February 2018 - Week 4

Monday 19th to Monday 26th February 2018

Monday we went to the Post Office to deliver a mail redirect form. We queued for 30 minutes and then it took 20 minutes for the guy to process our form. God preserve us. We had cappuccini at Clara May then went to Scotts, almost certainly for the last time. After lunch I did an excellent 5km power walk. For dinner Sam had lamb chops with chips for a change; I had fish fingers and chips.

Tuesday I dropped Sam off in Mosta so she could have a farewell cappuccino with Leslie. I drove on to Drew’s for a final haircut. From there I drove to Golden Bay. The police were out in force there, some 15 to 20 of them, with a big tent on the beach. I have no idea what that was about and I probably don’t want to know. I couldn’t get to the café because of the police restrictions but I did a (last) walk around the headland. It really is just about the most beautiful area of Malta. I have walked the headlands and cliffs around there umpteen times and I will miss them greatly. There is a marked contrast there between the rusty brown of the cliffs and the green of the land and the blues of the sky and sea that stand out like no other place here. For dinner I cooked belly pork in our slow cooker with BBQ sauce and balsamic which we had with chips and baked beans.

Wednesday I took some stuff to our local charity shop. There are a few charity shops dotted about Malta, and they are just the ones we know about. Strangely, they all support animal charities; I guess humans don’t matter! Sadly our Spanish teacher had to cancel our final lesson at the last minute because of some medical issue. Sam met Pauline for lunch for another goodbye.

In the evening we went to Miracles for a couple of drinks. Will this be our last visit there? I don’t know for sure. It was nice that we were served by Nicoletta. She arrived in Malta pretty much the same time as we did and has worked at Miracles ever since. All the other regulars we came to know have left. Miracles has been a firm favourite of ours so it was good to finish with a familiar and friendly face. For dinner we went for pizzas at Damianos, pretty darn tasty!

Thursday I did a final visit to Pama supermarket. It wasn’t exactly on my bucket list but I have to say that as supermarkets go it is pretty good, especially the quality and choice of its fruit and veg which makes up the bulk of our weekly shopping. After lunch I went for a good power walk. It was quite hot out but at least there weren’t many annoying tourists clogging up the promenade. For dinner we had a roasted corn-fed chicken with baked sweet potatoes and sweetcorn.

Friday was a bit sad because I took our car to the local garage that is buying it. Being Maltese they paid me in cash. So, we are car-less again but rolling in readies! The rest of the day we worked hard cleaning and packing. We had intended to go to Valletta for dinner but thunderstorms were rolling in all day so we gave that a miss. Sam got stressed about all that needs to be done so I went to our local butcher and bought her a 450g rib eye steak for her dinner. That calmed her down! I had a pizza.

Saturday we worked hard packing boxes and cleaning. It was warm and sunny so we sat outside on the terrace for our coffee and lunch breaks. I did my usual power walk. The shipwreck by Café del Mar is still there and there don’t seem to be any efforts under way to salvage it. For dinner I made a cauldron of chilli that should last us tomorrow as well.

Sunday we had hoped to get out for a stroll and some coffee but there was just too much to do! So, apart from nipping to the minimarket for essentials, we spent the whole day packing and cleaning again. Anyway, it’s all but finished and all the boxes should get collected at noon tomorrow. For dinner we had left over chili con carne with rice.

Monday was something of a special day because it was the last day of my Malta blog. Our internet connection will be cancelled on Tuesday. I have decided to start a new blog to mark our move to Spain so, ALL OF YOU READERS OUT THERE, you need to bookmark my new blog link which is https://ke8056.wixsite.com/holaespana.

My Malta blog turned out to be mainly a food diary but I intend my Spain blog to be more diverse than that. It is astonishing to think that we have been in Malta for 3 ½ years and, apart from a few crappy meals, it has been a great 3 ½ years. I remember the mouth-watering pasta dishes at Lovage, amazing pistachio-stuffed burrata at Terrone, the divine wild salmon at Trabuxu, the stonkingly good tomato pasta at Tarragon, beautiful pork belly at Surf and Turf and delicious vegetarian banquet at The Blue Elephant, to name but a few. Sam would probably have a different list. I think the braised rabbit in Gozo will stay fresh in her mind forever. Malta has meant one hundred and one things to us but, for now, I’ll leave you with the food memories. And what of the foods we have prepared at home? The highlights have undoubtedly been the fantastic fruits and vegetables and I have truly had my eyes opened to what a difference consistently superb quality can make. If I didn’t like chicken and pork so much I could easily have become a vegetarian in Malta!

Today all of our boxes were picked up by our removal company. They will store them until we can give them an address in Spain to send them to. After they left we noticed the acoustics had changed in our apartment; everything was suddenly sharper and louder. I walked to our local shop but that was all I managed as rain showers passed by intermittently, like buses on a country route. But later in the afternoon it cleared up and I managed a walk across to Qawra where I had a cappuccino at Clara May which has been a regular haunt for the last three years. I must say that doing all of these things “for the last time” has made me a bit maudlin. As much as we are excited about going to Spain there is a great deal I love about Malta and much that I will miss. I wouldn’t be sorry to come back here for a month or two (or three) next winter. Sam is less keen but there is no doubt that we both have a store cupboard full of fond memories of our time here.

For dinner we had pizzas, again. Well, we do have to clear our freezer.

So this is it. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being part of our Malta adventure. And please join me (us) on our next adventure in Spain – here is the link: https://ke8056.wixsite.com/holaespana.