Guess what I had for lunch today?

Lamb doesn't get any fresher than this!

The Isle of Djerba

Ah yes. I have survived nine weeks without a long weekend - no Thanksgiving, no Remembrance Day - and now comes the reward. A five-day weekend to rest, relax and recreate. As soon as I knew for sure that Trish was coming, I booked three nights on Djerba, and what a treat that was.

The island is bigger than I had imagined, and completely flat. You can read a lot about it by scrolling through http://www.tunisia.com/tunisia/djerba Therein you will see all the sights that Trish and I missed. Day one we settled in and went the beach. Day two, we went into Midoun to the markets. Day three we rented a car and toured to Matmata on the mainland - a separate page all its own - and day four we went home. Did we see the most important synagogue in the Arab world? No. Did we visit the underground olive pressing plant? No. Did we tour the ancient fort of Borj el-Kebir? No again. Did we have a good time? No. We had a GREAT TIME!!

Cindy-Lou Hoo huts

Palms heavy with dates.

Trish soaking up the shade

Nothing much, but we're calling it home

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Sheep transport

The sheep next door

Baaaa

 Well, across the road, actually, but that didn't sound as good. Isn't he gorgeous?! I can't remember what the children named him, but now at least I understand why Rym and Ashmedine hadn't been mowing their lawn lately.

In a few days it will be Aid al Adha. This is the celebration of the story of Abraham and Isaac which is shared by Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. For those of you who are not biblical scholars, here is a good version of the event.

Sheepy, me, Ashmia and Papito. It is 22 degress, hence the heavy coats on three out of four of us.

Muslims the world over - and they make up twenty percent of the total population - celebrate the sacrifice by buying a sheep and bringing it home and then killing it. For weeks we have been seeing an increase of sheep all over the city. Any little vacant piece of ground has someone squatting on it with a few sheep - or dozens - for sale. I yell at them, "Run, Bambi, run!" but apparently they don't speak deer.

This is a flyer from a local grocery store. "Your sheep at a Giant price." I'm not sure how well this ad worked for them. A local gas station ran a campagne that said, "Play and win - a sheep!" I should be carrying my camera at all times.

Fall down, go boom!

This morning, Trish fell crossing the road before she could even get a taxi to her first adventure and sprained her ankle rather badly. This evening, not wanting my friend to be alone in her pain, I fell too. I was running flat out for the train in wide-legged pants and sandals. when the (long) toes of my left foot got caught in my right pantlleg. This might not have ended in disaster had I not had a marketing basket in one hand and a laptop in the other. Both hands being occupied with heavy things, I fell right on my chin on the cement.

Ow!

Scraped knuckles

The full effect

Trish Arrives

I rented a car yesterday in order to be able to pick up Trish from the airport. The driving here is completely crazy. The highway has lane markers and speed limit signs, but both are completely ignored. Thankfully, people don't go out much at night, so I did fine picking her up at midnight. Teachers are granted two personal days per year and I was granted one for her first day. It was wonderful to have the car and take her to some of my favourite places - and to see a few that I hadn't been able to get to myself. Trish is a gifted photographer, and these are all her shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me at the kitchen window

Roman cisterns - three minutes from my house.

Ripe olives on a tarp

We had lunch here at Sidi Bou Said

Ripe olive on my table cloth

Domaine Atlas Winery

Tunisia is unique in the Muslim world in that it has its own wine-making industry. Islam condemns utterly the use of alcohol, but here they make it. My principal calls Tunisia's approach "Muslim Lite".  In fact, they protect their wine growers to the extent of having a complete embargo on foreign wines of any kind. At international hotels you can get grain alcohol from all over the world - for a price - but the only wine you can buy here is Tunisian wine. It's, well, it's not horrible.

Anyway, on Saturday morning at 10, a bus load of us left the school for a trip to the Domaine Atlas Winery about an hour out of town in Cap Bon. It was a perfect day. The company was good, the weather cooperated, and a good time was had by all. We started with a brief tour of the facility, the harvest having been completed three weeks earlier.

Gleaming fermentation vats and lovely oak barrels

 

Just to give you a sense of the size of these things.

Many litres of Chateau September 30th.

 Then the tasting began. I really couldn't tell you how many wines we tasted. They were certainly not stingy with the variety or the quantity. After the first three or four, the buffet lunch was served, and what a fine spread it was. There was a lamb dish that had probably simmered for a day, two cold salads and one warm one, oven fried potatoes, their own olives, an eggplant dish and good bread. Through all this, the wine kept on coming.

Lunch on the patio

The rest of the merry band

 At the end of the meal, they collected our order forms, then loaded up the bus and the director's trunk with our booty. A good time was had by all. I bought two cases and three half bottles of late-harvest dessert wine. Drop by some time.

The bus ride home was considerably more voluble than the trip there!

New dishes

OK. So not many people would bother to make a blog post about kitchen dishes. To appreciate their importance, you have to understand that I have essentially been camping out in a house since August. I brought a suitcase full of summer clothes, some toiletries, and a dog with me. Period. In the house, the school had placed very adequate furniture, two plates, two bowls, two mugs and some cutlery. There also were some old sheets and a few towels to tide me over until my shipment came. Because of incompetence on the part of Bekins, that shipment did not even leave Richmond, BC until September 30. I may see my things by December 1st. Inshallah.

Now dishes are not in my shipment, so I don't have to wait for them. Before I left home, I bought new pots and pans, new knives, new cutlery (I had to leave the kitchen in Victoria fully equipped) but no dishes because I thought I might see something here that would later be great momentos of my time in Tunisia. So without further ado - and don't ever ship anything via Bekins - here they are. I bought two each of four different patterns to mix and match. Come over; I'll make you dinner. You'll have to bring your own cutlery, though.

Don't they look amazingly like the background of the blog?