Dead sheep

So we had a fantastically fun filled Thursday, most unusual in that my beloved was off work due Eid al-Adha the Feast of Sacrifice celebrations where the muslim culture throughout the world celebrate the obedience of Ibrahim (Abraham) in offering his child for sacrifice, and God showing mercy and replacing the child with a sheep, hence the celebratory meals with mutton.

So anyways thus far I am still hearing bleating, so some of the poor sheep are still in good shape.  We were almost finished our lunch when the intercom buzzed, so my beloved answered and it was our neighbour, who also happens to be our landlord whilst we stay in The Big House, he insisted we visit his house immediately to celebrate with a his family by eating some gateaux, never one to shy away from cake we legged it out the gate and into the neighbours. Would you believe it Mr Kadar was the same gentleman that had shown me around houses and apartments on my first visit to Algiers, so once that was established we were introduced firstly to his young son Riyadh, then to his brother Riyadh, then his wife Eman (not Riyadh), his Mother (name unknown, but the type of lady you want to hug just because she is in the room), and then coffee was made and cake was eaten. 

My French was sorely tested as Mr Kadar has no spoken English but understands well enough, and my poor beloved was completely lost, but would you believe that from such confusion and lack of language came a wonderful hour and a half of conversation and good company.  
Mr Kadar believe it or not is a football supporter who supports Newcastle, from way back in the Keegan days and his other team is Celtic, so the boys garbled on about old players and World players as if they both could miraculously speak each others languages.  We were given a plate of traditional lamb, couscous and sauce with vegetables to bring home with us, and we graciously left carrying our tray all ready for our evening meal.

The lady who left the house we are staying in had told me about Mr Kadar's mother being a good cook, and regularly sending food round so today we got to try it for ourselves. We wont mention the dead sheep hanging from the tree in Mr Kadar's garden because I'm still trying to think of fluffy bunnies and beautiful puppies!!!!! When we eventually got around to eating our evening meal, the mutton was mouthwatering and the couscous and sauce delicious, so good in fact that tomorrow when Azzdine brings his couscous over to allow us to celebrate and share with him we may have to compare it with Madame Kadar's mighty fine taste tantalising offering. 

So a bit of a conundrum occurred to me whilst I was cutting up my chicken over the weekend, if my chopping board is orange with a cat and a bird on it does that mean I use it for cutting meat as the cat eats meat, but none of it orange, and then the bird mops

his brow and says phew that was lucky, or is it to be used for chopping up cats and birds, you can see the conundrum, the green one I get because rabbits eat veggies and so the rabbit and the flower being green makes perfect sense, and rabbits are edible to some rather peculiar folk, so does it make sense? surely it can't mean I may only to use it for rabbits and flowers though!! Back to my issues with the cat and the bird, because yes I know the cat will eat the bird given the opportunity, but what does the poor bird eat that would make some chopping board manufacturer think 'yep I will stick a bird on that board and they will get the idea', well I don't get it and I think it's a tad sick on the part of the manufacturer to be fair, because who the hell wants to eat CAT? And especially if it has just eaten a bird..

We have been brushing up on our walking skills the last few days, you would have thought it would have been more difficult, but no it's just like riding a bike, you just never forget. You might not have done much of the right left for a very long time but it's there in the recesses of your mind just waiting for you to initiate procedures. The weekend was great for walking because of the Eid celebrations the roads were practically empty, the directors of traffic were still out in their uniforms, obviously not getting their mutton along with their families, but the lack of traffic must have made standing in the road for extended periods of time very, very tiring. 

Friday we walked just over 4.5km scoping out the area, and getting our bearings, because everything is built on the hillside, so we did a loop connecting one area to another and getting the lay of the land. Saturday totally different ball game, 12km later and I thought I getter give my beloved a rest, we trekked from the Golf area to Hydra, to Ben Aknoun and back again, we did have a little stop off at the The Hotel El Djazair for coffee before heading off again up the hill and home, it was a glorious walk and really helped to understand where in the world I am living, my beloved on the other hand still has a bamboozled expression on his face, that man will never, ever know where he is other than stood next to me!

OH MY GOD I found the Mall, and exceptional it is too, I can see me spending quite a bit of time there, the supermarket was excellent and none of the torture at the checkout we had last week, so my beloved was happy too....