Welcome!

Honestly I thought my trip to Morocco might never come, but “who dares wins”! 

I hope you all are doing well wherever you are. I am currently at the hotel lobby leaching off the wifi and cooling myself down. It is 36 degrees Celsius here and it feels HOT. 

I have been rather active this week writing wise so there is no need for the big intro, unless you don’t read it of course, but hope you do! 

I am in positive spirits and it is all thanks to sleep, food and sun. So if you are feeling down, this would be my non expert advice. Throw in some walks as well if you can. 

So.. at the moment of writing I have finished week one in Morocco and have 8 more weeks to go. Doesn’t sound like much when I write it down like this, but also there are some extra days which don’t quite make a full week so in reality it is a bit more. I hope I have my current energy and excitement to take you along on my journey through this diary, if not I am sorry, I will do as best as I can. But for now, see below the glimpse into my life on the road which took me to the far end of Morocco last week.

Love.

***

Monday. Pool day, all day long. Life. I did 20 laps in the pool and it was such a good feeling to just feel the water all around me, doing little dives. In the evening few of us went off on a little walk to the oasis in the desert outside our hotel. 40 min one way. We sat and watched the sunset it was beautiful and very very quick. Also weirdly here is no moon? Not sure why exactly, too low? Might be a continuity issue when matching this with the night sky from the UK, which was meant to be the desert. Strange right? Also I will probably be the only person to notice it when the show comes out. Ah also one of the colleagues made a little video of our trip to the desert. Perks of hanging out with the professional camera crew. 

Tuesday. Ah Morocco. Heat, sand, pool. This time around I feel like I really prepared well in terns of all the skin products. My face is finally getting back its colour, spots are gone and I didn’t burn yet, even after all the pool and sun time. I hung my trx yesterday and had a little pilates session in the hotel room. I am back on my cleanish keto routine I drink a LOT of water and in the evenings sip on the moroccan mint tea. I am so glad I can finally give back some love and care to my body. I feel sane again. London feels like a different life now and I am so happy I am no longer there. Today few of us went off into the nearest town for a little stroll through the souk aka market and I bought few pairs of trousers. Hurray! It is last few days or Ramadan here so a lot of things were still closed, but non the less it was so nice to get out. I was a little shy to be taking photos, but I am sure I will be back and a bit more brave with my camera next time around. The wifi in my room seems to be working, so actually all is very very well. Counting my blessings really. 

Wednesday. So few things happened today. Firstly, I spent a substantial amount of time by the pool listening to my audiobook. Secondly, we did a camel trip to the desert and it was beautiful. Sad to know that we were the second group of people doing this trip since the whole pandemic began, those people here need work! The camels were beautiful fluffy and looked pretty happy. I was really pleased about that. And the desert of course was magnificent. Crazy to think that I was at the very start of the Sahara. Felt a bit like a character from the Alchemist. OK and the final good thing which happened was that I finally had a call with Roberto aka my Mexican friend. It has been a very long and overdue call where we finally discussed “us”. Seems like we both were avoiding this conversation out of worry what the other one will think of our situation, so it was kinda cute. Practically speaking there is no resolution to our situation as there is absolutely zero commercial flights coming into Morocco at the moment, but it was just good to talk things out, for almost 6 hours to be exact. I passed out in bed rather pleased.

Thursday. Eid Mubarak! A lot of new people at our hotel, celebrating and hanging out. Nice. I spent the whole day by the pool listening to the Elton John audio book I started in summer. Yea I know it has taken me a while to go around it again. Non the less, I had a really relaxed nice day. Hurray. In the evening I sat with colleagues drinking water as everyone was gradually getting drunk on wine and beer. Somehow I really don’t feel like having any alcohol also it was interesting to watch the progression of our conversations from weddings, relationships and children to some rather explicit sex stuff. Well I actually left just before the explicit details started, kinda didn’t want to hear it from people I see as my brothers. Or am I just getting boring? Nah I think I am actually pretty cool. 

Friday. So first things first. I finally got my period today. Almost a week late, also cramps in the 35 Celsius heat hit different I must tell you. Ok, now that this is out, let’s summarise today. Well the week has gone remarkably fast. This morning we did an outing to the nearest supermarket to do some quick grocery shopping. Well the “nearest” supermarket was 1 and a half hour away from where we are staying so, 3 hours in the car just to do some shopping. Well I got myself an iron and a kettle as the hotel doesn’t provide those and I got tired of walking around looking like a cow has chewed and spit me out, that’s a Russian saying by the way, my grandma loved using that when I was growing up. Anyway I also got a bunch of chocolate and sardines. All keto must add, I am sticking to my diet and feel so much better. Ah yes I also bought a paper book in English to my surprise. It’s called “Life in a fishbowl” and was in kids section so I know nothing about it, but somehow the title attracted me. For the rest of the day a laid in pain and now I am sitting fresh from the shower ready to do some writing. Life is good.

Saturday. I spent the whole day in bed. No regrets though. I finished listening to the Elton John book and started the David Attenborough one. I napped, drank a lot of water and had the whole bar of chocolate. I know there was a party going on but the pool, but my body said no to that.  

Sunday. I woke up surprisingly late. Way past the 10 am breakfast time. Also as I later found out it was a time change day, so now we are back on the uk time. Lithuania had a march for “traditional” families yesterday and I am so so ashamed of that. The only good thing is that now civil partnership questions are even a topic of conversation, so hopefully out of all this hate and old-fashioned thinking something good will come out. Today, I crawled out of my room to discover that the hotel became slightly quieter. Still a lot of children everywhere, but less adults? I find people tiring, especially those I don’t know. All in all this was a good week. One more week like this and we are going to start filming!

Highlights:

  • Few of the people who I hang out the most here have all purchased red scarfs from the store at the hotel. Now we are team red. Giving me Pokemon vibes.
  • Lack of moon in the sky. Someone explain this to me please, so curious.
  • Sun, sand and pool.
  • The French production also shooting here have arrived this week. Kinda nice to have other people who know this world to be here. 
  • Sunsets in the desert. Dear I say it is as magical as over the sea?
  • Sahara! 
  • Audiobooks! 
  • Technology allowing me to catch up with family and friends even when I am a dot in the Sahara. Crazy!

Cheers with the glass full of desert elephant.