maison mk

Jamie Oliver at maison mk

 

Great news at mk – last week we had Jamie Oliver filming on the rooftop of maison mk for a new TV programme.
We had up to 25 people  on the roof terrace – cameras, sound, movers & shakers, runners, food stylists, and Lord Jamie of Oliver. (Oh and me & Jallel making sure they all had everything they wanted whilst at the hotel).
Jamie was filming over 2 days & made some fabulous food (all top secret until the programme hits the screens). Jallel was his usual helpful self doing lots of translating & sorting out bits & pieces for Jamie & the crew – you may even see his dashing good looks on the programme – unless he gets left, discarded, on the cutting room floor !
The crew stayed with us for the week & were extremely helpful, charming, and a real pleasure to have around. It was good for maison mk to show how well we can look after such different groups of people with such diverse requests. Now we move onto a big birthday party for 30 people with cocktails, DJ’s, belly dancers & the whole big party scene...

mysterious man

This exotic looking chappie was in one of the shops near the riad. Snapped on her iPhone by Aoibheann whist out shopping for goodies. Me, i never seem to get the chance to leave the front door - must get out more & see Marrakech !

party night

A typical quiet night in at maison mk. We had a fun client party a few weeks ago with musicians, singers, rose petal showers, and, of course, belly dancers. The clients had a great time and so did the staff - not sure who enjoyed it most !
The weather  was appalling - you can see the wet patio - Jallel & the boys got completely soaked trying to pull the roof cover over the courtyard with hard driving rain lashing Marrakech.
Another party planned for this weekend - maybe we should get Jallel in his belly dancers outfit ? He's got the belly, but can he dance ?

the bhou

the bhou is basically a waiting room in an Arabic house. It's where you would have mint tea, read a book, wait for a meeting, etc. Ours is now really taking shape & looks great at night all lit up with lovely views of the courtyard & the pool opposite.

throwing away the old ideas...

Today is a significant day as I make a visit to the rubbish dump. We are throwing away all the old catalogues, brochures, postcards & leaflets from the construction of the riad. We have spent so much time (almost 4 years!) & effort searching for unique, quirky and interesting products & ideas for the riad.
Looking through some of the brochures reminds me of how crazy some of the rejected ideas were ! For example, we had a company that can make all the ceilings in taut rubber, like a big balloon - all curvy & orange coloured. Or the idea of filling the entire roof terrace with 30cm of sand so it is like a beach (forgot about how appealing a 20x30m deluxe cat-litter tray would be to the local feline community !) Or the armchairs that would have water running down the arms. Or the huge 8m long chandelier that we would hang in the central hole of the riad, from the roof. Or the house taxi that we would buy, paint it orange & stick 300 plastic gerbera flowers on the roof so that people noticed it!
So many awful ideas, but so many good ideas as well. Looking through the brochures there are so many cool, interesting products, mostly from small independent designers, that i would love to have featured, but that just didn't  fit for one reason or another. Maybe if we open Maison xx (where xx is another country) we can incorporate some of these beautiful ideas in the future?
So, out with construction stuff, in with the proper running of the hotel and banging the drum so that as many people as possible can come and stay and enjoy maison mk.   

condé nast competition

http://www.cntraveller.com/Competition/default2.aspx

This is a competition that we are running in conjunction with Condé Nast Traveller online. By answering the very tricky question (complete with a hint as well), you can win a three night stay at our boutique hotel in Marrakech, maison mk. Thanks to our PR company, Small World Marketing, for coming up with the idea & pitching it to CN Traveller.

lighting at night

We are still tinkering with the hotel, adding more candles, beads, decorations. Here is the sunken lounge at night, a lovely warm, inviting room that is really working well.

renovations (2)

With the concreting, plastering, painting, tiling, etc continuing (and almost finished), the end of our little summer 'pause' is approaching. How we can cause such a mess to just change around the spa area & add a shower and a hamam astounds me ! Still, we are now in the final stages & then the big clean commences.

As always when chaos is at its height, I decide to do something very important that may, possibly, be something that can be finished. This time, i will mainly be grinding coffee ! In Morocco, as any riad owner will tell you, trying to actually finish a job is almost impossible.

For example, you want to put a screw into a wall to hang a picture.

Stage 1 - try to find the tape measure (which is lost / missing the first 20cm / etc/ etc).

Stage 2 - all pencils / pens missing (despite buying 100 pens).

Stage 3 - get the drill (which has no plug on the end, so fit a plug. Obviously there will be no plugs, so go and buy another one first).

Stage 4 - fit the drill bit (double problem here - no drill bits, therefore go to the shop & buy yet another bit, and then no chuck key to tighten the bit into the drill).

Stage 5 - drill hole, finally!

Stage 6 - find the missing rawl plugs.

Stage 7 - no screws, buy one.

Stage 8 - can't find the screwdriver / screwdriver snapped in two pieces / use the oyster knife or sabbatier carving knife.

Stage 9 - pop the screw in the wall.

Usually you give up around stage 5, but this is an incredibly common frustration of  trying to achieve the simplest little task on the great 'things to do' list !

tea pot people

I wanted to get some little, cute covers for the teapot handles when we serve mint tea. Pauline went out and, deep in the souks, found these slightly terrifying little people. Some people say that in the night they run around the kitchen &  scare the fruit & vegetables...we just don't know.

still shipping...

we are still behaving like a small branch of DHL with the amount of stuff that is still heading over to Marrakech from the UK. The clients all think it is all complete, but i still continue to add finishing touches that i really want to offer people.
We have another 200kg's going out on Saturday - shipping list includes 12 tins of paint (the Moroccans don't really do accurate paint mixing!), 5 bathroom curtains (currently only a voille between bedroom & bathroom, in one week there will be an optional thick curtain), 25kg of coffee beans (best i've ever tasted from the Algerian Coffee House in Soho - important to me to have the best whenever possible), 4 directors chairs (for our butler picnic - think Out Of Africa with white china, bejewelled umbrellas, flowing silks, etc out in the Moroccan countryside), champagne buckets, plus 40kgs of bits & bobs - vacuvin stoppers, curtain rings, lighting, cable clips, table legs, etc, etc, etc.