Neighbours in unexpected places

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A post by @NJChicaa just prompted me to write this! The first home I ever owned was a tiny narrowboat, moored on the river. And I had several interesting and lovely neighbours there. One small boat was occupied by a young married couple. She was English and he was Moroccan. When they first married they had lived in a tent at a campsite nearby, but after a few months they had managed to buy a little boat. He didn’t speak any English at all and they communicated in French. While she went out to work as a physiotherapist, he stayed at home, played chess, learned English by reading the newspapers, and practised his hobby of making carved plasterwork objects. After a few years his English was fluent and his carved plasterwork had grown into a successful business. Allegedly he provided decoration for Mick Jagger’s London home. A little later they had a daughter, and at that point their tiny two-room boat wasn’t really adequate so they moved to a bungalow in a different part of the country, and we lost touch. Later I heard through the grapevine that they had another daughter, and a while later that they had moved to Morocco. That was basically it as far as our relationship went, but there is an interesting post-script. In 2002 Michael Palin produced a TV series called ‘Sahara’ in which he travelled around various north African countries, including Morocco. And there, he visited the city of Fez, where he was shown around the city by my old neighbour! As well as continuing his plasterwork he was putting his English to good use as a guide. I didn’t see the TV series, but I did leaf through the accompanying book and there were photos of Fettah in his workshop (hopefully seen in the link below) as well as of Michael Palin presenting his wife and two daughters with jars of Marmite! All rights reserved. © copyright Fleur 2022.