Hallo from Tirol

I just tried to down load a picture for you all, but after 25 minutes I gave up. I am working on an old laptop with french "clavier", wich drives me MAAAAD! If I would write my usual way it would look like that: I q, zriting noz; zithout looking dozn; just ,w usuql &à finger swste,

So, what happened:

I drove from Casablanca with the kids to Marakech, where we had cosy 39 degrees. At the same time, Manni was watching the game Germany vs somebody in the foré de bouskoura.
We arrived in Basel (Swiss) at 11 PM, where my phone did not work to call the hotel to pick me up... I found somebody to call for me!!
We had a relaxing night there ( we slept in France, without knowing!!!!!). The next day we marched like the duck family, everybody packed with a suitcase, over one km to the next train station. The trains in France were on strike that very day..... we kept on marching to the next bus stop, waited for the bus and loaded everything in the old fashioned bus. The tram we had to catch was just in front of us, so we had to jump out and through the luggage right into the even more old fashioned tram with such narrow doors, I had to kick the suitcases in!!!
Finally, at the train station in Basel, they wanted 40 Euro just to store our luggage for some hours!!! I worked the morokkan way and bargained it down to 10.
We then went to the Zoo of Basel, which is really nice!!!!!!
Later in the afternoon we took the train to Zams and picked up our car from there. That was only 15 minutes before my first prosecco!!! I needed it!!!

I brought the sun to Austria!!!!! Ever since, we had loooovely weather. I am jogging in the forest right next to my parents house, go swimming and spent the last two days in a great out door event centre right in the village (http://www.area47.at/). A fun new play ground for mad and sporty people!! Climbing walls hanging into the water, mad slights and a water rocket shooting you 15 m wide in the lake!! I did it all!!

Going there again tomorrow.

For now, I am glad to leave that silly laptop behind.

Letzter Tag im Garten

Ein letzter Tag am Pool mit Ariane und Timor Shah. Zur gleichen Zeit hat es in Tirol 12°C... man muss es noch ausnützen!!

Jacob geht es wieder besser. Auch er genießt noch den Sommer in Casablanca.

Wir melden uns wieder aus Tirol.

Heute (23.6.) geht es nach Marakech und von dort nach Basel, wo wir im Hotel übernachten werden und morgen noch den Zoo in Basel besuchen werden. Am späteren Nachmittag geht Zug nach Landeck, wo ich unser Auto entgegen nemen (inshah'allah) werde.

Dann geht es damit nach Ötztal-Bhf. zu meinen Elten.

Am 10.7. kommt Manni nach. Bis dann werde ich schon wieder nach Zams in eine Wohnung umgezogen sein.

So Gott/Allah wollen, habe ich auch Internet in Tirol und kann mich von dort aus wieder melden.

16. Hochzeitstag

Am Sonntag hörte ich im Radio, dass am Tag darauf Sommerbeginn sein soll und in Tirol der Schnee bist fast ins Tal reicht. Da schoss es mir und ich rief zu Manni: "Hey, morgen ist Sommerbeginn, also haben wir Hochzeitstag!!"
Gut, dass unser Hochzeitstag auf Sommerbeginn fällt, denn davon hört man jedes Jahr - sonst würden wir beide wohl ständig diesen Tag versäumen...

Ich verbrachte den Großteil des Tages mit Elias im Derb Ghalef (Markt) und fand dort ein Repetto Geschäft. Dieser Name sagte mir bis vor einigen Wochen noch nichts, doch nun weiß ich, dass dies eine hochkarätige Französische Schuhmarke ist und ein Stöckelschuh nicht unter 200 Euro erhältlich ist!
Ich verhandelte eine Weile und bekam dann das Paar Schuhe um etwa 50 Euro und nahm dann gleich drei, mein Glück nicht fassen könnend... haha

Abends fuhr ich dann mit Manni zu unseren Feunden Rachana und Tahir Shah. Sie staunten nicht schlecht über meine Stöckelschuhe (zumal ich sonst selten welche trage) und über Manni im Büro Outfit...

Wir blieben auf einige Flaschen Wein und gingen dann erst gegen 22.30 Uhr ins Restaurant - ganz Marokkanisch schon!!!

Dort aßen wir mehr schlecht als recht (Gordon Bleu... dazu muss ich nicht in ein Restaurant gehen, aber auf Italienisch hieß es ganz cool...)

Gut, und nun gehen wir ins 17. Jahr... (mit drei neuen Paaren Schuhen)

Wochenende in Marakech

Gestern und heute verbrachten wir einige sehr schöne Stunden bei Fabienne und Maurice Kupfer in deren wunderschönen Haus in Marakesh. Tolle Temperaturen und nicht zu heiß für Juni (in Casa ist es eher kühl, obwohl Sonne...). Manni fuhr mit Maurice auf dem leichten Motorrad herum und ich bewunderte den 4000 m² großen Garten mit den vielen Pflanzen.

