Oct 2015 - Week 2

Monday 5th to Sunday 11th October 2015

Monday was mostly work and little play! I cooked chilli con carne for tomorrow’s dinner – we are having a couple of friends around. He will be bringing his guitar so we will all have a sing song. After a few glasses of wine, of course. Dinner tonight was chicken thighs with salad for Sam and a great home-made macaroni cheese for me.

Tuesday we did a cleaning blitz. It’s amazing how motivating inviting friends to dinner can be! Dave, guitar in hand, and Sue came around for chilli con carne and a good sing song. We covered everything from James Taylor to Adele, stopping off with Bob Dylan and friends along the way. Goodness only knows what the neighbours made of it.

Wednesday my guitar teacher got stuck in traffic so I didn’t get my lesson. Today was one of Sam’s fasting days. She had baked chicken with veggies; I had fish fingers!

Thursday Sam restarted her weekly art class in Mosta. It was a beautiful, cloudless day so I went for a two hours hike from Mistra Bay around the coast past St Paul’s Island and beyond, exploring the abandoned salt pans along the way. I only passed two people the whole time. It was incredibly peaceful but also incredibly hot. Without a cloud in sight there was no shelter from the sun and the temperature soared into the late 40s. What a pleasure though, to get out hiking again. We had left over chilli con carne for dinner.

Friday I woke up with a sore knee; unfortunately it’s my so called good knee. I guess it’s objecting to yesterday’s hike, so I hope it will settle down soon. I went to my Italian lesson which was hot (there is no air conditioning there) but I enjoyed it and hopefully I am learning something. There were no convicted killers or whatever there tonight. (Well you never know; a local lawyer was shot dead today.) I don’t get home from Italian lessons much before 8.30 so I suspect that every Friday will become pizza night. Tonight it was pepperoni.

Saturday we did chores. Rain showers passed through fleetingly, chased along by odd rumbles of thunder. In the evening I went to the airport to collect Ben who is visiting for a few days. Sam prepared us a vegan buffet; humus, peppers, roasted veggies, olives, breads, crisps and salad.

Sunday we drove to Valetta so Ben could have a look around. We went to Charles Grech for cappuccinos which were very good. We bought chocolate éclairs from Café Cordina which were pretty bad (heavy as a brick). We visited the Upper Barakka Gardens and went to the Malta 5D cinema. Ben and I then went for a walk around Valetta on the waterfront and I pointed out the public toilets that Sally got locked into on her visit. Meanwhile, Sam went window shopping.

We went to Al Sultan for dinner (via Miracles) and it was great as always. Pitta bread, humus, roasted veggies with harissa, olives, falafel, meat balls with pine nuts, thyme dusted flatbreads, cheesy flatbreads, stuffed flatbreads and a super-fresh salad. All washed down with beers, sparkling water and a bottle of Italian red wine. The cost? €55 foe three of us. That’s about £13 a head! We went to Sotto Zero for ice creams for dessert.