tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992Fri, 13 Sep 2024 09:11:56 +0000... the sometimes snarky musings of a liberated office weaselhttp://catinrabat.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))Blogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-171821265358838818Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:27:00 +00002009-02-16T19:36:18.489+00:00I've been asked to update my de facto defunct blog with a link to my most recent and hopefully permanent reincarnation. I've amalgamated this blog as well as my subsequent blogs from Spain and Slovakia to the Mother of All Blogs thanks to my supreme technological knowledge.Cat in Rabat, La Gatita Gringa, Mačka in Slovak can all be found here. Ciao babies.http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2009/02/reincarnation-cat-style-x-2-and-3-and-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-3983160508305993876Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:35:00 +00002007-08-24T18:38:25.040+00:00I am mortified at my own apparent inability to not blog. So for those masochists who want more ....La Gatita GringaYou've been warned.http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/08/reincarnation-cat-style.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-3311512361423521494Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:18:00 +00002007-08-10T08:17:52.106+00:00As The Walrus once prophesied, the time has finally come to talk of many things - perhaps not about shoes and ships and sealing wax but of matters close to my heart.Frankly, I haven't relished the thought of being the one to stick the needle into the Cat's paw and so, not surprisingly, I've let this go to the last possible moment. The truth is that I've grown attached to this humble space in the http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/08/9-lives-of-cat-in-rabat-life-9th.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-8492091155545308530Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:39:00 +00002007-08-07T16:14:47.755+00:00 "What?" roared Zeus setting the summit of Mount Olympus a-tremble with his oratory eruption. Pegasus, startled from his luncheon buffet, discreetly and judiciously stepped out of the god’s line of vision. "Did I just hear what I think I heard?""No, no ... it's impossible. She couldn't have!" gasped Apollo. His glorious sunbeams paled at the mere thought of it."She did! "Zeus thundered."What's http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/08/conference-of-immortals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-4279296001486101528Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:02:00 +00002007-08-03T15:45:26.618+00:00If I were a third grader creating my own Morocco, it would be a country of primary colours whose cities, rivers, and borders - I would add - would be painstakingly coloured within the lines (much to the relief of Western Sahara and a handful of child psychiatrists). And this would be my colour palette of crayons (remember, I am only 8 years old):* Marrakech is the red city.* Meknès is the yellow http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/08/primary-colours.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-7037453097216821352Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:00:00 +00002007-08-01T09:23:51.520+00:00The Dog Days ... "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies"* ... have arrived in Rabat, and they're barking in full force. Simply put, it is stinking hot and equally stinking humid. So yesterday, in what would prove to be a futile attempt to combat Rabat's current weather woes and to briefly http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/dogs-days-dogma.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-5545043885325873702Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:28:00 +00002007-07-31T17:55:32.605+00:00A rather brief Cat in Rabat Public Service Announcement for Moroccan Oenophiles about which the author raises one conundrum and invites her readership to consider two possible solutions. There will be no references herein to early Genesis albums* Surely this is a coincidence. In fact, I'd like to think that this is a coincidence in the purest, most literal sense of the word but I can't help but http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/and-then-there-were-three.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-3375973849027701272Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:48:00 +00002007-07-24T08:19:49.292+00:00 "Marrakech will be the target," my student judiciously advised me - this in the wake of Morocco's terror alert having been maxed out again this past weekend. "Why?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. "Teacher," my student tried to reason with me (in a tone that clearly indicated that she thought I was a retard), "Marrakech is the most beautiful city in the world."Which it isn'thttp://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/politics-of-sex-some-minor-marrakech.