4. A Day in the Life & đđ
A new format and face-planting into famous waves.
This week itâs all new.
Well only half new.
I was worried this Substack becoming a bit âoh my god look at my cool weekendâ rather than sharing honest experiences, how is it being a nomad and a memory bank as intended.
So from now on, the first half of these posts will be answering questions from people or sharing interesting stuff about life in Marrakech (or random fun facts) and then the second half a shorter update on weekend activities.
This week is a good one and hopefully interesting. But if you really need a reason to make it to the end, thereâs a photo of me wiping out on a surfboard into a big wave and looking like Iâm about to drown. Itâs worth it.
Hey Ed, Whatâs a normal weekday look like for you?
Well Iâm glad you asked! (and yes I am aware Iâm now talking to myself as it was me who wrote that question ). Anyway, to make life easier, Iâll take you through what happened today.
Today started with an alarm at 6:30am.
Now you may be asking âwhy on earth would you wake up at such a godforsaken hourâ. Well, the answer would be Crossfit!
If youâre never heard of Crossfit, in short its a crazy mix of weightlifting, cardio and gymnastics, is 100% a cult and is so brutal whilst youâre doing it that it makes you want to redo all your life choices.
Thus, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I get up early, get ready and walk the 16 min walk to the Crossfit box - invariably as its me and some things never change, I only leave 8-10 mins so have to speedwalk/jog most of the way.
This is what the inside and outside of the Crossfit box looks like (as Crossfit is a cult, they refer to their gyms as boxes for some reason đ¤ˇââď¸).
Today the workout was pretty brutal. It was an hour session with about 20 mins of warmups, stretching and going through all the exercises in prep for the 40 min workout. From memory it was something like this
700m run
40 burpees
100m farmers carry (essentially walk carrying two 10kg-15kg dumbbells)
and then repeat 4x. yes 4x. As fast as you can. cos thereâs a clock ticking down. And youâre surrounded by crazy people with seemingly impossible strength and cardio. Itâs a strange thing as whilst youâre doing it, you canât think of anything worse than doing another Crossfit workout, but I do find myself looking forward to the next one. I did Crossfit for a year or so about 6 years ago and am definitely remembering why I enjoyed it (even if some days, like today, I leave walking like Iâve aged 60 years).
After the session and a quick shower, I normally then make my way down a few roads to the coworking space where I work. The roads in Gueliz (the most modern and French bit of Marrakech where my coworking space and gym are) look a bit like this:
And this is what my coworking space, called LâBlassa, looks like from the outside.
Honestly, I love it. Its not only beautiful on the inside (its owned by a Swiss architect who designed it all with her Moroccan husband) but its just a super friendly atmosphere.
In the pic above where the Mac Pro is, there are always two lovely Moroccan women who give the best recommendations for food and anything in the area. They also have a little cafe at the front (pictured below) where the barista has taught me a bunch of Moroccan Arabic - (âAfak atteeni le mar diel robineeâ (phonetically) = âCan I please have some water from the tapâ, âAbslemaâ = âGoodbyeâ etc). Itâs just a very happy and airy place.
This below is where I sit and where all the magic happens. They very kindly said I could bring my monitor in, which I brought from the UK and was originally planning on leaving in my AirbBNB. Itâs a great work setup and this week I had a catchup with my boss, our Head of People & our CCO who all agreed so far the transition from a work perspective has been very smooth.
On my left sits a lovely Moroccan architect and on my right a young Moroccan growth marketer (who has an amazing backstory Iâll go into on another edition).
For lunch, I often go to a place around the corner from my office called Eat Clean Maroc - I couldn't find a good pic but its a little hole in the wall where they hand-make fresh food in front of you and everythingâs healthy and simple (my type of cooking).
Iâll then often take this and eat it on the chairs/seats outside the coworking space whilst catching up on some newsletters or work.
Apart from that the rest of the day is normally work. I try and leave the coworking space by 7:30pm ish but most recently its been leaving when the coworking space closes around 9pm (think both as its a busy time at work but also want to make sure they know Iâm working despite being abroad haha).
Anyway, next time Iâll have lots more shorter questions (i.e. flat tour, how to cross the road, whatâs food like, other fun facts etc). Let me know what you think of this new format!
Soooooo Ed, what happened this weekend?
(as promised youâre getting closer to the pic of me wiping out in the water).
Friday afternoon, I got the bus from Marrakech to a place called Agadir which is on the coast. Its a completely modern city and been promoted by Marrakech as a great place for package holidays, beach and surfing. Lonely Planet was pretty brutal in saying âIf you do not have children in tow, we recommend heading elsewhereâ
Following this advice, I got a short taxi to a place called Taghazout, a world-famous surfing hotspot. I really liked Taghazout - small, with a chilled out vibe and just surfing stuff everywhere. From further down the coast, this is what it looks like this:
And this was the view from the roof of my Hostel, Hostel Amayour.
On Saturday evening I walked down the coast to a placed called Anchor Point to watch the sunset and took these two pics which are some of my favourites. The people you can see in the first pic are local fishermen fishing off of the rocks (as Taghazout was originally a fishing settlement until surfing really started booming 20 years ago).
But the thing youâve really come this far down is for surfing.
It was awesome. Loved it. Never tried it before but definitely going to try to do it again if I can. If you havenât been, and maybe been put off slightly by the surfer bro expectations, Iâd 100% recommend.
I booked through my hostel to go for a group coached surfing day to learn the basics, but luckily I was the only one booked on that day. So for 30 euros, I got surf rental, transport, lunch and 11am-4pm of 1:1 surf coaching.
After being showed the basics on the beach, a warmup and a quick safety talk (which was essentially donât hold the board in front of your face as a wave hits you otherwise itâll hurt) we went into the water. Somehow, I got up 2nd time and seemed to get it quite quickly, progressing through different stages. Within an hour I was at the âlineupâ where surfers wait for the bigger waves (which were ofc still quite small as was on a beginnerâs beach). Of course I continued to face-plant, fall in loads and make a fool of myself for the rest of the day (and damn was it tiring trying to stay up repeatedly paddling), but it was so much fun.
Hereâs me just keeping upright on a smaller wave.
Hereâs me somehow looking like the surfer emoji on a larger wave đ
And then, as promised, hereâs me wiping out just in front of the instructor who was kindly filming. Lol. not my best pic.
I also spent most of Sunday surfing (the waves were a little less good unfortunately) and then caught the bus back to Marrakech for Sunday evening and the start of the work week.
Anyway, thatâs all for this week folx! Thanks again for reading! Next week will be a special edition as three friends (two ex-housemates and a friend from uni) are coming to visit for the weekend which Iâm very excited for!
Hope youâre all healthy and doing well.
Cheers
Ed
Imperator Maximus & Chief Field Reporter of Ed Gets Lost
(PS. I found out that immodium makes me nauseous. Iâd had suspicions on previous bus rides, but I stupidly took it preventatively before surfing on Saturday and man did I feel sea-sick at times and almost thought I was going to throw up at one point. Didnât take it on Sunday and didnât feel sick at all. Moral of the story is that Immodium is the worst and donât combine đ & đ).