De Perros y Limones

Triumph and Despair

Faded seaside glamour

So, let’s start with an apology for the length of time between blogs – sorry but we’ve had a lot going on recently.  Now, let’s get to the shitty part where I describe why our lives have been made to feel a bit empty.

No ice creams till the spring

I was called into work to cover for a day, came home and discovered that our little kitten, Scaryclaw, dead by the side of the house.  She had been strangled by one of our dogs.  Dante slunk away when I looked over to him.  It was him.  That is what he likes to do to smaller creatures – we had seen it when he had previously cornered small dogs in Spain.

summer excitement long gone

Five days later we came home from work to discover Luna in the front yard, shaking and shaken up.  We couldn’t work out why and how she had managed to get in there from the back garden.  Later that night I wondered why Monte wasn’t indoors, went outside to find his body on the lawn out back, in the same state as Scaryclaw.  He’d done it again.

We also think he went after Luna and that she only just managed to scrabble over the fence to get away from him, hurting her leg in the process.  I had to bury two of our fur babies inside a week and was lucky it wasn’t a third.  This wasn’t a natural death but the fault of one of our dogs. 

It’s difficult to know where to begin.   The loss of Scaryclaw was a shock – she was so happy, exuberant and full of life.  The loss of Monte was devastating – we’ve had him with us for 4 years.  The close loss of Luna just made me furious.  I hate one of my dogs; truly hate him for what he did.  I can’t stand to even look at him now.  Those feelings leave me extremely confused. 

Emotional and angry exchanges took place in the house, as you would expect.  What are we to do with him?  I wanted rid of him, immediately.  Sonalee disagreed and wanted to keep him separated when we’re not around until we can possibly get him trained to fight his instincts.   We still don’t know the right answer.  I know I’m right in what I want but I also know Sonalee is right in what she wants. 

No matter what happens from now on, though, I know I’ll never forgive him.  The house seems devoid of real happiness at the moment, for all concerned.   We both miss our little cats, miss them each day.  Monte had been through so much to be with us still and Scaryclaw was an injection of young playfulness that made us smile all the time.  And we have no cats.  Every house should have a cat.  I’ve had cats for most of my adult life and to suddenly not have any has left me teary-eyed many times these past few weeks. 

To say that it has been a tough few weeks is, of course, a huge understatement.  It is the flip side to the joy that living with animals brings you. 

Other stuff has been happening, of course.  One of the big ones is me as a middle school science teacher.  One of the staff left the school very suddenly for personal reasons and they asked me to do a few days to cover, which I was happy to do.  Then they wanted me to stay until Xmas, prepare lessons, do the marking and come up with some assessments for the end of the term, which I was overwhelmed by. 

When Sonalee started here at RAS, she had two weeks to get to know the various systems they use, the IT software, the expectations, the courses and all of the rest of it.  I remember picking her up sometimes and she had that look of utter bewilderment of being exposed to too much information in one go.  I didn’t have two weeks, I had an hour or so. 

I’m not complaining.  The money is welcome, the lunchtime pizzas at school are very good and I don’t have to attend the endless meetings that regular staff have.  Yet. 

Stork dwellings – apartment style – at the Chellah, an ancient Roman settlement on the edge of Rabat. The birds are a protected species here

It is strange being a substitute/supply teacher.  When I was at home doing the chores, doing stuff for my Post Graduate Course and generally being a house-husband,  I missed being a teacher.  I like teaching.  I think I’m quite good at it.  And yet on those days when I was teaching I missed the house-husband lifestyle and spending time with the animals.  I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I was Schrödinger’s Substitute Teacher – at any given point I could have been seen to be both happy and sad at the same time. 

The Chellah gravestones of Romans long gone

Anyway, the school asked me to apply for the job full-time.  I’ve done it and will wait to hear what they say.   To those who only know me as an English teacher, I guess imagining me as a science teacher might be weird.  But, did you know I was a Science specialist back the UK?  Yeah, my wife didn’t either so don’t worry.  What to do?

The Chellah’s Roman origins have been superseded by Islam

That this sudden catapulting into full time work came at the same time that I was supposed to be getting ready to write my first dissertation for my course didn’t help much.  In fact it was terrifying.  I think I’ve done a good job – I sent it off this afternoon.  Our French lessons continue to baffle me completely.  Not helped by Sonalee and her friend Kim being  the naughty kids you want to tell to shut up as a teacher.  Honestly, they’re so naughty!

Arty Nature Shot

We did numbers in French the other week.  WTF?  It’s seriously weird.  They don’t say 70, they say 60 plus 10.  They don’t say 80, they say 4 lots of 20.  And 90?  Oh no, let’s not say 90, let’s say 4 lots of 20 plus 10!  92 isn’t 92, its 4 lots of 20 plus 12!  Who the Hell designed this number system?  It’s bad enough that  the French have about 70 (sorry, 60 + 10) types of cheese but they decide to make life even more confusing by getting to 60 and then basically giving up making up proper names.  And this is the nation credited with inventing the metre! 

The gate of Chellah

In other news, winter has started to bite a little bit here.  We bought a heater that is powered by  gas-cannisters and its very good.  Except that Moroccans treat these cannisters like shit (they’re really cheap) and sometimes you get a dud one.  So, I lit the heater the other night, turned to go back to the kitchen and heard a ‘whump’ sound.  I turned around to see the rubber pipe attached to the canister on fire.  Quite lucky I heard it, really.  It would have been embarrassing had the house burnt down – we were hosting the landlords for a curry lunch a few days later.

The Chellah’s imposing gate. If you visit Rabat, you have to come here. It is beautiful.

The darkness as we drive to work in the morning is, inevitably, a bit depressing.  Any light during the evening drive home is wasted since we are both eyes-wide open at the sheer fuckwittery of the driving during the period where absolute moronic drivers per square metre is at its highest ratio.  I tell you, it is impossible to describe just how atrocious the driving is here.  It’s a shame since the coast road to and from school can be absolutely spectacular when the Atlantic Ocean is determined to put on a real show. 

The love of my life

We’ve been lucky enough to have been invited to our first home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner by some American friends; I’ve eaten a Canadian traditional ‘Meat’ pie – no, I’ve no idea either – at the staff Christmas party and we have one more week until the end of term when we will hot-foot it to Andalucia for what will be a slightly bittersweet return to our home.  We’re looking forward to seeing our friends there and welcoming my mum for a few days.  We miss Fuente Tojar. 

We will also be trying  to push away the depressing feelings about the UK election result – who knew that Turkeys would vote for Christmas? 

I would like to end this blog on a high note and so I will focus on what happened in Marrakech at the end of November during a weekend stay with the middle school boys’ football team, of which I am the official (and paid!) assistant coach.  We won!  We won the international schools football competition on a penalty shoot-out despite some extremely scurrilous behaviour from each of our opposing teams.  I have to say, it was a good feeling.  It was an exhausting weekend but it was well worth it.  There is something about coaching a bunch of enthusiastic and determined bunch of kids that fires that dopamine rush we all need from time to time. 

This time next week we should be back home for a few weeks.  We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of health, good food, good booze and family and friends. 

Victory!

Hasta Luego

Paul

PS  Most of you will know that, some time ago, I sort of fell in love with a dark-skinned beautiful  woman with an amazing voice and someone who is quick to anger,  quick to voice disappointment, quick to judge, quick to express outrage but who is also fiery in her love, extremely talented,  highly intelligent and determined to succeed – I’m glad I never married someone like that or else my life would have been like living on a constant knife-edge!  Ladies and Gentlemen…  Miss Grace Jones. 

Dusk fun on the beach.

Paul

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