Halloween

I love Halloween! Here's my pumpkin. Not that scary I know but hard work on bendy wrists and fingers so like it or lump it!
Happy Samhain.
At all Hallow's Tide, may the Goddess keep you safe
From goblin and pooka and black-hearted stranger,
From harm of the water and hurt of the fire,
From thorns of the bramble, from all other danger,
From Will o' the Wisp haunting the mire;
From stumbles and tumbles
and tricksters to vex you,
May the Goddess in Her mercy, this week protect you.

Blogs

Funny things blog diaries. Diaries used to be a book of secrets, hidden in drawers, sometimes even with a little lock and key. Only found after your death and, if you are famous, published. Nobody was meant to read your diary, it was a place of safety to write your fears, expectations and secrets. If ever read by someone else - mortification.

Now with blogs, twitter, FaceBook, MySpace etc etc millions of people expose the moments of their lives - be it a passing event, an emotion, a story or just chitchat. When did this start - this need to expose oneself to the world, to pass on information and photographs - and why?

We have become both voyeurs and voyeurees, surveillers and the surveilled in this nano-second world. Personally I love it.

Lovey Dovet bits

Look away if you are of a sensitive nature! Otherwise here we are after 30 years of being together. I love hubbie more now, he is my rock, my compass and when I feel all around me is crumbling he gently helps me put things in their place.
He is the one who drove 140 miles to pick me up when I had a meltdown on the coach, the one who has flown to Canada when I was taken ill, the one who held my hand as I cried at Jess's funeral, the one who defended me against bullies and cowards, the one who said 'they don't matter - you did you're best. They are the weak ones not you', the one who holds my hand at the dentist, who tickles my toes when I go into the MRI machine, who encourages me when I lose hope and
I do the same for him.
But we can also be a total pain in the arse to each other

Back to Monastir Airport

Not the most inspiring of landscapes - all very dry and sandy and even the cacti looked as though they needed a good drink.
My favourite photo is of the horse and cart passing the school of Economic and Politics. This says it all about Tunisia - the older generation find it hard to let go of past traditions and they are losing their younger generation who are more educated and moving to Europe.
The infrastructure is random and ill-kept and bureaucracy suffocates the individual. The women of Tunisia are progressing at a faster rate than the men which seems to happen in most countries where women have been oppressed.
Tunisia in five years will be so different from the Tunisia of now - I hope they succeed because they have the potential of becoming one of the most popular places to visit or live in in North Africa and have a generation to entice back into their economy.

Splish, splash

Sometimes it seemed we had the pools to ourselves. Precisely at 9.30am every morning an elderly German gentleman came down (he stays at the Hotel for four months of the year) and measured the temperature of the outside pool. It never dropped below 20C. The indoor pool is heated but not humid.
Swimming every day has encouraged me to keep on going so we have joined Splash as we love the wave there and it is just on our doorstep. I love being in the water - it is such a feeling of freedom. Tomorrow we are going to London (only £16 return on the train!) and going to visit Jess's grave (or whatever the place is called that you put ashes).
Then we are off to The Netherlands soon to visit family. Kees's sister Ada worsens by the week (she has Alzheimers) - my friend Alison is doing the Athens Marathon on 30 Oct for Dementia and Alzheimers - go Alison! Then hopefully Limoges to see Karen (£7 from Stansted!) in December. It's almost Halloween. Time when all bad things are put right and all those who have done wrong have it come back threefold.

Le plane! Le plane!

Airbus A320 for you anoraks. Flew from Norwich (perfect). Two hours and fifty minutes. Food was good. Flight attendants lovely. First landing was perfect. Second landing at Norwich was a bit brutal (I think the pilot had just woken up and realised he was 3 cms from the ground). When we left Monastir a thunderstorm was beginning so a bit of turbulence.
Oh and just before the doors closed the immortal words of the captain 'Ladies and Gentlemen there will be a slight delay as we have a technical fault - the engineer will be along shortly'. Why do they have to say that...why not just say 'there is a slight delay due to a change in takeoff timings'? One poor woman who looked in need of intravenous valium looked as though she was going to leave the aircraft.
Turned out the technical fault was the toilet wouldn't suck - nasty captain!
I love reading the safety manuals - did you know the reason why they ask you to go into the brace position if there is an emergency with your face tucked down - so they can identify you more easily than if you are sitting up!

