March 2016 - Week 2

Watch where you stand

Monday 7th to Sunday 13th March 2016

Monday I went to Valletta to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. As usual Republic Street was crowded with tourists, as was the market on Merchant Street, but away from those areas it was more peaceful. Valletta is very hilly which stops most visitors exploring the lanes and alleys that give Valletta much of its character. I had an excellent cappuccino at the Coffee Garden then went to the kitchen shop on Merchants Street and bought a slow cooker.

In the afternoon we did our usual Monday supermarket run. For dinner I had left over chicken; Sam had a rib eye steak.

Tuesday morning first thing I put together a tagine, bunged it in the slow cooker and left it to cook for nine hours! Trouble is, in my enthusiasm to try out our new slow cooker I forgot that we were meeting Robin and Leslie for dinner, so the tagine will have to wait until tomorrow. I went for three short walks; Armier Bay, the headland above Ghardira Bay and Riviera Bay.

For dinner we went to a wine bar in Mgarr. The bar itself was great and we had a fun evening but the food was fairly rubbish. The pulled pork turned out to be small slices of cooked, frozen pork, reheated and dried out.

Wednesday brought the odd shower so we didn’t stray far apart from popping out to buy fruit. For dinner we had our slow cooker cooked tagine which was excellent.

Thursday I dropped Sam in Paceville first thing for a superyacht conference. I went for a hike, starting from the Selmun Palace then down to the sea, a drop of about 300 metres. It is real farming country there and the fields are packed with artichokes, onions, cabbages and strawberries. I followed the path along the coast which in places cuts through bamboo groves. These areas are often flooded and impassable but after our arid winter even the ground there is cracked and dry. I climbed up to Fort Cambridge and followed a rough road along the ridge back to my starting point. This is real strenuous walking with lots of steep ups and downs. Hopefully my knees will still be talking to me in the morning.

Sam went to a cocktail party after her conference and didn’t get home till late so I reheated some tagine for my dinner.

Friday kicked off with a massive thunderstorm. Rain at last! But it only lasted half an hour or so and then it was bright and sunny again. I was a bit off colour so didn’t get much done and I skipped my Italian class. Sam met Tina for supper. I stayed in and watched movies and ate pizza.

Saturday we went to Mambo at Armier Bay for breakfast. Sam had a full English (bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans and toast) and I had an American (bacon, a giant hot dog sausage, mushrooms, scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes and – wait for it – chips)! We had a nice stroll around the headland and back. There are small settlements of weekend “homes” that have been built by locals in the area. Some are small static caravans, others one-room breeze block constructions, some are steel shipping containers and others huts made of corrugated iron. They must be like ovens in the summer months but most have awnings so I guess it is mostly an outdoor existence. Some have electricity attached but the wiring looks decidedly dodgy. Those that do, all have TV aerials too. All in all they satisfy my notion of a miniature South African township. But for all their shabbiness they don’t feel intimidating, except for the dogs that seem to have a free run of the place. There are small gardens, discarded toys, boats and even shrines and they have a charm all of their own.

For dinner Sam cooked us pasta with home-made pesto, potatoes and peas which was delicious.

Sunday was showery again! We stayed in and had a lazy day. For dinner I made a vegetable mulligatawny soup in the slow cooker using an Australian Women’s Weekly recipe. It was tasty but the mix of vegetables was wrong and I will stick to my own recipe in future!