April 2017 - Week 2

Monday 10th to Sunday 16th April 2017

Monday I did my power walk mid-afternoon but it is borderline too hot for that now. Tents and barriers are being set up in Café del Mar’s car park in preparation for Easter’s music festival. For dinner we had roast chicken with spicy wedges.

Tuesday we went to renew our car insurance and road tax, and discovered I had a speeding fine from 20th September last year! Apparently I got caught by a speed camera near the airport. Fortunately they don’t have a penalty points system in Malta.

We went on to Naxxar for a wander around. The gardens at the Palazzo Parisio are a mass of colour this time of year and the air is heavy with musk from the marmalade orange blossom. We went on to The Loft, an upmarket interiors store with a classy café to match. Naxxar has more than its fair share of high end shops, an impressive church, some imposing buildings and, by Malta standards, it’s clean and well cared for. In the afternoon the landlady called around with some workmen to put up a cupboard at an outside corner of our terrace to block the view from a neighbour’s new balcony. For dinner we had a great vegetable curry. I’ll put the recipe on my food blog.

Wednesday was pretty full on with work. I went for a walk before dinner. The streets and bars are full of noisy teenagers having fun at the Easter music festival. For dinner I made a lasagne with our left over vegetable curry which was better than it sounds; very good in fact. Sam thought that was too fattening so she baked some tandoori chicken.

Thursday I hiked over to Xemxija and back while Sam was at art class. The roads were busy as people were getting a head start on the Easter weekend, heading off to Gozo. Apparently that was a pain as one of the ferries had broken down. For dinner I made chilli con carne, still a firm favourite.

Friday we took the day off; in fact, we plan to take the whole Easter weekend off. I went for a walk around town and stopped at Sotto Zero for chocolate ice cream, which was only average on this occasion.

In the evening we had a drink at Botteghino Café Bar in the square, people watching. And there were some pretty strange and awful sights too. I don’t think I emphasise with the style choices of most 20 year olds! For dinner we went to the New Madras Indian and it was very good, apart from the papadums. I had chicken tikka Madras with a pishwari naan and Sam had a lamb coconut Madras with a plain naan. We’ll certainly be going back again soon.

Saturday the traffic was terrible as every man and his cat seemed to be driving to Gozo. We abandoned our plans to go to Armier Bay and went to Golden Bay instead. The beach there was busy with tourists. For dinner we had left over chilli con carne.

Sunday I went for a stroll, had a cappuccino at the Donut Factory and checked out the tourist boats that visit Comino, the Blue Lagoon and Gozo. They are all docked at the breakwater now – Triton Cruises, the glass bottom catamaran, Seahorse and Hornblower. In addition, Supreme Cruises and Captain Morgan call in on their way from Sliema. It’s all go! For dinner Sam made stuffed peppers with feta.