June 2016 - Week 5

Malta's idea of a bad weather forecast!

Monday 27th to Thursday 30th June 2016

Monday I dropped Sam off at her friend Tina’s first thing, then drove on to Sliema for a business meeting. In the evening I went to Bayside down on the waterfront and sat on their terrace in the shade, enjoying a gentle breeze, sipping a glass of Sangria and reading my Kindle. Very civilised. For dinner I made myself a baked pasta dish; penne with left over chilli con carne, all covered in parmesan. It was great!

Sam had a nice day at Tina’s and even got fed dinner! That’s a first. She and Chris have come to ours several times for lunch and dinner but we have only ever been invited to theirs once, for lunch last year. Go figure!

Tuesday I did our tax return! Oh joy. We went to Scotts in the afternoon to stock up as tomorrow is a big annual holiday here – the feast of St Peter and St Paul. Apart from tourist outlets, everything pretty much shuts down. The celebrations started today with serious firework displays; we could feel the ground shake from the Gozo fireworks. For dinner Sam cooked pan fried chicken breast goujons with herbs which she served with vegetable kebabs and corn on the cob.

Wednesday morning Sam went with some girl friends to Armier Bay to sunbathe. I can’t imagine anything worse! Today was a big public holiday so apart from my usual power walk first thing, I did as little as possible. For dinner I cooked BBQ pork spare ribs – fantastic as always.

Thursday we had a friend and her husband around for lunch. They are from the IOM and have been holidaying in Gozo for a few days and now have a few days more in Sliema. We picked them up from the ferry and brought them back to the flat. Sam made her anti pasta special. We then dropped them at their hotel in Sliema. Chalk up another couple who love Malta! For dinner we tried a newly opened Spanish restaurant called Bla Bla for tapas and paella. It wasn’t fine dining and the paella was more like a simple savoury rice dish made with short grain rice than a traditional paella, but it was great value for money and we will certainly try it again for a cheap night out. We stopped at Congusto for ice creams on the way home.