Malta 30th September

So here we are – back in Malta……and it’s great to be back. It was thankfully hot when Marisa, our friend in Malta, picked us up from the airport with her partner Josef around 2pm.  We went straight to Josef’s house for glass of wine and some Ftira bread (which is basically Maltese bread spread with Kunserva, a tomato paste, served with Gozo cheese. It’s delicious with tuna, olives, capers, anchovies and slices of potato.  A simple dish but very tasty…….so this speck of a rock is big enough to have culinary specialities and Ftira is principle among them and if served with a Cisk beer ….all the better!

Ftira can look like a pizza  when ordered on the Island of Gozo …both are delicious and a good healthy snack.

We got back to our little villa, unpacked and it was as though we hadn’t been gone! (OK…….it’s only 2 months but we missed it!). The skies get a bit cloudy, albeit white fluffy ones, and it gets dark by 7pm now….but hey, who cares.  In October they do have the possibility of rain and the next day at 3am in the night the thunderstorm came.  Loud thunder and sheet lightning that lit the whole sky- it was quite a spectacle and great to watch…….obviously with the noise, I was woke up with the heavy rain beating on the ceramic tiles in the courtyard. I was ‘wired up’ (I love a thunderstorm especially in the night) and I wanted a cup of tea!  Another thunderstorm came the next day too around 9pm in the evening (thankfully we had a lovely sunny day). It was a substantial amount of rain for the farmers as they really need it on this small island.  Spain and Italy are suffering too from lack of rain but the trouble is the ground is hard and when it rains heavily….the ground can’t absorb the amount of water and you get massive flooding and destruction!  

On Saturday night we all went out, John & I, Marisa and her daughter and boyfriend to watch Andrea and her band play in a bar in Sliema.  The band members were all here for the sax player’s wedding the next day and they thought a gig would be a nice welcome for their 40 guests (who hadn’t seen the band play, let alone the groom playing his saxaphone). Guests arrived from the UK but mainly from South Africa as it’s the birthplace of the bride).  We had a good evening jigging about to the music and free food and drinks from the management (who were big fans of Andrea)…so it was even better!  Sunday we got over our late night and went for a walk, we decided to chance the pending thunderstorm (the weather reports predicted a final one today) and pop into see some friends at their beach house and as we got outside the sea went black and a terrific storm hit us ferociously.  It was great to have such a clear view of the storm out at sea and we waited for it to pass with great company and a beer aswell!  It was still heavy rain when we decided to go, so our friend gave us a lift back to the villa.  It got sunny again after a couple of hours as in Malta weather passes quickly.  

John and I are swimming every day and trying to increase the lengths on a daily basis. We are so lucky to have this facility and are thankful every day.  Pools take a lot of looking after with adding chlorine and cleaning the debris from the bottom of the pool and John helps Marisa by getting all the dead mosquito’s out ….saying  “that’s another one who hasn’t got me”! They do love John and bite him like mad even though we have nets up at the windows and shut the door quickly when we are in and out from the pool area…..they don’t like me (thankfully)!  We are lucky in Malta that those pesky insects who feed on human blood don’t carry the parasite that causes malaria. On the whole mosquito’s from Europe are not harmful apart from people like John whose blood they love!! Gross.

On Tuesday, my daughter’s husband’s parents arrived from Milan, Italy.  Nina and Lino are staying one week and we took them out a few times and went for walks in the lovely sunshine. We have a car between us for 2 weeks to travel further afield.  We had a great week with lots of lovely pasta dishes for lunch and dinner and I made the puddings! It was funny trying to get Nina to say ‘pudding’ and ‘broom’ (when she wanted to sweep up)…we laughed so much.  The conversations got better throughout the week with John and I learning lots of Italian and with the help of the iPhone translation app….we chatted and chatted. (You speak into the phone and the translation is typed out and spoken in a very posh accent, some of the translation is hilarious).  When talking about the flies around the dinner  table, Nina spoke into her phone about the flies and it translated “the flies are big bother” and Lino’s interpretation was “they are the horns of the devil! We had a good laugh and lots of fun getting to know them better.  You can visibly see someone and get there personality from their eyes and smiling face but when someone speaks another language it is very difficult to “get them” and dig deep.   They are a special couple ……Nina being sweet and kind and ‘on the ball’ and Lino “quite a character” with charm, eccentricity and originality. Italians are so different from the Spanish, who are bound up by late nights of drinking and talking over beers and tapas…..but Italians have an international reputation for spontaneity and warmth – although not encounters with strangers. Small talk is formal with a fulfilment of an obligation, rather than a form of entertainment….. and when it’s time to eat….the conversation is always about food.  They love it and so do I.  We had the ‘last supper’ on Monday night where I cooked a favourite of mine (Fish Pie) and a good evening was had by all.  Lino used to wash up after dinner every night and jokingly said “I have never done so much washing up!” and my reply was “I have never made so many puddings (Dolce)”….we laughed and hugged and felt sad it was coming to an end.  Stefano and Andrea were also with us…..Andrea had not only come to Malta for a friend’s wedding but an operation.  She had become ill whilst over here in June and was “in their system” so decided to return to have the operation in Malta through EHIC regulations.  An operation, I might say, she has been waiting for in the UK for years!