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-9004811882307044083Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:32:00 +00002007-08-01T18:10:07.532+00:00I like Meknès. There, I've said it. Out loud. Liking Meknès isn't a something I share with too many of my colleagues but I like it, so there it is. Its greatest advantage, of course, is the fact that it isn't Rabat. Based on that alone, I could easily move on to the peroration of this posting. Many of you will probably wish that I had.Last Saturday, Mr. Cat in Rabat and I slipped away to the http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/cat-in-mekns.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-8117710564879820669Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:14:00 +00002007-07-16T09:46:54.833+00:00I have an excellent memory of which I am inordinately proud - it's not photographic but pretty darn close. If it's written in print, then I can easily commit it to memory; however, if it's a facial feature, I'm screwed. This is how the gods have repaid my hubris. In fact, it's safe to say that when I meet someone for the first time, even engage in a lengthy conversation with that person, it's http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/eye-witness-to-unveiling.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-1345761885366526433Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:39:00 +00002007-07-08T11:09:31.532+00:00Fast on the heels of my Friday night adult class telling me that the government should have carte blanche in censoring the media, it was announced this weekend that Morocco's security alert had been raised to maximum. Now for those of you who are a little hazy on the ins & outs of 'maximum', it strongly suggests that some sort of nasty act of terrorism by a radical Islamist sect is on the http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/wheres-kaboom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-4828562945026035387Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:24:00 +00002007-07-04T21:43:09.785+00:00Not only have bees and beavers both been credited with being particularly industrious but they have equally earned the pithy little axion "busy as a (insert creature of choice here)". Not to put too fine a point on it, I have found myself busy as a (insert creature of choice here) these last few days and I see no respite for another week and a half. And by busy as a (insert creature of choice http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/bees-and-beavers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-454736929124110492Sun, 01 Jul 2007 10:05:00 +00002007-07-01T17:19:44.236+00:00Ninety-nine & nine tenths of my students know absolutely nothing about the country from which I hail (clue on far left) in spite of the fact that more than a hefty handful would give their eye teeth for the opportunity to study or immigrate there. Now this isn't an indictment against Moroccans (see how paranoid hyper-sensitive you've all made me?) but a fact. For the most part, my students don't http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/07/happy-birthday-canada.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-7772243063551856265Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:55:00 +00002007-06-28T14:33:36.093+00:00No more taboos! More freedom!There. I've said it. Now fine me. Throw me in prison.No?Well those were some of the slogans on the placards carried by human rights activist Mohamed Bougrine and his colleagues last month during a sit-in. The reason for the protest? - the arrest and imprisonment of other activists who had staged a peaceful demonstration on May Day to mark International Workers' Day. http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/cat-in-prison.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-8245528579459996679Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:08:00 +00002007-06-26T15:28:10.394+00:00A handful of years ago - a handful being defined as less than eight but more than six - Mr. Cat in Rabat and I crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and set our paws on the Maghreb for the first time. This trip - a month of backpacking around Morocco and Andalucía - was a lifetime dream (and by lifetime I mean 2 months) during which we could put our relationship to the test and perhaps buy a carpet. http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/morocco-for-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-3374049657621618865Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:16:00 +00002007-06-26T14:40:23.778+00:00This much I know: it is summer. Or to be woefully imprecise, it will be in 5 hours and 47 minutes from this very moment. Or to be just precise - which is always preferable - it will at 6:06 p.m. GT this evening. Indeed today, much of the world will celebrate or at least acknowledge in some wonderfully pagan way, the summer solstice, that heliotropic moment when our planet's axis tilts the most http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/very-brief-disquisition-on-roots-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-8184182140615291174Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:28:00 +00002007-06-26T14:43:22.594+00:00I have grave reservations that this posting is in no way topical or timely - and for this I sincerely apologise - but last week the story once again raised its ugly head on, of all places, the Casa-Rabat train where Mr. Cat in Rabat and I were standing. Not sitting. Yes, in spite