August 2017 - Week 5

Monday 28th to Thursday 31st August 2017

Monday Sam went for a swim with Tina. I went for a short walk to the high street and had an excellent cappuccino at the Donut Factory. If only they could make decent donuts! For dinner we had spaghettini with a spicy tomato, tuna and olive sauce.

Tuesday we went to Shafa, a Persian restaurant in Xemxija for the first time with Chris and Tina. As always with them we had a fun time. When we arrived the Maitre D’ told us they don’t serve alcohol so Chris and I went to the nearby minimarket to buy some wine. Part way through the meal Chris nipped to the loo and caught the Maitre D’ and the waitress on the stairs doing a Boris Becker! The food was mostly rubbish. We had a mixed salad with feta cheese to start which was fresh but dressed with balsamic which is not very Persian. For our mains we had vegetable kebabs and lamb kebabs with rice. We had to send the whole lot back as it was cold. When it returned it was a bit warmer but all pretty tasteless. The vegetable kebabs were charred on the outside but raw in the middle and they hadn’t been seasoned. The lamb kebabs were just fairly tasteless minced lamb. We also had some sort of stew which seemed to be mainly chickpeas in a tomato broth. It was barely okay. I had a slice of chocolate cake for dessert which wasn’t particularly notable but was nevertheless the highlight of the meal! And it was all overpriced at €25 each not including drinks.

Wednesday we went to Pama and, yippee, they had water back in stock. So we used our vouchers to pick up 108 litres of free water! For dinner we had a whole chicken smeared with my Gaucho beef rub served with baked potatoes.

The entrance to our building is at the head of a minor T-junction. And at that junction there is a bar/restaurant called the 23 New Steps on account of the 23 steps that lead up to it from the road below. There is an English fellow aged about 80 who lives up the road and every morning he comes down to sit either on the wall at the top of the steps or at a table outside the bar. His name is George and he is something of a minor local celebrity. He sits there all day – every day – saying hello to everyone who passes. He gives tourists directions and chats to locals and expats and seems quite content. He usually goes home at about 5ish. He has a reserved parking space outside his house and a disabled badge in his car and we think his wife is fairly housebound. We never see her. Anyway, he seems to live a rather odd life and we often wonder how that came to be.

Tonight I went for a walk after dinner at about 10 o’clock and George was still at the bar which was very unusual. He was slumped in his chair and looked none too good. I remarked to him that he was up late and he only grunted. At that moment the barmaid came out and told him not to move until he felt better. When I finished my walk at about 10.40 he was still there.

I’m not quite sure why I am telling this story except to illustrate the effect of our climate on the way people live here. Because it is hot and dry here, the outdoors becomes part of peoples living space in a way it rarely does in cooler places. George may not be typical but he does somehow represent the way we embrace the outdoors, not as an exception but as an everyday extension of where we live. On my walk tonight I passed many houses with their front doors wide open showing the people within watching TV. Most flats have balconies and people are outside, sat on their balconies chatting, or daydreaming or on the phone or whatever. The streets are busy with people milling about and we are all happy to say hello or pass the time of day. There is a background noise of TVs and music and talking. We don’t get to know our neighbours well – we are a diverse lot – but I do feel part of the community even if not immersed in it - simply because our warm weather brings us outside together.

Thursday Sam went for a hair do at 5pm so I met her afterwards for a drink or two in the Square. On the way home we stopped off at Sotto Zero to buy peanut butter and bounty ice creams for our dessert. For dinner I made a beef curry which turned out to be the most tasteless curry I have ever made. I don’t understand it as it was packed full of turmeric, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, fenugreek and chilli!