Lino, Nina and John

We took Nina and Lino to Popeye village

Sunset at Popeye village

Walk by Mellieha coastline

Nina and Lino at Popeye village

Information about healthcare in Malta:
 Malta was ranked 5th in the world, for its health services standard, by the World Health Organization (WHO)2014 and it’s health care system closely resembles the British system, its former occupier (so it begs the question… what went wrong with the UK’s health system). Malta has excellent health care services with a modern infrastructure and modern equipment and well supported by a regional network of health centres.

All went well and we can confirm that the care was excellent and she came home from hospital in enough time to spend a few days with her in-laws (albeit in bed or a sunbed in the shade), so that was nice.  It will be a few weeks to entirely get better and for her to fly home….we are anticipating that she will return with us early in November. The villa seems quiet now without the chatter of Nina and Lino (although right at this moment, the neighbour is cultivating his Olive Grove and Marisa is having some drilling work done in her house…..so quiet – it isn’t!) HA!   So, apart from being exhausted changing into my nurse’s uniform, chef’s gear (that includes arranging a balanced diet menu and working out what wine to choose, swimming costume (that includes the putting on suncream and interspersing sunglasses with reading glasses………life is bloody good!  I cooked a cake for Marisa’s daughter’s (Pam) for her birthday – good ‘ol Mary Berry recipes.  I have made at least 7 of her pudding s/cakes since being here and every one of them turned out really nice. When home in UK- I think I will miss the beautiful evenings the most, where the temperatures are still around  22degrees.  The days seem long when you can prolong them and sit outside to eat and chat and although it is getting dark now around 6.30pm and apart from the mosquito’s biting – (not me but John) – it is a nice part of the world to be in.

Andrea joining us at the 'Last Supper'

Changing the subject, Malta’s international airport is implementing the necessary precautions in the eventuality that a passenger showing suspicious symptoms of the Ebola, is identified at the terminal.  Although Malta does not have any direct traffic from affected countries, the Airport is in talks with Port Health Services to assure that any training needs, emergency procedures and required resources are in place.  The news stated that EU health ministers met in Brussels to discuss the introduction of entry screening but experts are divided on the usefulness of it…..given the difficulty of determining whether an early symptom-like fever is due to Ebola or any other numerous ailments. Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days between infection and symptoms and the likelihood of someone getting sick between leaving Africa and arriving in Europe is relatively small.  We will see what happens in the UK….wake up government before it’s too late….it is all quite worrying.

I had some good news from home…. my granddaughter Ruby passed her 11plus and although I do not agree with the testing of children this age ……..I am pleased for her that she achieved this herself, and of course, with the help from her parents….(well done Stef & Pri).  Now they have umpteen schools to look at to choose the appropriate one for her! Will it be an all-girls school or mixed, will it be a Grammar school (if she can get a place) or an Academy (Academies are publicly funded independent schools that don’t have to follow the national curriculum and can set their own term times. They do still, however, have to follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as other state schools). It can be a nightmare as Ruby may choose one school and her mum and dad another ,although she is sensible and I know will choose the right one . Alas, I remember it well!

We arrived on the 30^th September and it is the 18^th October today so only a few weeks left to have some fun before we go back to the winter in the UK……give me sun any day!

 

 

Marisa and Nina say goodbye

 

Our little friend who visits us!

 

Nina made a heart in driftwood....first time! She did a good job.

 

This is the view where we park the car to go to supermarket

 

Lunch in St Pauls Bay

 

Sweet garden in the Nunnery! Looks green, cool and serene.

Lunch at St Pauls Bay

Nina's Driftwood heart she made.....good eh?

 

Pam on her birthday with aforementioned cake!

