Michael Buble

A couple of days ago Darren got an offer for extremely cheap tickets to see Michael Buble at the nearby Waddesdon Manor. Originally priced at £85 each, they had not sold out so were almost giving them away to ensure that the venue was full.

I like Mr Buble, so even though the weather forecast wasn't great we decided to go for it. Gates opened at 5pm but it was pouring with rain then, so we decided to leave at 6pm to arrive at 6.30. Obviously a lot of people had made the same decision and to compound that issue, the postcode for the car park was wrong.

Actually it was right, but the organisers had decided to turn the main entrance road in to an exit only. We didn't know that so joined hundreds of other cars in a massive and mostly stationary queue to get to the wrong place. Once there we had to do a u turn and join the almost stationary queue on the other side of the road that was going the opposite way.

It took almost another two hours to get to a parking space, and it had also rained most of the way, but by the time we stepped out it had stopped. 

We set off walking and then reached the beautiful stately home.

We got through the entrance and just had a minute to take another lovely photo of the house and the biggest fish and chip queue in the world. 

One second later the music started and the huge screens lit up with Mr Buble. At first I thought that it was a video, but no, the concert had begun!! 

It was exactly 8.30pm and a lot of people were still arriving, but it soon all settled down and it was really good. 

As soon as he finished his last song we started the dash back to the car, along with lots of other people. We couldn't even consider waiting for the encore, and this was the right decision because we sprinted through the car park and then got out fairly quickly. 

It would have been chaos behind us as, there was only one way out and even that was really slow moving because buses were trying to get in the opposite direction on a single track road! I can't imagine who thought that was a good idea. 

It only took 20 minutes to get home, and with hindsight we sat in the comfort of our warm and dry car right up until the start of the concert. Seeing as the other option was to stand in the rain for two hours (and they confiscated all umbrellas), then I think that we did very well. 

Ps, they have offered us tickets for Tears for Fears, Alfie Boe and McFly over the next three nights, but I couldn't cope with doing it all again. 

New Japanese style garden

The middle of our very long and thin garden was a bit dull, and this is how it looked in April.

 

In the last week I have started to work on it, and yesterday I had the idea of digging down to make a gravel garden. 

Within a couple of hours I had a good sized hole and I banked the soil up all around the edges. Part of the plan was that because all of my plants are quite small, then I thought that if we sat below them and looked up then they would all seem bigger.

Then I looked online for something to edge the sides and found someone selling almost 200 reclaimed for £50. This seemed a really good deal so I set off to pick them up. Once I got there I realised how big and heavy 200 old bricks were. In fact, they were probably twice the weight of the bricks that we used to build our house.

Not to be deterred I started loading them into bags for life and storing them in the footwells and front seat, and then stacked all of the remainder in the boot. Eventually it was done and the car seemed very heavy as I made my way back.

Darren unloaded them for me, and after a suitable rest I started setting them up.

In the end it took 138 bricks, and I have 56 left to build something else, so that's great. 

Darren has ordered some gravel and stepping stones that are due in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime I am expecting the plants and weeds to start growing. 

Gardener's World Live

Unfortunately Darren has been stuck down by Covid, so I am making a solo trip to Gardener's World Live at the NEC.

To my surprise it was taking place in a massive outdoor space, rather than in one of the exhibition rooms. I barely had time to start looking around before I spotted TV cameras so I got my camera ready to take a photo without knowing who was there. Looking up I realised that my favourite presenter, Adam Frost was heading right towards me, and I just had time to close click once.

Straight after he looked up and said hello to me.

What a great start, particularly as I looked around and saw how big the place was with thousands of visitors.

I then admired a natural swimming pool and rang Darren, who was very practical and said that we couldn't have one.

The floral marquee was enormous and I had a great time wandering around.

Exiting from a side door I spotted the TV cameras again, and there was Monty Don and Rachel de Thame!

Unfortunately Monty was chatting to the camera and kept moving so my photo is a bit blurred, but it was lovely to see him in real life.

I didn't buy too much in the end, just some secateurs and a metal otter, but I was so pleased that I went, and have now driven down to the cottage so that Darren can recover in peace.

Ouarzazate to Marrakech

Another day, another long drive, but this is the last one of the holiday.

First stop was a kasbah about a mile from our hotel called the Kasbah of Taourirt. It was built by Pacha Glaoui, who was the most powerful governor in the Atlas Mountains. 

It has recently been restored using all of the old traditional methods, and once inside the labyrinth of rooms within rooms, it was surprisingly cool despite the almost 40 degrees heat outside.

We were only commenting to each other yesterday that we hadn't been to a carpet shop yet, but then our next stop was suddenly obvious. We weren't tempted but they did good business with our fellow travellers.

Then on to the Kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. This is considered one of the most beautiful sites in the country and has been used in many films. Probably the most famous was Gladiator with Russell Crowe and I really must watch it when we get home.

I think that this gate was also used in the film, although I would be surprised if they managed such a dramatic shot as this.

Then we drove over the High Atlas Mountains and down to Marrakech. After an overnight stay in the best suite in the hotel (!!), we are now at the airport for our flight home, and I have given our last dirhams to this excellent busker.

Erfoud to Ouarzazate

We had a nice morning sitting around the pool at the hotel while we waited for the rest of our group. They had been on an overnight trip to sleep in the desert in a tent, but we were very happy with our hotel choice.

This is our hotel from the front entrance, one of the most scenic places that I have ever stayed.

Once we were all back together then we were off on another long drive. This time we had various photo stops along the way to see ruined kasbahs (sort of castles) and an oases (this is the plural of oasis as I looked it up on Google).

We arrived at our main stop of the day called the Todra Gorges - an incredible gorge carved out of the red rock and with the great rarity of a stream running through it.

Darren took loads of photos of me on the rocks in the stream as he thought that I might fall in. I thought it likely to, but I got safely and dryly back to shore.

Afterwards we carried on with our drive to Ouarzazate for an overnight stay.

Fez to Erfoud

 A nice start to the day as we climbed 1,000 metres into the Middle Atlas mountains and arrived at the town of Ifrane. Getting off the coach we were surprised to find the temperature nice and cool, and the area is known as little Switzerland in Morocco - possibly.

There used to be lions roaming in Morocco, but no more. However, the country's football team is known as the Lions and there was a good statue.

Next was the monkey stop to see macaques in the cedar forest. These are the same type as in Gibraltar, so I stayed on the bus. Daz was braver though.

We then descended back into the desert and the heat, and the long drive east. Along the way were lots of villages, and to cope with the intense heat the houses were single story, with tiny windows and made of mud, so the same colour as the desert.

Nearly all with electricity and satellite dishes, so hopefully pleasant inside.

We stopped at an oasis. How big do you think it was? I would have guessed a little pond and 20 palm trees. This one appeared out of nowhere and had many villages and 50,000 palm trees.

Further on still, through an area that 350,000,000 years ago was under the ocean, and as a result has loads of fossils. Darren bought one for me from a roadside stall.

It is an ammonite split into two and polished. He is insistent that it's a fake from a factory, but I know that it's real and lovely so I don't care.

Further and further on and then we get to our hotel. A beautiful traditional building with rooms around a courtyard.

Surprisingly for the desert our room smells quite damp, and it's very dark inside, but the aircon works which is good as it is roasting outside.