Nov 2015 - Week 1

St Paul's Bay

Sunday 1st to Sunday 8th November 2015

Sunday we had torrential rainstorms with thunder and lightning. Peter, Linda and I went for a tour around the island while Sam had some friends from the IOM around for lunch. The roads were seriously flooded in places with water axle deep. Most of us slowed down to cross the floods but pick-up trucks and 4 wheel drives didn’t, sending great walls of water cascading over the tops of surrounding cars. It was great fun, better than sunbathing any day of the week! One annoyance is that we discovered that my parking sensors beep whenever they are hit by raindrops, so it was beep, beep, beep, bloody beep all day long! Peter says his abiding memory of Malta will be of biblical floods and incessant beeping!

We went to Pretty Bay for coffees and crisps (another healthy breakfast) then drove on to Marsaxlokk. Sundays are market days in Marsaxlokk with stalls selling fruit, vegetables and masses of fish. Despite the terrible weather it was packed and we gave up looking for somewhere to park. Instead we drove on to Sliema. Peter and Linda did some shopping in The Point – thank goodness for indoor shopping arcades – and we had toasties, wraps and ice cream milk shakes at French Affaire which were all very good. Actually, Linda said she prefers McDonalds milk shakes!

After dropping Peter and Linda back at their hotel I joined Sam and her friends for coffee. It’s nice that the direct flight from the IOM means we can catch up with old friends. We had a quiet night in watching a movie and eating flatbreads.

Monday we caught up on work. I went to our insurance broker in Naxxar to arrange travel insurance for Sam and walking back to the car I came across an amazing Italian deli with fantastic balsamics, olive oils, pastas and gazillions of artisan products. It’s the sort of place where the quality is off the wall but where you can spends a week’s salary in five minutes! Reminds me of Pomegranate!

I satisfied myself with a small bottle of Ligurian olive oil, wrapped in foil to exclude the light. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I get when I find shops like these. Somewhere in deepest, darkest Liguria a smallholder grows olive trees. In the summer the heat beats down day in, day out and ripens the olives. In the autumn the heat wanes and the olives start to change colour, greens turning tawny, then purple, then almost black. The first crop comes in in late autumn, the second in late winter, and each has its own character.

The farmer strikes a modest harvest and lovingly presses his olives through rough edged stone presses that have been in his family for generations. The stone wheels grate a little, complaining after several lifetimes of service. The air is redolent of lemons and wild thyme and the crickets buzz in the hedgerows. This first pressing gives the best oil; the juicy olives surrender their juice freely without heating. The oil is pure and sweet and unctuous; this is Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil in all its glory. The oil is poured into small bottles, sealed and wrapped in gold foil to banish the light. This is, without a doubt, the world’s finest fruit juice. And these little bottles wend their ways to delis far and wide where discerning Englishmen like me may buy them and wax lyrical about their provenance!

Today was Peter and Linda’s last day in Malta. By our standards the weather has been pretty awful. Whereas we expect blue skies and warm seas we have had downpours, thunder and lightning. Nonetheless we have gotten out and about a lot and I think they have enjoyed their visit. It has been wonderful to spend this time with such good friends. For our last night out we went to Miracles for ice-cold beers and great pizzas.

Tuesday Peter and Linda flew home. So, guess what? The weather turned perfect again and is forecast to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Their visit here gave us the worst week’s weather we have had since coming to Malta over a year ago. I went for a long walk all around the St Paul’s Bay area, finding a new raised walkway that runs adjacent to the salt pans to Kennedy Grove.

I cooked us chicken tikka makhani for dinner and it was fantastic. It is a version of butter chicken. It is a restaurant favourite of Sam’s and I cobbled together a recipe for it after a lot of digging around on the internet. I will be posting the recipe on my blog soon. I served it with spiced potatoes with onions, a dry version of do piazza.

Wednesday I parked in Paceville and walked to Pembroke where I picked up the heritage trail. It zigzags along the coast with fantastic views north along the shoreline to Gozo. Along the trail are information boards telling you all about the local flora and fauna (yawn, yawn) so obviously I didn’t stop to read any of them. It is a lovely walk but it is somewhat spoiled by the mounds of dog poo along the way. In that respect it reminds me of Marine Drive. I retraced my steps and walked on around St Julians, past the Dragonara and Hilton and finally past the myriad “gentlemen’s clubs” that occupy Paceville. It really is a den of iniquity. That said, I like it that Malta has a proper party town. I may be too old for it but it makes me feel good to be living in a place that has something for everyone. For dinner we had roasted chicken with left over spiced potatoes.

Thursday I dropped Sam at the airport for her visit to Maidenhead to see Linda and Mike. I worked on a bunch of website stuff then had a walk before dinner but I found it muggy again. For dinner I had pizza and watched a movie.

Friday I made a cauldron of mulligatawny soup which should last me for a couple of days.

Saturday morning I met Ian for a cappuccino at Miracles. I went for a couple of walks but stayed close to home because the weather was showery. In the afternoon Tina turned up unexpectedly in a panic because she’d lost a friend “somewhere in St Paul’s Bay”. So somewhere in several square miles then! Anyway after a bit of detective work I tracked her friend down to a supermarket in Burmarrad, which isn’t in St Paul’s Bay at all! Of course, Tina doesn’t have a clue where Burmarrad is, let alone where the supermarket is (even though she must have driven past it to get to me in the first place) so I jumped in her car with her to show her the way and then walked back home. I thought I’d escaped dumb blondes for a few days with Sam away, but no such luck! For dinner I went to a new steakhouse that has just opened in Bugibba, Envy. It wasn’t good and you can read my review if you wish.

Sunday I power walked to Xemxija and back, made some calls, did some work and cooked a bean chilli lasagne for dinner.