AHHHHHH

Cuenca, Spain 21st September 2014

 

After a 3 hour drive we arrived in Cuenca, to our little one bed apartment on the edge of town. The owners of the house run a massage clinic and it was superb.  We think it was converted from the garage of a little old house and made into 2 apartments and the renovation is second to none. It is fully equipped with all ‘mod cons’ and extra things like washing up liquid/cleaning materials etc. and groceries like fruit tea, Olive oil and salt/pepper and sugar. These little commodities matter when you are only staying for a few days and you don’t want to spend your time shopping!  The amazing bathroom had a Jacuzzi shower with jets sprouting out all over the place, which was different…with extras such as shower gel and loo paper…….what more could we want, I tell you, some tourist accommodation has nothing!.  There was no electric kettle though, which is strange but I guess that most people drink coffee and there were 2 coffee pots (and a microwave).  We were very happy with it and where it was situated, as you never really know when you are booking something online.

 

After settling in we walked around Cuenca (a very hilly town, as it is situated on the side of mountains)  to find our way around.  We were right on the edge of town in a great spot to visit this ancient 15^th century town.  Cuenca has the famous ‘hanging houses’ that hang over the edge of the mountains in the old city.  Most of them have been lost over the years to erosion. So much to see in a few days!!  The high bridge that is built from the old city to the other side of the river. It was both great and strange to walk across it.  Great for the magnificent views and strange as all along the bridge there were padlocks engraved with initials of loved ones.  How this started we don't know. Not sure what happens when you fall out of love...maybe they retrieve the key and toss the padlock over the bridge!!! We spent 3 days looking around the ancient city and naturally took loads of photographs.  Everywhere you looked was a magnificent building or view so we snapped away, as did a Chinese couple, who asked us if the ‘hanging houses’ were up the path we were walking.  “Yes” we said and we all got talking.  They stood no higher than 4ft 9”and were slight in build. They chatted away in perfect English as we all walked up the hill, joking and laughing.  They were staying in Sergovia and touring around in their car as they preferred to travel this way and not take the bus, as the lady told us, “you sit in a bus and you sleep, then you get off and you ‘pee pee’ and then you miss everything”.  They went on to tell us that they were 70 years old  (I might add …they were as spritely as can be) and the lady told me her husband  used to be a mountain climber and he retired 16 years ago. In further conversation (it was a long hill and they stuck to us like glue) they told us about their travels and how they saw all of China over a period of 5 years.  “That’s some going” we said, as it’s a big country!  They also told us they spent their honeymoon in Scotland, 43 years ago and they were upset that they wanted ‘Independence’, “Why was it so” the lady said and was very glad of the result.  Who’d a thought it that a Chinese couple, who now live in Singapore, wanted to talk to us about Scotland and how we feel about the result! As the Chinese lady left she whispered to John “my husband is the Minister of Finance and I am the Minister of Internal Affairs”!We came to a halt when we came to ‘Plaza Mayor’, a main square outside the Cathedral, to sit and have a coffee but as they were only in Cuenca for one whole day they wanted to move on.  Bless them, they were good fun! I might add that the local paper that we read at my brothers’ house devoted two whole pages to the Scottish issue….I guess it’s history in the making.  We went out in the evening, around 9pm, when all the restaurants come to life, to find a place to eat and it was funny that the little restaurant that we spotted up a quaint little side street, stated on a board outside, that they were English speaking, a bonus we thought, as we had previously struggled to talk to the owner of our  apartment  and to the shop keepers. They didn’t speak English, and of course…why should they.  We were in Spain and it is us who should speak Spanish.  We struggled to say “sin carne- no meat’ for me and “carne” for John.  We waited with baited breath to see if we ordered well……we did!  The whole meal came to 23 Euro’s including a full bottle of good Rosado wine.  It’s certainly cheap to eat out!

The hanging houses

 

The high bridge that crosses from the old town to the new

 

The Chinese lady we chatted to

 

The padlocks that were all along the bridge

 

 

Although we had booked 4 nights in Cuenca by the third day we had seen the old city and we decided to leave one day earlier and arrive one day earlier in La Mata.  (It's so easy to change bookings with 'booking.com' as long as you do it 24 hrs before....there is usually no charge for this).

 

Our trip to La Mata  (Wed 24th Sept)

It was 17 degrees when we left Cuenca and overcast and raining but it was 30 degrees when we arrived in La Mata. The journey from Cuenca was bursting with views of fields and fields of sunflowers, grapevines and wheat then around 60K before you get to Alicante, mountains are everywhere you look in the distance - all different with different colours.  They are an amazing sight, some covered in pine trees, so very green and some just plain old rock!

