We Made It!

The gateway to a whole new world....

My little white nightdress is freshly laundered. It smells faintly of cumin and

washing powder and fresh air. Everthing here smells faintly of cumin and

washing powder and fresh air. Except when it smells of orange blossom, chargrilled meats or the sea...

We made it! Twelve hours after leaving our icy, moonlit Tuscan hillside our

magic carpet set us down here, in this Arabian Nights oasis of lush green lawns

and deep-pink Hibiscus Blossom. My Bambi legs held me just long enough to

clamber off the rug and greet the waiting smiles with a broad one of my own.

Curled up in the back of the tardis-like SUV that did the magic carpet bit for

us on the final leg, I had barely noticed the wild storms that had flooded the

rivers and our roads and necessitated a complete turnaround on our approach to

Essouira. Now, as I stepped over the threshold of our new home, one hand

clasped tightly round a fresh, leafy clementine, a friendship-offering from our

driver, the other held securely in Lorenzos broad palm, there was no missing

the mightly roar of the wind-whipped ocean, just beyond our garden wall.

Awesome! My smile became a grin - then wider than my cheeks...Our

adventure had begun!