We're on holiday at the moment. Started from 18 January through next week. We went to Morocco last week for a few nights. we drove to Algeciras in Cadiz and then took the ferry across to Ceuta,the Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa before crossing the border into Morocco. Unfortunately it was quite cold and damp there in Chefchaouen where we headed.

We stayed in a friend's flat the first night but it was not really equipped for cold weather and we basically froze during the night. So the next morning, we went wondering around the medina to see what digs we would happen upon. Shortly, we found the Hotel Barcelona which was in a good location not far from the main plaza and they said they had a double with heat, TV & hot shower. The TV was not really necessary but it was offered, all for the price of 250 dirham per night (roughly 25 Euros); we thought not bad, we checked out the room and decided to move there. When we got all our things installed and turned on the heat, we found that the heater only had a fan, cool and dry function mode that worked...no heat. But there were fantastic blankets available and lots of them so we stayed. However, by morning we decided we could not spend one more night in that cold and thought we would try yet another accommodation in this small town.

When we spoke with the guy at the reception desk, he said we could move to another if we wanted as the room we were in was probably the coldest in the hotel (of course(!) and the other guy from reception is to blame for showing us this room to begin with). Anyway, we happily relocated to another room, slightly bigger, same fantastic blankets and, oh low and behold, the guy from reception came running into the room with an electric oil radiator to hand which he quickly plugged in and turned on, all while holding his toothbrush in between his teeth. Before he could say anything to us, he turned and went into OUR bathroom and finished brushing his teeth!! We looked at each other and thought, no big deal, these people are like this. He had given us a story which I have already recounted a few times to howls of laughter, so it was worth it!!

We stayed there one more night and then made the return journey. I filled the car with diesel in Ceuta and paid an amazing 65 cents per litre, SO cheap.

The French have a big influence in Morocco; French is the second language they teach in school in Morocco. Which brings me to the subject I want to mention here in my blog. This is something I have noticed about French drivers, a habit which I find very annoying whilst driving on a motorway.... perhaps a reader here can explain this annoying habit the French drivers have.

When a French tagged vehicle is travelling in the inside lane (the overtake lane), they tend to leave their left signal indicator flashing as if they are going to make a left hand turn. I noticed this on the way to Morocco because on the Spanish highways near Algeciras, there are lots of cars with French plates as they are heading to/from Morocco. Anyway, this behaviour is something I also noticed when I lived in France about 11 years ago and I found it annoying then too. I did ask my secretary in Paris about this at that time and she was stumped. I asked her if this was something that was taught in French driving schools as a requirement of some kind (you know the French had those yellow headlights on their cars for decades while the entire rest of the planet did not) and she replied "Non." So it is something they pick up from each other driving around on their own.

What does it mean? Why do they do it? Do they realise how annoying they are being to other drivers who have no idea why these cars are zipping along with their left indicator flashing? Where did they learn this from if it is not a driving requirement in France?

Well, I digress from my topic of holiday. But I do want an answer to that query if someone would be so kind!

We are still on holiday; Ivan went to visit his family up north this morning and I stayed here to as I wanted to relax at home for a few more days before we start work again. I have to go and clean the house now so I will say ciao for now. I do have a couple of more stories to recount and will do so this weekend.

One more thing, while we were away, the hotel bookings keep on a coming!! All good!!

Happy New Year a wee bit into the new one already.

The purple flowers on the mountain have been out for a few weeks already. Surprising I have not seen the flowers on the almond trees yet as they normally appear by this time of year.

We have been having a couple of fairly quiet weeks buy things are going O.K. for us at the moment. We have a group bookings for the first and last weekends in February and I must get our Valentines Day offer onto the website as well as that will be happening very soon.

We have started working with a Dutch couple who send Dutch walkers to us. We have already received two bookings for them. We have a double group lunch happening today, one of the groups was here for New Year's Eve and they were so happy with everything, they are back already. And they are recommending us to their friends as well as we have already heard back from some of them.

I am pleased to say we will soon start offering another painting workshop with an artist in Ronda who sought us out last week looking to start working with us.

Our art gallery project is slowly starting to take shape as well. We have the new doors ordered and the bricks to put up a new wall in the gallery for a store room for the beds and things we have in that room now. All very exciting stuff. And we may have some art works already as well from an English painter we met recently who was having an exhibition in Ronda, very colourful work!!

For those of the readers here that look at my website, you will have seen a new addition to our Theme Holidays page, an offer of a Scottish Gaelic Singing/Language Workshop in late April 2009. Fiona Mackenzie of Dingwall Scotland is coming with another colleague to conduct this workshop and she already has one sign-up which is very positive! Something new and another cultural item in our list of activities.

We are going on holiday as well so the hotel will be closed for a couple of weeks from this afternoon, re-opening on 3 February. We will spend part of that time catching up with other business owners in the area, a few days a way and working on our gallery project.

And we have one more bird in our collection now, a love-bird, a type of small parrot. It was a gift to Ivan for the Reyes; it is very smaller and does not yet have all its feathers but still quite cute.

The weather here at the moment has been quite fine actually, the last few days. We have had lots of sun and clear skies making it springlike weather for sitting on the terrace to sip a beer. Last week was quite cold as in the rest of Spain and even now it is quite chilly at night but comfortable in the day.

Must dash now as the group will be arriving for lunch soon and still a few preparations to do so Cheerio for now!