An unusually reasonable start out of Heathrow at 430PM meant we timed it perfectly for a sunset out of the aeroplane window whilst flying into casablanca. 

Woke up tuesday, wacked on some factor 10 and headed straight for the beach. 4 hours later and we’re all looking pretty rosy having failed to take the windchill into account when choosing the appropriately factored sun lotion. dinner with Aran Gosh and the nice people from the british council that eve, who seemed to find the whole thing quite amusing. Company and tagine all spot on though.

The next day and we’re sound checking at 3, we entered though what looked like a portcullis that turned out to be the old roman town called ‘Salla Colonia’ ’ which apparently was the first human settlement in that part of the world. Beautiful big turreted walls around a leafy interior with the stage and seating plonked in the middle. we played new and old music to a great crowd of a1000 or so Morrocans and it all seemed to go down very well. some people found it quite different to what they heard from us before, but releases will always be somewhat behind what we’re trying out live.  

Jumped on the 5 am train on thursday and headed for Essouria aka ‘the windy city’ Nice train ride over the arid landscape littered with densely packed cactuses. We had rented an apartment of one of the old penguin cafe guys that had an abundance of Moroccan charm; tessellated tiles, berber carpets and tagine pots a plenty. The next few days were spent lapping up the rays and reading good books (The Lacuna and Everything is Illuminated). 

A brief stop into the frenetic bazaars of Marrakech on the way the back, (where i successfully bartered a leather bag down to a quarter of its original price) then up at 4 to catch the 1 o’clock flight out of Casablanca back to London. ahhhhhhh….