Fabienne fand am Parkplatz in Marakech einen kleinen Hund, den sie noch in der Nacht holen musste. Die Kinder hatten ihre Freude damit!!

Nun sind wir wieder in Casa bei 20 Grad - könnte wärmer sein! Man kann sich leicht an knappe 30 gewöhnen, vor allem wenn man nicht viel zu tun hat.

Leider wurde Jacob krank und liegt nun mit 39,5 Grad Fieber im Bett. Ich glaube, daran hat der Schneefall in Österreich schuld - sehe gerade auf ORF, dass es bis 1500 m runter geschneit hat... igitt, kann ich da nur sagen, und hoffe das beste, da wir am Mittwoch nach Basel fliegen und ich mit den Kindern dann am Donnerstag weiter mit dem Zug nach Tirol fahren werde.

Ich werde mich bemühen, etwas Sonne mit ins Gepäck zu schmuggeln!!

Verbrennung des Schuljahres

Alina vor dem Berg der Arbeit des letzten Jahres.Die Schule ist aus!!!

Elias und Alina haben alle ihre Zettel, die sie nicht mehr brauchen zusammen geknüllt und verbrennen diese feierlich! Wie hier unten zu sehen: Elias nimmt es ernst mit den Sicherheitsvorschriften in unserem Haus.

Wenn Marokkaner reisen...

Wenn Marokkaner reisen, dann nützen sie jeden auch noch so kleinen Platz im Auto aus! So gesehen vor einer Woche auf der Autobahn von Rabat nach Casablanca. Das Auto kam aus Italien (wenn man der Nummerntafel Glauben schenken kann...) und ließ nicht viel in Italien zurück!! Eine Seite der hinteren Sitze war noch randvollgestopft und auf der anderen Seite saßen drei Kinder und die Oma, die mir noch lange nachwinkten, als ihnen aufgefallen ist, dass ich ein Foto von ihrem Auto machte.

Die halten nicht viel vom Airbag - Gerümpelbag ist besser.

Letzte Schultage...

Alina singt ihr Afrikanisches Lied mit ihrer Klasse. Sie haben auch die T-Shirts selbst bedruckt.

Alina  und ihre neue Freundin Zosia.Jacob schlägt sich tapfer wacker beim Seilziehen......und hüpft wie ein Häschen ins Ziel.

Zwei Lockenköpfe - Yacoub (wie sie ihn hier nennen) und Mehdi.

Me and the ex-pat lemon tree

It's the end of the year and every week, there is yet another fare well party for somebody... some people just touched your live, but did not really enter it, they will be soon forgotten (as cruel, as this might sound now!!). But some people shared nice moments with you, opinions and thoughs. These guys will be missed. The worst for me is, when my children have to say good buy to good friends... like Jacob, does not understand, he can not just visit Ishan in South Africa for a day...

I was reflecting all this only a few days ago and stood in my garden infront of a lemon tree, I bought some months ago. I bought the lemon tree with a single small lemon on it but the seller promised, that the tree will get many more and will have flowers and fruits all year long.

Not long after, the tree was full with flowers, distriputing its perfumes in the air. The single lemon grew bigger and bigger and waited for other lemons to join it. Out of the many flowers grew more fruits, very tiny but many! I watched them carefully every day and it was a delight thinking of the harvest of them. Soon after, some of the little lemons fell off the tree, then more and more.
The big one remained.
I was checking every day, until only a few little lemons were left on the tree to join my big one. Nearly in fear, I was hoping, they will not trop too...

After six years in Casablanca and having had so many fare wells, you will not wonder, that I felt like the big lemon, remaining on the tree...

home late

After a very  nice day at the beach, missing the graduation of Jacob and a German lesson for Aina and Elias, I went to the first swimming lesson with Jacob, which was a full success!!!

I went home, through myself into more thant shorts and a t-shirt and went to a school party, hosted by lovely Leila!!! We were about 100 people (teachers and active parents) to start with and at the end it was only me with two little kids. Leila made us eggs and Pastilla in the kitchen and I, in return, offered to take her bonne to the next taxi station...

The next taxi station took us a long long way. The bonne kept on saying - encore, encore and I ended up in the middle of the city with three kids, one still to be taken home, as it was not mine...

Now, I got rid of extra bonnes and extra kids and am finally back home!!! Not too late at 11 PM!!

Elias, in the meantime, broke his toe and walks happily around in grutches...

Bonne nuit tout le monde!!!!

Tomorrow, I gave up, going to  a verrrrrry cool camping party, to attent to a very sad fare well party....

That hurts my heart!!!!! But, we have to make a choice!!!

Mannis Hammam outing... haha

Manni has never been to a Hammam in síx years in Morocco...

Good, we won a ticket to just one of them at the Spring Fair at School.