It's oh so quiet...shh sshh

At times it felt as though we were the only two people in the Hotel. We didn't go out on any day trips so during the day we could luxuriate in the silence as we had a very demanding schedule:
9am get up
9.30am breakfast
10.30am balcony
12.30pm swim in the sea
1.30pm nap
2.30pm walk to shop/cafe over the road or go into town
3.30pm balcony
4.30pm swim in outdoor pool
5.30pm balcony and wait for sunset at 18.40
6.30pm have massage or turkish bath or swim in indoor pool
7.30pm supper
8.30pm sit on beach and listen to the sea
9.30pm go to piano bar
10.30pm bed
Exhausting!

Drama Queens or should that be Dancing Queens!

After watching an hour of TV - flicking from French to Spanish to Italian to Russian to German to Arabic we finally found VOX music station. We both went silly, Kees jumped up and down on the bed and broke my side of the bed (of course), I slipped on a wet towel and zoomed across the floor and hubbie tripped over one of his own shoes but no animal was harmed in the making of this disgraceful dance fest.

People and more hotel

A high proportion of the staff we met are well-educated young people who cannot find work in Tunisia - most spoke at least three languages fluently. There was the occasional staff member who hinted for tips but on the whole there wasn't much hassle - just leave tips at the end and not every day! Najed is a ballet/contemporary dancer who can dance anything from classical ballet to Indian dance and was completely flabbergasted when I showed her my popping scapula, my mobile ankles, bendy fingers, twisting wrists - she wanted to know why I was so flexible (probably because I am old and fat!) so I explained EDS and she exclaimed that she worked years to get perfect turnout - and I could just do it naturally (or unnaturally) but then I am such an attention seeker and it was great to show off to someone so young, graceful and beautiful! Mido is also part of the dance troupe resident at the Hotel and has a degree in engineering.

Our hotel - Vinnci Taj Sultan

To say this hotel is luxurious is an under-statement - considering we paid less than £350 each for flight, transfer and half-board - amazing. Just entering the foyer is a treat in itself - high-domed ceilings, curves and beautiful shapes everywhere. An instant feeling of peace and tranquility settled over us. The rooms were over-spacious - we were upgraded to a suite because the hotel was relatively quiet - sometimes there was only hubbie and I in the pool! You could drape yourself all over the place - in the Moorish Cafe on piles of cushions, in the piano lounge, in the relaxation centre, by the pools, in the lounge, Yoga in the morning. If you want to relax this is the place to go. Note: massage and some other treatments are extra and more expensive than in the UK - the price changes every day - so haggle!

Hammamet - not for the faint of heart or body!

If you venture into Hammamet town be prepared for the following:
Being yanked into shops by your wrist, arms, elbow, hand - not that pleasant when you have EDS or are unstable on your feet
Being subjected to constant 'come in my shop, just look, hassle free' - don't fall for that one!
Finding the most fabulous fake everything from Dior to Prada to Diesel to D&G - everything from jewellery to clothes - marvellous!
disgustingly dirty toilets in cafes - go into hotels - I find public loos disgusting enough in the UK but Hammamet tops them
Constantly being asked if you want a taxi - they follow you down the road whistling and honking!
Don't take any photos of people unless you have a telefoto lens - you will be either 1. sworn at 2. asked for money
No Arabic coffee in sight - only Nescafe or espresso and when I asked for mint tea it was as though I had asked for a free ticket to the moon!
Some beautiful Mosques and architecture but if you stand still for more than half a second to take a photo someone is there to try and sell you something or ask for money
Fun though!

Flora and the cat

Flora consisted mainly of palm trees, a rather beautiful climbing plant with a bite (had huge spikes interspersed between the blossoms and the leaves), cacti, very coarse grass. The only animal life I saw were black, thin and oriental-looking cats, kittens in a box at the medina, sheep at the side of the road, a buzzard (the owner was calling everyone to have their photograph taken with the eagle - I informed him it is a buzzard, he wasn't happy), camels, skinny frail-looking horses, mules, donkeys, sparrows, blackbirds, sardines, dogs, sparrows in tiny cages (why, why, why), something that looked like a cross between a coyote/wolf/fox dead at the side of the road. Most of the countryside we travelled through was barren except for olive groves, rivers had dried up and in the far distance you could spot the Atlas Mountains.