Day 469 1st November
Ben Mansour
A day off the bike.
I got up at 8 and had black tea before meeting Kamal for harira soup for brekkie after hosing down the forecourt of the pharmacy and patisserie. Then I shaved and washed to meet the commissioners of the pharmacy business to give the go ahead for the doctor to open the pharmacy and we celebrated with cake and tea.
Pharmacy – all done
We went to see Mama Hadja as she is ill and had more cake and tea. Then I tidied up and went to Kénitra with Kamal on the bus which was entertainment in itself. There were lots of people getting on and off and about three people conducting proceedings as they had no change so people got a credit note until they had change. The bus was often veering off the road to avoid various obstacles and pick up passengers.
In Kénitra Kamal took me to a great fish restaurant where we had whitebait and another fish and then went for coffee at another bar through the market and he looked at fridges and I checked emails. After a walk around the market we got a taxi back which only cost 20 dirham each for about 20 miles with a crazily fast driver compared to the bus which was 11 dirham. I think the bus was marginally safer!!
At home we had tea and more cake after I’d put the TV up on the wall and then went to sit by the pharmacy while the kids went to sleep before returning for even more food. This time another type of rice pudding but with pasta too. I went to bed with Ian Rush lookalike at 10.30.