May 2017 - Week 1

Monday 1st to Sunday 7th May 2017

Monday was May Day bank holiday. We went to an organic farm shop near Mgarr and wandered around their vineyards in the hot sun. We saw a spider, only the second since coming to Malta. A recent report concluded that on average farmers use twice the EU legal limit of pesticides on their crops here, so it’s not surprising you need to go to an organic farm to find bugs. We drove on to Chris and Tina’s; he’s recovering from surgery so is housebound for a couple of weeks. I went for a short walk after lunch but for some reason my heart wasn’t in it. For dinner I made a nut and vegetable biryani, which was fantastic. Sam had hers with salmon. She sure likes protein.

Tuesday I hiked the cliffs and headland between Golden Bay and Mgarr. It is one of my top three walks in Malta. It’s hard under foot now; the ground is caked dry and riven with haphazard cracks. I was congratulating myself on my good sense in wearing my stout hiking boots and using my trusty Leki stick when I was overtaken by a teenaged girl wearing nothing but a bikini and a pair of flip-flops. Make me feel old, why don’t you.

The spring flowers are wilting and shrivelling and look resigned to a waterless fate. Countless insects, wasps and bees teem around my ankles gathering the last of the nectar. It’s funny, but in England dogs want to bite you, wasps want to sting you and flies want to infuriate you but in Malta they all just ignore you and go about their business. It’s very much live and let live. Why is that? Why is everything in England such a battle (and don’t get me going on Brexit) where everyone is pressured to conform to a politically correct, health and safety madness, whereas in Europe differences are not just accepted but celebrated?

In our daily lives we talk to Italians and Bulgarians and French and Dutch and goodness knows who else and they don’t take themselves nearly so seriously as the English. And they seem an awful lot happier. Being European is part of their identity in a way it never has been for the Brits. Forget the politics for a moment; it seems to me that closing the door to Europe is like closing the door to a happier way of life. It really does seem that the UK has sacrificed happiness on the altar of independence.

For dinner we had left over biryani.

Wednesday we had tight deadlines so I couldn’t get out for a power walk until late afternoon. It was another completely cloudless day and it was hot, hot, hot! We have started to use our air conditioners in short blasts now. For dinner Sam cooked blackened chicken, baked sweet potatoes and sweetcorn.

Thursday Sam met Tina after her art class and went for her first swim of the year at Armier Bay. She claims it was warm enough but admits no one else was swimming! I went to Ghardira Beach for a walk and a cappuccino (of course) and did some shopping. One job I did for a client in the afternoon was to Photoshop out a former employee from a team photo! For dinner Sam had her usual salmon with broccoli and cauliflower and I had a pizza. After dinner I did a long power walk for over an hour. It was pretty hot work but I sat out on the terrace to cool down afterwards for ages, watching the world go by.

Friday we went for a walk long Ghardira Beach and had cappuccini at Maya Beach Café by the water’s edge. It was another scorching hot day with the air temperature hitting 32°C, so much higher than that in the sun. In the evening we went to Miracles and The George for drinks; a mini pub crawl! We had dinner at Surf and Turf again and it was excellent again. I had the same meal as last time – fried camembert, pork belly and chocolate tart with pistachio ice cream – and Sam had chicken liver pate followed by the pork belly. When we got home we sat on the terrace and there was a loud crunch as a car crashed into a bus on the road just below us. That blocked the road and in Malta you mustn’t move your crashed cars until a traffic warden comes to assess the scene. The road is one way so it was entertaining watching cars struggling to reverse or do U-turns or mount the pavements.

Saturday we went to Golden Bay for cappuccini, shopped at Scotts and I made a delicious chilli con carne for dinner.

Sunday we did chores (don’t you love housework?) and for dinner Sam cooked chicken and vegetable kebabs.