A big few weeks for the Byatt/Abeyawardene household during March, the main one being that Sonalee is back here in Spain!  She told me that she would only be here for a week but took something called ‘Recruitment Leave’ (we hadn’t heard of it either) so that she could be here for a whole fortnight! …

I continue to miss my wife immensely.  I cannot help it.  For Valentine’ day last year, I arranged an evening meal on the terrace of our home in Morocco.  I’ve no idea what we ate because there were several bottles of red wine involved but I do recall a lovely evening just talking  as the…

It is harvest time in our patio.  Our tree has outdone itself this winter and produced a veritable orchard’s worth of lemons.  But the only thing is, what do you do with hundreds and hundreds of lemons?   I have daily lemon drinks, I squeeze lemon juice on a lot of my food, I use lemon…

She’s gone again Aiyeo.  What to do?  Que hace?  The love of my life has had to return to Morocco to begin the next term of her work, to look after Bibi who is one of the sweetest dogs you could ever wish to meet and to oversee the chopping off of the balls of…

Well, here we are.  We have four days until Sonalee is supposed to return home for a few weeks.  The fridge is, finally, cleaned.  The last of the not-great DIY is finished, for now.  The hunt for Sonalee’s new passport continues.  It has been either lost or stolen.  I suspect the latter.   She’s having to…

It’s been 12 hours and eight days since I left my love at Casablanca Airport to return home.  And I didn’t even do a Humphrey Bogart tribute.   Next time.   We think there will have to be a next time.   Probably in February.   It looks like there will be no resumption of ferries for the next…

It’s another sunny day here in the village but who knows how long it will last?  The nights are getting cold, the fireplace has been cleaned, the lemon tree is beginning to bear its fruit and the first of the traditional Christmas sweets have appeared in the supermarches.  There is an abundance of building work…

Well the weather has, at last, turned into something other than brutally hot and it’s lovely!  We’re averaging mid 20’s at the moment, and long may it continue.   Really not looking forward to the winter but, hey, take it whilst you can eh?  You can see the effects of this change in the rapid work…

It has been nearly a month since she left and we all miss her terribly.   I find myself getting  emotional at odd moments or when my ipod plays a particular tune at the gym.  The most embarrassing time was at Mercadona when I was putting mushrooms in the trolley.  Mushroom and Halloumi skewers was the…

We’ve had a week of much cooler temperatures- down to about 32 each day – which has been a blessed relief for us and the village.   It meant that we could go out a bit more in the afternoons and try to do two things; get Sonalee ready for her return to Morocco and to…