We got settled in our little bungalow at our Beach club in La Mata, overlooking the sea and realised we were close to a restaurant that we had visited 2 years ago….the last time we were in Spain.  The bungalow was spacious with a living room/bedroom and a large bathroom.  It was bliss after a busy 3 days in Cuenca to have had a lovely meal, shower and watch TV in bed! 
The next day we woke up to thunder and rain but after coffee and croissant in the breakfast room the sun came out and it was time to take a walk along the beach and paths that were about 10K in length, although we only walked about 5K. You can walk to Torrevieja one way and towards Guardamar de Segura the other way...along a beautiful sandy beach.  La Mata is a quiet little town, with a large square for fiesta’s and general meeting place especially in the evening, when it’s cooler, for folks to walk and talk.  After our walk we lazed around as our Cuenca trip had been ‘full on’ and because our bungalow is literally on the beach it’s lovely to just walk out and relax and read. Although very hot,  the prevailing warm wind helped to cool you down.  We had Wi-fi too, as we needed to get online to book a hotel in Toledo, which we drove to on Sunday as we now had an extra day to stay overnight there....before driving into Madrid for one night and catching an early plane to Malta.   

 Eating out in La Mata is great as there are, of course, plenty of fish restaurants but one restaurant’s menu had it all.  Local fish dishes, like Dorado,  Tex Mex dishes, Indian food, Fish & Chips and Pizza…..and more!  The staff are Asian and really lovely, the front of house young lady is kissed by everyone who arrives (who obviously know her) - she is beautiful, friendly and speaks many languages.  She tells me the restaurant is open all year round, as I would expect, as the prices are reasonable and overlooking the sea…..what else would you want.  I forgot to mention that you get complimentary strawberry ice-cream as well as brandy or bailey’s  with the bill.........mmmmmm!  It’s a stone’s throw from our bungalow too….which is handy as we were tired and ready to catch up with world news ….in bed!   We have been watching the UN conference in New York.  It is about time we took a firm hand with the situation in the middle east…..but I fear it’s too late.  Sad news about hostages and killings – I think it is dangerous to go anywhere near these places unfortunately. 

The next day we had a lazy morning in the sunshine and met my brother and his wife in Torrevieja for a goodbye drink....as we were leaving for Toledo on Sunday morning. The weather in the afternoon changed and we had thunderstorms the rest of the day and the day after. 

I am looking forward to seeing ‘Toledo’ as the whole town was made a World Heritage Site in 1986 because of it’s “extensive cultural and monumental heritage and historical co-existence of Christians, Muslim and Jewish cultures……I think we all could learn a lot from them! Tolado has been populated since the Bronze Age and El Greco, ended his life there so must see some of his art work!  Tolado is about 60K south of Madrid.

So it's back on the road to Toledo 

Our trip to Spain 16th September

 

We flew to Spain on the 16^th September, stayed overnight in a hostel and onto see my brothers in La Murada (about a 40 minute drive from Alicante airport.  Their house is amazing and it’s always great to see what they have built and added to their outside space since we were last there a year ago.  They are both very artistic and they had arranged for us to go to a Pottery class the morning of John’s 68^th birthday (18^th Sept).  We got there and were duly introduced to everybody and the teacher Caran.  She was an English Sculptress and Art teacher of note and her work around the workshop was amazing.…..by this time I was getting nervous and so was John.  We had discussed the night before, about what we were possibly going to make.  Something small but useful as I love objects made of pottery around the house.  Caran asked us what we wanted to do and we asked her “what was possible for us to make in a class lasting 3 hours”.  She presented us with our clay and discussed firstly with John what he was going to make and then me. So we had an idea and was presented with utensils and objects to use to engrave and make our pottery pieces. Everyone around us, including my brother and his wife, were busily continuing to build up their sculptures and pottery pieces bit by bit……all very amazing stuff.  I felt sick at this point, thinking and justifying that we all have to start somewhere. I chose to make a fruit bowl or object for decorative purposes and John chose to make a name plaque for our bungalow.   So we were ready to start!  Caran explained the rudiments of how to get started and we cut and rolled our Terra Cotta clay.  (There are different colours of clay white or terra cotta brown or grey). It depended on what you were going to make and what colours you wanted to use to glaze it.  Anyway, I knew I wanted vibrant colours like Red or Orange and John decided to ‘play it by ear’! He was busily carving out the name of our bungalow onto his piece of clay and it was looking amazing and I was tearing off strips to press over an arc that was going to be used to create my bowl.  Caran explained to us (again) that she had various objects to make an indentation or design on the clay to make it decorative.  They could be made by plastic rollers, leaves and natural products or even lace (you press the lace or leaf onto the clay and roller over it to make the pattern).  I chose various different leaves that I collected from her garden and some lace). So I duly pressed my leaves into the clay and lace cloth, which made an awesome pattern and then laid these strips of clay onto the arc – leaving holes here and there to add to the design.  This was going to be a masterpiece and by now I was very excited to see the finished object .  Once biscuit baked in her oven (usually by the following week) it was then painted or varnished or glazed, which of course, we couldn’t do.  We chose our colours and duly asked my brother and his wife (Tony and Barbara) to finish our pieces on their subsequent visits.  They would then bring our pottery to the UK on their next visit. (It was a shame that we couldn’t paint them as we were going to be a 300K drive away in Cuenca the following week). Cuenca is a very old town where my brother had visited and somewhere John had always wanted to go.  

