Day 30 – Taghazout

Unlike yesterday everything happened last night and today….

Woody had us up at 3am with an upset stomach. He was both sick and losing it from his back end. The mess and smell was aweful. He was not a happy chappy throughout the day time.

We had agreed that we would go and buy a new Quilt at the supermarket. Mustafa, once he learned of our plans, insisted that he would loan us a replacement and wash ours in his washing machine. Well it didn’t fit so he sent it off to the laundry by a chap on a moped. He soon returned with the ticket… price 20 Dirhams which is about £1.50. We will have to return and to a swap in a few days.

Sue arrived early to get her door surround painted and also have her wing mirror tightened. It was mid afternoon when she left us. She joined us for some of the time but we could only offer her a seat on the bases as we still had no cushions back. She was not feeling well and did take the opportunity to try and have a sleep. Not sure how successful with the activity around the van and the road noise.

We had made a decision that when the seats and cushions returned today we would leave no matter what the state of the van was and what jobs were left unfinished. I made my feelings known to Mustafa first thing in the morning and he promised to fix everything….

We still had a few jobs left to do. My inverter was finally bolted to the seat side. We also fitted an additional handle to the other side of the seat but we will need to take care as the wood is very thin. The electrician returned to the LED strip in the lounge that refused to stick to the plastic surround. Finally with some super glue he managed to persuade it to stay in place. Due to this difficulty I was not going to complain about the curved line it took across the van to the other side. After more waiting we also got him to re-tension the roller blind in the lounge. Its like pulling teeth to get these guys to work on your van. With the remaining LED strip I asked that this should be fitted in the garage with a switch I had. Again he started the job and was then called away for his meal at the cafe next door. He finally returned and completed the lights installation. Success all jobs had been complete.

The seats and one cushion was returned about 3pm. Whilst bolting them back in I noticed we had no arm rests….. we are working on them was the reply. The one cushion also has a cut I noticed and was immediately taken back for rework. We then had the remaining cushions arrive at about 6pm. The head rests and arms still yet to appear. Mustafa offered to take me to the ‘shop’ where they were working on my job. It was about 3min car ride away. The shop was a lockup with a space at the front of maybe 2m x 2m and a rear of 1m x 2m. There were four guys working one of which was doing the stitching on an old singer sewing machine. The side of this space had a work bench where the master upholsterer was assembling our arm rests. It was fascinating to watch and so different to how it would have been in the UK. Once all arm rests completed we returned to the van where they were now fitted.

Next came the Head rests and seat belt cover. Tina spotted that the cover was not quite right so it was again taken back to the shop for rework and soon refitted. All of the original covers are still underneath the leather so in time we could return to the original fabric if we choose. It was now around 8pm. I had gone with Mustafa earlier to get a chicken takeaway meal we ate whilst we waited for our final things to be fitted.

Mustafa offered us to stay until the morning but I was insistent that we wanted to get to the beach. We said our goodbyes and arrived to meet our fellow campers again that we left on Monday. Today is Saturday. The welcome we received was delightful. It was really nice to see everyone again and explained some of what had happened. Our LED strip lights were envied by a few.

Relaxation tomorrow and the ‘boys’ back at the beach where they will start to enjoy their walks.