July - Week 1

Back to normal!

Friday 1st to Sunday 10th July 2016

Friday we stayed in working, apart from my power walk first thing. For dinner Sam had left over anti pasta and I had a goats’ cheese and vegetable flatbread.

Saturday we went to The Apple’s Eye at Golden Bay for cappuccinos, then to Steven’s to buy fruit and veg. Steven's is a small shop just a few blocks away from us and the quality of its produce is excellent. In the afternoon our landlady popped in for a few minutes with a plumber who needed to fix a water tank on our roof. Other than that it was too hot to go outside!

In the evening we went to the Wood Hut pub then Cheeky Monkey for drinks. We then met friends at Garam Masala in Qawra – there were nine of us in all. The restaurant was almost full so there was a good atmosphere and we had a fun time. The women were quite rowdy at times! The food was good too, except for awful papadums. I had a chicken tikka biryani, Sam had butter chicken and both were very good and we had excellent naan breads. The others had various dishes and seemed to like them all. We didn’t have starters or desserts and none of us drank very much but still the bill was €27 each which seemed pricey. But given that the food was good, we will go again.

On the way home we paused at Congusto for amazing ice creams.

Sunday we chilled. For dinner we defrosted some chilli con carne and had that with baked sweet potatoes and roasted ordinary potatoes.

Monday we went to Sliema for a business meeting. More importantly, I bought a new pair of shoes! For dinner we had roast chicken and roast vegetables. On my after dinner walk I came across Dave and Sue sitting on a pub terrace playing guitar and singing. I hadn’t seen them for ages so joined them for a while and caught up on local gossip.

Tuesday I cooked a pork vindaloo in our slow cooker using shop bought ingredients. It was excellent, and I will put the recipe on my food blog.

Wednesday after lunch I went to Eurosport in Birkikara to buy flip flops, then went to Homemate to buy a soundbar. We now have proper sound from our TV! For dinner we ate left over pork vindaloo.

Thursday afternoon we went to Naxxar. While Sam went to see her physio, I visited the excellent wine merchant there. We had a wander around the gardens at Palazzo Parisio. The bougainvillea that cloaks the walls there is in bloom and the marmalade trees are heavy with fruit, mostly still green. As usual we had the gardens to ourselves but even in the shade of the trees it was still hot so we didn’t linger. For dinner I made a Puy lentil chilli lasagne which was excellent.

Friday we decided to go for a swim at Ghardira Bay. So we lashed on the sun cream, packed up the car and drove over there only to find nowhere to park! We gave up and went for cappuccinos at Xemxija Café instead. Sam was disappointed but if you ask me, it was a bit of a result. For dinner we had left over Puy lentil chilli lasagne.

Saturday morning we went to an Irish bar come café for breakfast which is just a few blocks away. Believe it or not, it is called Bouncy Castle! We shopped for fruit and veg at Steve’s. He hauls in the fruit and veg and his mother works the till. They sell excellent quality produce and it is popular with locals. It’s water melon season and Steve was straining with the weight of them. His mother explained he has to be careful as he had a kidney transplant last year and she was the donor.

In the evening we went for a beer at O’Reilly’s then went on to newly reopened Al Sultan. We had our usual mix of Lebanese meze and it was excellent. We were the only two diners though, not good for a Saturday night, but hopefully their business will pick up. Sam went straight home with an iffy tummy; I went to Sotto Zero for delicious ice cream.

Sunday we had an exhausting day watching sports – the Wimbledon and Euro 16 finals. For dinner we had pizzas.