of the fact that we had purchased first-class tickets, we were compelled to stand in the (albeit first-class) aisle ofhttp://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-have-grave-reservations-that-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-633484499023912450Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:58:00 +00002007-06-26T14:45:36.655+00:00Or what goes around, comes around.It's pretty much common knowledge for the half-dozen or so faithful readers of this blog that I am, what is commonly termed, a 'cat person'. The more insightful individual undoubtedly came to this conclusion from my blog moniker, although this would not be wholly accurate: the 'cat' in my name refers only to my initials. I confess that I have always regretted http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/feline-philanthropy-donuts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-2902920289949855347Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:53:00 +00002007-06-13T09:21:55.637+00:00A *New* Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys MysteryIt is the year 2007 and when Nancy Drew – intrepid Girl Detective - flies, she makes a concerted effort to wear nothing that hasn't been woven from a plant and isn't held together with bits of raffia or hemp. Gone is her perky flip hairdo (aerosols are banned from carry-on luggage) as are her leather buckled pumps (her shoes are now made of metal-free man-madehttp://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/mystery-of-explosive-thong.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-8537503938633547018Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:37:00 +00002007-06-05T23:56:25.617+00:00Does poverty have a uniform? And not to be indelicate, but do poor people smell? Sometimes it seems that way although I've known my fair share of The Quality who can make the hair on your chest curl (not that I have any.) Knarf in the City blogged today about being marooned on a poorly ventilated/non air-conditioned bus which was made decidedly rank and more unbearable by the presence of a http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/06/dirt-poor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-6124517577951578543Thu, 31 May 2007 11:25:00 +00002007-05-31T14:56:45.319+00:00The sun is slowly sinking on Cat in Rabat's dominion and within eight weeks, this blog will sadly be no more; Mr. CinR and I will be leaving Morocco for greener pastures. And by greener, I mean spirited. And by spirited, I mean a place with an enlightened view of alcohol. Not that that's the sole reason we're leaving - but the ability to enjoy a reasonably priced gin & tonic - out of doors where http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/05/cocktails-with-mohammed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-2698005560113752299Mon, 28 May 2007 13:53:00 +00002007-05-28T16:28:33.434+00:00The other night I made one of my rare visits to YouTube to verify for myself that a particular clip that had been recommended to me was as incomprehensibly vile as my colleague had portended it to be. Unfortunately, I couldn't make a connection but I was hardly nonplussed for such are the vagaries of internet connections in Morocco. Then this morning I received an e-mail from Youssef The Brave athttp://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/05/big-brother-is-blocking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-599999548516958512Thu, 24 May 2007 11:08:00 +00002007-05-24T22:09:11.275+00:00When the individual with whom I was involved before Mr. Cat in Rabat entered my life - let's call him Satan - dumped me for another woman and I parted company, I sought closure in fairly conventional girly ways: I burned his photographs, I cut my hair short, and I got a tattoo (see crappy photo, left). My jaunty little fuck you ouroboros - a symbol of rebirth, growth, ying & yang, and the http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/05/lesson-from-ouroboros.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-3403545593421483731Wed, 23 May 2007 13:48:00 +00002007-05-23T20:58:43.915+00:00A few weeks ago I made reference to the fact that asking my students to suspend belief for the unbelievably interminable period of 15 minutes and actually use their imaginations in an 'outside the Moroccan/Muslim box' (yes, I know that the expression is both loathsome and passé) activity was a lesson in futility and frustration of Biblical proportions. Equally annoying is preparing a lesson with http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/05/on-rabbits-frogs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15613992.post-6667441698493246385Mon, 21 May 2007 16:30:00 +00002007-05-23T10:01:29.427+00:00Most of us have seen the headlines: four-year old Madeleine McCann was abducted from her bed on May 3rd in Portugal while holidaying with her family. It's not often (well, never) that I am asked to provide a public service of any sort but Madeleine has recently been spotted in Morocco, and her family has asked Moroccan bloggers to sound the alarm, to raise awareness among Moroccans, ex-pats and http://catinrabat.blogspot.com/2007/05/find-madeleine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cat in Rabat ( كات في الرباط))6