The Magic Carpet from Marrakech!

Here's my magical Moroccan carpet in its new home! Although I have to admit that sometimes it doesn't look as tidy as this - Miss Jedda Pussycat seems to think it's her plaything to take running jumps at (or from) and slide around the floor on it ... in fact that it's her very own Magic Carpet!!  ... :)

The wonderful Jardin Majorelle

We went to this completely wonderful garden in Marrakech - the Jardin Majorelle. When I looked at a postcard of it before we went there, I thought it must be coloured - it just looked too unreal to be true. But, it really is like that!


Just incredibly beautiful! Most recently owned by Yves Saint Laurent, who set up a trust so it could be looked after in perpetuity. But originally created by a Jacques Majorelle in 1919.



Full of amazing colours everywhere, like these tiled steps:

Few photos from Marrakech

Our (very cheap) hotel in Marrakech


Looking into a house from a souk lane


Wendi with the chicken man (musician?!) in the square one evening!

In Portugal and Marrakech

I'm back in London after 8 days in Portugal and Marrakech, and I hardly know where to start recounting (some of) the adventures we've had! Expect a few posts on the subject! Staying with Wendi in the Algarve where she lives is always such a pleasure. One of my very bestest friends!

Funnily enough, from being someone who 'couldn't see the point of yoga!', she now does Iyengar yoga, and took me along to a class the day after I arrived! Lots of use of blocks, straps and chairs, but it was interesting to see a different take on many of the same poses I do in Ashtanga ... However, I certainly won't be rushing to another of those classes!

Then the next day we drove to Seville to catch the flight to Marrakech - just an hour's flight. What an amazingly wild place that is! The main square (Djemma el Fna) is pretty much as I remember it from many years ago, but with the addition of countless motorbikes driving just everywhere! Down the little lanes of the souks, through the thousands of people milling around on the square, and day and night! I never did get the knack of just ignoring them and believing they wouldn't drive into me!

We ate in the square, managing to avoid the sheep's heads at a nearby stall (!), as well as on rooftop terraces with a birds eye view of veiled women sorting through piles of knickers to buy in the street below! And such wonderful French croissants and pastries every breakfast!

We went to the most beautiful garden, about which there will be a separate post. We shopped and bargained (though not very well, probably!) And I came back to London with a beautiful carpet that I had bought! I am quite sure I am going to be overweight on the flight back home!

Update from the past few weeks

Well, where have I been?!! Mostly too busy to post! I spent a week down in NSW helping my Mum who'd broken her arm falling over a few weeks earlier. I was there to help out for her first week home from hospital. With a broken arm she can't drive, and there's so many simple things that we take for granted that are either impossible, or hard, or you have to find new ways of doing! Luckily she was able to get community services help of one hour a day during the week. She gets the house cleaned, gets taken shopping, help with hanging out the washing, etc etc. Luckily she has a big network of friends who are constantly dropping in with food or for a chat, to take her or the dog out for a walk, etc etc.

Only managed a couple of yoga practices in that week, but since I got back things have been going well. I can actually see the results of putting in extra time/effort, which is pretty pleasing! I'm still mostly looking at consolidating my practice before I go to Bali. I know that I am unlikely to be able to practice some of the poses that I do at the Brisbane shala, as they have a different view on skipping poses to what I imagine Dena Kingsberg has! But that's OK - I'm happy to learn and improve wherever. (Although I do plan to keep doing certain poses in Bali in the privacy of my room, just so I don't completely lose them!!)

And I've booked my ticket to Portugal (going to stay with my friend Wendi), and most excitingly, she has booked tickets for us to go to Marrakesh (Morocco) for 3 days! Flying from Seville ... Oh it's going to be so great! That's kind of at the end of my time in the UK, so I've now got a great 10 days in Bali at the beginning, a great 3 weeks (only 3 weeks?, help!!) in London and the UK visiting family and friends, and then 8 days in Portugal and Marrakesh towards the end!

Happy sighs ... :)