No, not this bunch of lunatics from 70's British television:
Indeed no! I'm talking about things that are nice to have, nice to look at, nice to handle and nice to buy.
That's part of the huge pleasure we get from going to Marrakech; looking for 'goodies'. Of course there are a very large number of these desirable objects that are well out of our price range, like the beautiful hand-beaten bath in the previous posting, for one! But never mind, there is an abundance of more reasonably priced 'goodies' to tempt cheapskates like us as well.
We're limited by luggage allowances for some things, and suitcase sizes for others, but having had plenty of practice in haggling in Luxor, we can usually manage to wrest a few choice pieces from the traders at prices that we are able to stretch to.
On our last visit to Marrakech, we bargained with a chap for a decorative shelf sort of thing, but eventually decided that it just wouldn't fit in our luggage. Well, he recognised us this time when we arrived at his shop. He had one or two of these shelf thingies, in different sizes. After another bout of negotiations and trying to judge it's size apropos the cases and bags which we had with us, we actually bought it! (Mind you, early on the morning of the day we left, I had to go wandering about the back alleys to find someone with a saw to lop the top off, so that it really would fit in!)
Here it is, after having the top bits sawn off, they were the same as those shaped bits sticking out at the bottom.
Then, we had to find ornaments or nik-naks to decorate it with. Those shaped orifices are rather deceiving, we brought things back to stand within them on the shelves, only to find that they didn't!
I eventually made paper patterns of the shapes, just to make sure that we wouldn't mess-up again. The bloke at the shop where we'd bought them was OK about swapping them for smaller ones, as we also bought something else, which I just love. (More of which later.)
Here's a glimpse of the shelves with the ornaments in place:
I think it might look well in the guest apartment living room, as a balance for the 'Silk Road' clock; we'll see. We also got another Marrakchi plate, similar style to the ones we got last time, only with more metal on it, and consequently quite a bit dearer.
If you're thinking "But these aren't traditional Egyptian, Edward." Then you're right, of course. Nevertheless, the actual 'style' that we've employed in the Our Luxor Guest Apartment, so far, isn't necessarily real Egyptian! Not modern-day real Egyptian, anyway. Our unique selling point is that we hope to give our guests that which their imagination tells them is Egyptian.
Certainly, when we first came to Egypt, we had pre-conceived ideas about how we wanted any accommodation to look; and that look was Ottoman Egyptian, from the times of the Turkish influence and from the 1001 nights tales. Sadly, fabrics and ornamentation etc which are redolent of those far-off times, aren't readily available in Egypt, never mind in little Luxor! Most of the 'Wow!' factor stuff at Our Luxor has been specially imported from different countries around the world. So we make no apologies for continuing with this practice, the end justifying the means!
Our last buy in Marrakech was the most expensively priced, what do you think for a talking point?
They actually fit Freda:
I loved them the minute I saw them, and just had to have them!
That's part of the huge pleasure we get from going to Marrakech; looking for 'goodies'. Of course there are a very large number of these desirable objects that are well out of our price range, like the beautiful hand-beaten bath in the previous posting, for one! But never mind, there is an abundance of more reasonably priced 'goodies' to tempt cheapskates like us as well.
We're limited by luggage allowances for some things, and suitcase sizes for others, but having had plenty of practice in haggling in Luxor, we can usually manage to wrest a few choice pieces from the traders at prices that we are able to stretch to.
On our last visit to Marrakech, we bargained with a chap for a decorative shelf sort of thing, but eventually decided that it just wouldn't fit in our luggage. Well, he recognised us this time when we arrived at his shop. He had one or two of these shelf thingies, in different sizes. After another bout of negotiations and trying to judge it's size apropos the cases and bags which we had with us, we actually bought it! (Mind you, early on the morning of the day we left, I had to go wandering about the back alleys to find someone with a saw to lop the top off, so that it really would fit in!)
Then, we had to find ornaments or nik-naks to decorate it with. Those shaped orifices are rather deceiving, we brought things back to stand within them on the shelves, only to find that they didn't!
I eventually made paper patterns of the shapes, just to make sure that we wouldn't mess-up again. The bloke at the shop where we'd bought them was OK about swapping them for smaller ones, as we also bought something else, which I just love. (More of which later.)
Here's a glimpse of the shelves with the ornaments in place:
I think it might look well in the guest apartment living room, as a balance for the 'Silk Road' clock; we'll see. We also got another Marrakchi plate, similar style to the ones we got last time, only with more metal on it, and consequently quite a bit dearer.
If you're thinking "But these aren't traditional Egyptian, Edward." Then you're right, of course. Nevertheless, the actual 'style' that we've employed in the Our Luxor Guest Apartment, so far, isn't necessarily real Egyptian! Not modern-day real Egyptian, anyway. Our unique selling point is that we hope to give our guests that which their imagination tells them is Egyptian.
Certainly, when we first came to Egypt, we had pre-conceived ideas about how we wanted any accommodation to look; and that look was Ottoman Egyptian, from the times of the Turkish influence and from the 1001 nights tales. Sadly, fabrics and ornamentation etc which are redolent of those far-off times, aren't readily available in Egypt, never mind in little Luxor! Most of the 'Wow!' factor stuff at Our Luxor has been specially imported from different countries around the world. So we make no apologies for continuing with this practice, the end justifying the means!
Our last buy in Marrakech was the most expensively priced, what do you think for a talking point?
I loved them the minute I saw them, and just had to have them!
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