Feb 2016 - Week 4

Waterside by the breakwater in February

Monday 22nd to Monday 29th February 2016

Monday we went to PAMA as it has quite a good health food section. Apart from that though, it is a pretty horrible supermarket; overpriced cheap brands, rotten service and deafening music. I’d rather go to prison than work there! We gave up trying to find what we wanted and went to Scotts instead, 10 times nicer. In the afternoon Sam accidently had a nap and I went for a power walk. For dinner we had left over roast lamb dinner.

Tuesday I went and explored the shops in Mellieha. I stopped at Debbies for an okay cappuccino (Puzzo is shut for refurbishment, unfortunately) then went down to the beach and had a look around the Seabank hotel. I wasn’t impressed. It is a large hotel that looks nice enough from the outside but screams downmarket on the inside. I had a walk on the promenade then drove on to Riviera Bay via Manikata. A coach tour had arrived at Riviera Bay just as I got there, disgorging a load of French tourists. Ooh la la! There was a surprisingly large number of people on the beach. Admittedly most were fully dressed but a couple were in the sea, frolicking in the surf. I guess living on an Island with 450,000 residents and over 2 million tourists visiting each year it is never going to be hard to find a few nutters.

Our friend Chris is away on a boys skiing trip so we had his better half Tina around for supper. She bought strawberries for pudding; she lives on the outskirts of Mgarr, the strawberry capital of Malta, and strawberries have just come into season. I made us a Puy lentil lasagne for our main course which was delicious as always. We played scrabble. The best man won.

Wednesday I went to our local clinic which is part of a group of private clinics and hospitals in Malta. I wanted to get my ears syringed. The doctor was very pleasant but produced a large stainless steel hand syringe the likes of which I haven’t seen for donkey’s years. I asked if they didn’t have an electronic syringe which is what my GP in the IOM has been using for as long as I can remember; it is considered safer as it electronically controls the water pressure. They didn’t but she phoned their main hospital in Sliema which confirmed that they did so I went there instead.

We had a drama early evening as the mixer tap joint in the kitchen suddenly gave way. We turned off the main water supply but we have a water tank on our roof as part of a pressurised system so water poured out all over the kitchen for about half an hour until the tank emptied. Talk about a flood. At one point I thought we were going to have to build an ark. But we kept mopping up the water with gazillions of towels and somehow kept on top of it. John the handyman came around and isolated the broken pipe and will call tomorrow to do a permanent fix.

We had left over lasagne for dinner.

Thursday Sam went to art class in Mosta. I went for a hike around Riviera Bay, up the escarpment behind it, over the ridge and cross country to the cliffs overlooking Gnejna Bay, then on to Mgarr. And back again. The weather was beautiful (again) and the sea picture perfect. The ground underfoot is hard and cracked like an ancient mosaic and the farmers are desperate for rain. They are even holding special church services to pray for rain. After the driest winter on record, Malta is technically a desert. In the fields I was ankle deep in spring flowers though and, as is so often the case, I had the place to myself. Bugs seem to be arriving early this year; perhaps it’s the extraordinarily dry winter we have had. I disturbed quite a few giant grasshoppers today. I even saw a ladybird on our terrace the other day.

We still haven’t got water in our kitchen yet so we went to Miracles for a drink then to Portobello for Diavola pizzas which were great.

Friday Sam met Kate for lunch. John called to replace the kitchen tap so we now have water there again. I had an Italian lesson and we had roasted chicken with savoury rice for dinner.

Saturday we met Tina at the Farmers’ market and bought lots of onions, peppers, courgettes, artichokes, cauliflower and marigolds. We drove on to the craft village and had good cappuccinos and a giant chocolate chip cookie in the café there. Tina shopped in the Olive Wood Workshop. On the way home we stopped at Sherries garden centre to buy some fresh herbs. It was packed, being a Saturday. In the afternoon Sam sunbathed and I went for a walk about town.

That evening we went to Miracles for a couple of beers then on to the Chang Thai restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately it wasn’t great. We had the mixed starters. The fried items were hot but the rest, including the satay and prawn ball, were cold. My main dish of crispy beef was cold, as was the rice, so we sent it back. Sam’s Massiman curry was pretty good, if a bit too sweet. The beef when it came back was hot but it was chewy. They didn’t charge for the beef. All in all disappointing but it still has positives going for it and we will give it another chance.

Sunday we went for cappuccinos at Aquatica. We bumped into Sam’s old swimming coach which was handy as she is thinking of starting up lessons again. We went to our local butcher and bought a half shoulder of lamb for dinner but then forgot to start cooking it early enough so ended up eating pizzas instead! I guess it will be lamb on Monday.