am struggling with the Dinah over here, I understand that 1000.00dz is around six pounds, but the way it is written on items is confusing me, like for instance I knew that the pressure cooker I looked at yesterday could not possibly be £778.01 but the way it was written was 125000dz so you can see how a girl with Dyscalculia could have a few issues, like today for instance I picked up a handbag and working on the same assumption as the pressure cooker problem there was no way the bag was 18000dz or so I thought, obviously I was in the posh shop, thankfully I didn't try and buy it because that would have been embarrassing to say the least. If only they would use the point on their price tags all would be well in my world, but no I will have to keep guessing at prices or sending my beloved pictures and saying 'How much is this'. I currently go into the vegetable markets and such like with a handful of change and put my hand out for them to take what they need, as far as I know I have not been robbed yet.  My next job and at the top of the list is to learn french numbers past dix.....because all I hear at the moment is blah, blah, blah......

Morning view across to the Tell Atlas Mountains

I have now managed to purchase a new pressure cooker and a couple of other things for the new apartment, we are keeping our fingers crossed everything goes smoothly with the transaction, a very nice apartment it is too, all brand new inside from the dishwasher to the oven, to sofa and beds, what more could you want, an apartment untouched by bodies of any kind, yaaaaa. I may have to get a pepper spray though as I noticed a cat when we were visiting the last time, I wouldn't want it thinking I was the friendly type!

I walked along to the Boucher on Wednesday and had a friendly chat with him, myself I spoke English and the Butcher he spoke French, who said things get lost in translation, I managed to get myself 2 kilo of the best ground veal my pennies can buy, and I'm really not kidding, this store is more like a market stall which is in a little area with other indoor market stalls selling vegetables and fruits, pots and pans, spice, shoes and all manner of nick naks, and honestly as a rule not my type of place to buy meat, I'm a supermarket kind of girl, but this place is ace, the veggies are great although most look like they have come from your grandads allotment, Tesco certainly would not let these babies onto their shelves, and the EU would be in uproar, why? because shape and size are not to regulation standards, we are convinced that a certain aesthetic look will be the best tasting when looking for vegetables and we rule out anything that is not in uniformed shapes because this is how we believe things should be, well Algiers rocks because it's vegetables are fantastically unshapely and great to taste.

I received an imessage from Tito the gardener telling me he had received my message but that the overflow had in fact already been fixed, I found this quite amazing as Tito lives in Cyprus and looked after the garden of the house we used to live in, on further investigation Tito informed me he had in fact that morning received a text from me on his iPad, and yes he sent me the message I had posted saying the problem needed addressing, we were both perplexed as to how this could happen, especially as the overflow was actually broken! When Tito sent me the message it actually had the date in Greek and it was September 2014, even more peculiar that a message over a year old should suddenly be sent across the airwaves, I think there must have been a glitch in the Apple update that sent poor Tito's iPad into a frenzy, but it was nice to chat with him again over the iMessage and did make me smile, I was just glad I could help with his overflow......

Azzdine collected me around 1pm for a trip to Carrefour which is around 40 mins away, it is in fact only 13km from the house but the crazy traffic of Algiers is such that most journeys take forever to get anywhere and are usually spent in the back of the car catching up on facebook, whatsapp or emails.  When we eventually arrived at the brand new city centre mall which contained Carrefour I took a peek around all the stores checked out the eating areas for future reference and then headed in for some shopping, it’s a great little store, really pleasant to walk around with a great kitchen section and household section, and then the shopping commenced, I should really have taken a trolley but I certainly will remember it next time, when I had paid for all my purchases the lovely security guard informed my that my pull along basket was not to be taken outside the store, REALLY! I now had to carry my purchases to the car, no easy feat as I had purchased water and thankfully only six bottles because there was no way I would have managed the 12 I had considered buying. So I stacked my purchases, loaded up each arm and swung the water as high as I could get them in front on my ribs and tried not to cry…..

Unfortunately the next 36 hours were a blur of pain, sleep, sweats, jitters and more pain, I have no idea what or why or even how this was caused but the Doctor had to be called and eventually he turned up and prescribed some medication or other and away he went, my beloved returned eventually from Hassi and the office and poor guy got no cut from me, I slept all night on the sofa and right through the night in my bed, Welcome Home baby I loves ya….

a view of the Atlas Mountain Range from Tunisia across Algeria to Morocco