September 2016 - Week 3

Monday 12th to Sunday 18th September 2016

Monday we had a clean-a-thon so now the flat is spotless. For dinner Sam had roasted veggies, chickpeas and tomatoes. I had fish fingers. That all sounds odd but basically we have run out of food! Tomorrow will be a supermarket run.

After dinner I went for a walk. But I didn’t get far because it was karaoke night at the St Pauls Hotel and the singing was so good I was drawn in. It soon became apparent that this was no ordinary run of the mill pub-type karaoke; oh no, this was a full on sound system with proper mikes and a real sound engineer.

The song that drew me in was the big hit from Phantom (“All I want is you”). Other show songs followed and it soon became clear; these were no ordinary pub singers. Anyway, once those semi-professional singers had finished we moved on to the more usual awfulness that is karaoke; a lot of Frankie and Elvis. But what quickly became apparent was that most of the singers were 50+ over-tanned men with tight fitting long sleeved shirts unbuttoned to the waist. And yes, they wore medallions! And ID bracelets. And, for the most part, their heads were shaved and polished brighter than a squaddies boot. This was karaoke at its best/worst; singing nearly in tune, phrasing not quite right, hip shaking just plain ridiculous. My Way, Love Me Tender, you name it. And the women were no better, albeit I have to admit even I clapped after one particularly rousing rendition of Viva Espania!

Suddenly I was joined at my table by a girl of about 15 with her grandmother (?) about my age. The girl said in English heavily accented with French, “May we join you, we don’t have much time. We go home tomorrow. Are you single? She would like to dance with you.” I am pleased to be able to report that I still know how to run. What’s more, I can run while shouting, “I am going home to my wife!” I suppose I should be flattered by the interest but, truth be known, I just found it all quite comical. In future I will keep walking and ignore the clarion call of karaoke.

Tuesday we tried Pama again. We previously gave up on it because as supermarkets go it was noisy, with slow checkouts and despite its vast size, the choice was limited. But it seems to have come on by leaps and bounds with a much better choice, an excellent health food section and it was quiet. Also, it is part of an ongoing retail park development, including what Sam describes as the best take away sushi she has found. So, for dinner she had sushi; I made myself some savoury rice with onions, peppers, celery, chilli, oregano, basil, thyme, salt, pepper, BBQ sauce and chicken stock and it was fantastic! Sam is doing her best to avoid carbs which means she is on a high protein diet. I’m the opposite; meat and chicken are fine but mostly I prefer a vegetarian diet full of fruit, vegetables, pulses, pasta and rice.

Wednesday we did lunch for a couple of Sam’s old college buddies who were visiting Malta on holiday. Sam made her usual yummy anti pasta and although we sat inside under the air conditioning to eat, we spent most of the rest of the time on the terrace. It’s still very hot but bearable now. For dinner Sam had left overs from lunch; I had savoury rice left over from the night before.

Thursday I made a vegetarian moussaka using lentils instead of minced lamb. I’ve never made moussaka before. It was delicious but I will make one change next time. Moussaka is topped with a béchamel and all the recipes I have read include a beaten egg in it. So that’s what I did but the result was – you’ve guessed it – a bit eggy! Next time I will just leave the egg out.

Although still humid, the evenings are much cooler now and I did a long walk after dinner, for about 1 ½ hours. There are still lots of tourists about but their age range has changed noticeably. In the height of the summer we get a mix of younger and older visitors; now they are mostly in their 50s and over.

Friday evening we met a bunch of friends for dinner in Rabat. The food was awful and the service even worse. There were 14 of us celebrating a friend’s birthday but it was a bit of a muted affair as her father-in-law had died the day before.

Saturday we met Sam’s college buddies – Bill and Julie – at their hotel for lunch. The food was pretty bad – pool side bar snacks – but the point was to spend a bit more time with old friends. Today was incredibly humid, the worst so far this year. The hotel was at least a half hour walk away so I took a change of shirt and just as well. On the way to the hotel we stopped at EatEtna where I had an absolutely superb cappuccino. In fact, it was so good I can declare that I have never had better and I cannot think of a thing I would change about it even if I could. The lady there bought me three complimentary homemade biscuits to try; Sam is sure she fancies me! I think I just get rewarded for making an effort to speak Italian whenever I go there, unlike most English visitors. For dinner we had pizzas and beer.

Sunday night we watched an amazing lightning storm across St Paul’s Bay. It was like some demented teenager was flicking the lights on and off as quickly as possible, but not quickly enough. The flashes came so thick and fast that we were almost returned to daylight. It lasted an hour or so but strangely enough, there was virtually no thunder.

For dinner I defrosted a portion of ratatouille, mixed it with cooked macaroni, smothered it in parmesan and baked it in the oven. Delicious! Sam defrosted a portion of kidney bean curry and had it with a baked sweet potato. We tend to end up with unlabelled single portions of leftovers in our freezer and they all look the same, so we never know what we are going to get!