April 2016 - Week 1

The best wine for ages!

Friday 1st to Sunday 10th April 2016

Friday I did some shopping and stopped at Miracles for an excellent cappuccino. There were lots of hungover teenagers out eating fried breakfasts. I went for another walk in the afternoon and had a brill strawberry ice cream at Sotto Zero.

The bats have returned. Each evening at dusk they appear from nowhere and put on a helter-skelter display. They seem bolder than ever, swooping low over our terrace.

We had planned to go to Sun City for fish and chips but Sam didn’t feel too well so we stayed in and ate pizzas and watched TV instead.

Saturday we did a bit of food shopping including a stroll to Mr Miracle (frozen foods) to get lamb shanks. A gale arrived today so the sea was rough and all the tourist boat trips were cancelled. It was a shame for the music fans who had bought tickets for the noisy music boat trips. Instead they queued in their hundreds – thousands? – to get on coaches to take them off for the evening/night. The two main music spots today were at Miracles and the San Antonio Hotel. We could hear the music and DJ at Miracles from our terrace half a mile away. I walked past Miracles and the ground shook. There have been complaints from residents that they couldn’t sleep with the music pounding on until 6am. The San Antonio was even louder! It’s quite a big hotel so I don’t know what its non-music festival guests have made of it.

In the evening we went to O’Rielly’s for a couple of beers and while we were sat at the bar Sam suddenly realised she had her trousers on inside out! From there we went to a new (to us) Sicilian restaurant called Acqua Marina. It is just down the road from us on the way to the main square and I can’t really explain why we haven’t tried it previously. It was excellent albeit dead quiet – we were its only two customers – and I have reviewed it on my food blog.

Sunday was still windy and the boat trips still cancelled. I did a walk around town but other than that we stayed in and had a lazy day. For dinner Sam cooked lamb shanks with peas and potatoes.

Monday I did a good power walk first thing. It’s a good job it was first thing as the day turned out to be a real scorcher and unseasonably humid. Then I was busy with jobs; banking, buying stamps, renewing our car insurance, supermarket shopping and cooking. There is a good system here for renewing car insurance. You receive a renewal notice from the insurer and you then visit your insurance agent who on the spot issues the new policy and issues your new road tax disc for another year.

Sam was on a low calorie chicken and leaves day so for dinner I made myself a roasted pork chop with home-made baked beans. I cooked tins of mixed beans with red onions, garlic, smoked paprika, chilli, sugar, ketchup and vinegar and they were brilliant. We will be having the left overs tomorrow with baby pork ribs which are happily marinating as we speak.

Tuesday Sam and I went to Mambo at Armier Bay for brunch – bruschettas and cappuccinos. That has become a favourite outing that we will keep going until the beach fills up with tourists. In the afternoon we finalised arrangements for our break in Gozo next week. There are loads of holiday properties there owned and rented out by Maltese people but somehow we have ended up with one owned by a guy who lives in New York! For dinner I made baby pork ribs which were fantastic - poached then marinated in BBQ sauce, honey, cider vinegar, ginger, cayenne, soy sauce and ketchup then roasted until brown and sticky - and I will post the recipe for them on my food blog. We had them with my left over home-made baked beans which Sam declared to be horrible and the worst dish I have ever made!

Wednesday we tried to get to Valletta to sort out our new ID cards. But due to road works the drive took 1 hour and 45 minutes instead of the usual 50 minutes and when we got there the big – and only – multi story car park was closed! We gave up and went to Sliema instead and had breakfast at Giorgio’s; eggs Benedict for me and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for Sam. Sam shopped in the M&S sale, so the morning wasn’t a complete loss.

I did a great power walk in the afternoon; the promenade is quiet again now that the music fans have gone home. For dinner we raided the freezer and had chilli con carne with sweetcorn and sweet potatoes.

Thursday was a day for jobs. I cleaned the car which was so thick with dirt I could have planted a crop on it instead. For dinner Sam had griddled chicken with leaves and I had a pepperoni, sweetcorn and BBQ sauce pizza which tasted a whole lot better than it sounds.

Friday I went to Sliema to do some shopping. Later on Tina called around for a coffee. We had another gale blowing today so all the tourist boats were cancelled again. Italian lessons have finished now so our Friday evenings are free again. We went to Miracles for a couple of beers then on to Sun City for fish and chips which were pretty good and still only €6.50.

Saturday the wind dropped at last! I hiked over to Xemxija and sat in the sun and had a fab cappuccino, then walked back again. In the evening we went for a drink at Gillieru then went for pizzas at Portobello, fantastic as always.

Sunday and guess what? Another gale arrived! The guy who runs the corner shop tells me he’s depressed. He’s never known such a long period of windy weather. Amongst other things, he sells boat tickets to the tourists and he keeps having to issue refunds. I bought a corn-fed chicken from our local butcher for dinner and it was delicious although I have to say it was a strange shape. It was as if it had been twisted 180° in the middle so the legs were at the front and the breasts at the back. We had it with oven chips.