I asked Manni, if I should come with him. I know, men and women are seperated, but nevertheless, it would have been a chance for me to go the second time in 6 years. But no, that is a thing, he wanted to do all by himself!! The voucher promised all wishes fulfilled... and Manni saw himself already in the 7th heaven.

The Hammam was in a popular quater (which does not mean "popular" as we would understand it in Europe...), 40 minutes by car. The voucher did not fulfill anything, but the entrance to the establishment... Manni was disappointed by the looks of a Hammam: tiles and more wet tiles, all square an wet and full of aggressive germs and fungi!! Manni had to borrow some old plastic slippers from one of the workers there, to survive the walk to the shower without being populated by a whole flock of fungi.

He paid for a gommage (peels of your skin in spagetti like worms) a savonage (more or less soaping you) and a massage. He was looking forward to all of it, but got soap in his eyes, the gommage hurts and last but not least, the massage was left!!!

Manni expected a long legged dark beauty in her mid twenties with smooth fingers and most willing to fulfill wishes of all sorts... (open up a beer, while massaging ... I suppose...).
Wrong: there came a short legged dwarf in smelly shorts, which stuck to his sweaty hairy legs. His face was flat like a plate, decorated with an enormous mustache, covering his rotting teeth. Manni put on again his new underwear from Derb Ghalef and sent a prayer to heaven. His prayers were answered and the agony only took 5 minutes (for DH 160,-!!!!).


Manni was never sooo happy to get soo little for his money!!!

Missing Jacobs Graduation

I am a bad mother, a very bad mother!!! Indeed!!

When Elias had his graduation party from Kindergarten in Russia, I was videotaping every step and move and song with an 3 kg heavy - even back then - oldfashioned video recorder. I made a cake, smuggled in a bottle of sparkling wine for me and the teachers to drink in secret after the party, cried behind dark sunglasses, thinking, I am going to lose my baby for ever and falling into a week long depression afterwards...

With Alina, I attended the ceremony here in Casablanca in the American School. I had a little digital camera (stolen soon after) to record her singing, took a few pictures for the foto album, gave it a big sigh and was bored at the cooky and cold pizza "party" later in the classroom (why did I not bring the sprakling again?? must be the strict American system... god bless the Germans in Russia!!!)

Well. And now. There is little Jacob, the third in the row, who has his graduation tomorrow. But Mama has an invitation to an other party during just that very morning and she wants to go there... She wants to see a beach house on the beach (how very unusual!!), see the sea, have a cosy lunch with friends and most of all: get out of Casa...

If you read that now and you attend the graduation of Jacob tomorrow, please take some pictures and mail them to me...

(Actually, I was at school today, watching and filming the dress rehearsals and some kids asked, why there is only one parent present... hahahaha - that one was duteous Mama Angela!!!)

Family outing in mini skirt in Derb Ghalef

Four days school holidays (still don't know why) and we were stuck in Casa due to a heavy machinery fair, Manni had to attend to and a speech, Manni had to write for his visit to Vienna. We took the kids to the fair, as it was only 30°C in the shade and quite agreeable to be in the open sun.

Alina and Jacob enjoyed the trucks and diggers - they klimbed every single one and Jacob even managed to turn one on (how easy - just push a red button twice!!!!!). Elias wase bored to death and only came with us, because Manni blackmailed him by  going to Derb Ghalef afterwards.

For a change, I was wearing plateau shoes and a mini skirt - how inappropriate in 99 % in all cases in casa - and dressed like that, we went to Derb Ghalef.

Alina and Jacob were in urgent need of a toilet, so, I predented to be interested in a dining table at Laylit (a shop) and used their privy. For minutes later in the middle of the market, Alina and Jacob needed a toilet again!!! In the middle of it, I lost Elias and Manni, who were underwear shopping and was left alone with two little kids and a little skirt to match my dramatic situation...

I stampered around and asked people, if there is a lavatory in the middle of the market - and yes!! Indeed there is!! 6 years and I did not know of such an amazing place! I got silly looks and dirty words on the way there, although, I looked everything but sexy, dragging two kids behind me in need of a toilet and a very determined expression on my face.

And yessss, what a toilet!! Plateau shoes can come in handy in such a place. 5 cm of excrements and only men, washing their feed, looking up at me in astonishment. Wrongly, I even went into the mens toilet and was sent out right away...

The womens toilet was locked for savety reasons... so nobody can enter and see that shit whole!! Haleluja!! Hold your breath, close your eyes and try not to pee yourself...

I paid the man 3 Dirham for being still alive after that experience and was happily looking for my two big boys. Lots of shop owners wanted to know, what I was looking for, hoping, it is just the item they sell. "My husband!!!" was my answer, getting more and more irritated until I spotted Manni and Elias in one of the many little alleys. Of course, Manni blamed me, for loosing him. He had fun shopping his underware and I had fun spending 3 Dirhams on the most outstanding lavatory.