As Time Goes By (or Rock the Casbah)

The song made famous in the film 'Casablanca'. There was a great item about Casablanca on John McCarthy's Radio 4 programme Excess Baggage yesterday. The writer (and blogger) Laila Lalami talked about the reality and image of Casablanca, the setting for her new novel.I lived there in 1980/81. I ran away from cold wet Manchester and unemployment - the funding had run out on my job as a language teacher in an Asian women's refuge. I'd rowed with my boyfriend, and decided to use what little money I had to go to the nearest exotic place. I persuaded a friend to come with me, and bought coach tickets from London Victoria to Algerciras. We then took the ferry to Tangier, and then the Marrakesh Express to Casa. I realised money wasn't going to last long, my friend decided to return to England, and I went in search of a job in a language school. I'd thought to take a photocopy of my degree certificate, and I'd arrived just as autumn term started, so I found a job, found a flat and someone to share it with, and settled in. I loved the whole experience of Maroc. I didn't do as much travelling round as I would have liked but having a job gave me a great insight into real life. Students became friends, I sang in a band made up of Moroccan,English and American musicians. I co-directed Hamlet and played Ophelia in a production organised by the language school. I'd never lived anywhere so full of contrasts - and Laila echoed some of my thoughts and feelings. In Casa great wealth and poverty live side by side. A walk to work was like passing through at least four centuries simultaneously. There was a Rick's bar, run by an American woman. I met members of the Moroccan royal family. I went to a circumcision party. I saw the Queen and the Royal Yacht on the famous visit where she was kept waiting for hours. I loved the medinas, the architecture - Moorish and Art Deco French, the bargaining, the everyday life in the area where I lived.It was too different to feel like home, but it was so attractive that I didn't want to leave.I came back to England to sell my house, but met my husband to be instead and have never been back.
And the story about the king and his fighter pilots in Rock the Casbah was true....