John carving the plaque

 

Tony and Barbara discussing their work!

Some of Carans' work

 

Official birthday picture taken in the garden of my brothers house

 

 After the pottery class we went to  lunch to celebrate John’s birthday. It was a set three course meal consisting of a 2 big plates of Ensalada (tuna salad) that we shared followed by meat with vegetables or fish and vegetables followed by a sweet and coffee and that included Sangria as well for 10 euros a head.  Wow! A beautiful meal which afterwards  said “I’m never going to eat again!”  It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon with the birthday ‘boy’ and Tony and Barbara .  Back for a siesta (John) and a good read (me) in the calmness of their beautiful garden….I think it’s fair to say that John (and I), had a memorable birthday. 

 

Tony and John

 

The next day we lazed around swimming in their pool and in the evening we went to the ‘Moroccan tea rooms’ that one of their friends had told them about at Pottery class.  It was set in a Moorish house of some distinction and the gardens were lush and green.  We set off with menial directions pencilled on a piece of paper and drove along the canal by my brothers’ house in the outback of Spain to find the tea rooms.  The directions were ‘spot on’ and we found this amazing building and gardens without losing our way.  ‘Carmen del Campello’ was an oasis in the middle of nowhere! The Moorish house had been added to but was very old. We arrived around 6pm as my brother was told that it looks spectacular once it started to get dark, as candles and lanterns, were placed strategically, each side of steps, pathways and in trees and shrubs, to light the way.  Men in Moroccan dress served you tea with Moroccan cakes steeped in honey and sesame seeds, dates and figs, all very sickly, but nice! The music was playing and there were peacocks everywhere in the grounds and on top of the roofs, squawking and flying to the tops of the trees. A very different experience and well worth a visit again.  My brother reckons that ‘it was an illegal place’ as the man on the exit gate, where you paid ‘the bill’,  had very baggy trousers to put the money in and there was no receipt, therefore no VAT etc.  Anyway, we had a good laugh and sang ‘baggy trousers’ by  ‘Madness’ as we left and drove home in the moonlight.  It was only 9pm, when we arrived in the local town (La Murada) and as we were all a bit peckish….having only eaten cakes…….we had an Indian meal in the village….. another wonderful day. 

 

 

My brother and his wife outside the entrance to the gardens

 

The pathway leading to the entrance to the tea house

The outside sitting areas around

 

The sticky cakes

 

Jackie sitting on the cushions

 

 

 

A bowl of lemons.....simple but very effective

 

A shot of part of the gardens

 

  Barbara inside one of the rooms where they light the fires when cold in the winter!

 

The next day was the last one with my brother so after John and I helped my brother with an engineering  extravaganza ( a large frame to grow his Jasmin and Honeysuckle climbing plants up against ), John and I ventured into the local town for a couple  of hours to look around and have a coffee (or in John’s case, an ice-cream as well!).  We headed back to Tony & Barbara’s late afternoon for our last supper before we left in the morning…..and what a supper it was.  Fish Paella, cooked the traditional way,  that cooked for an hour on their BBQ…….it was delicious.  ( I have the recipe!).  We left the next morning for a 3 hour drive to Cuenca.

 

 

The fish paella

 

Mullered!

Back from Malta

July 13th 2014

 

It was difficult leaving Malta….it  was a really memorable  trip, as any holiday is, but it went on and on for 3 months and I liked the serendipitous quality of the trip…..not too much planning only asking for dates that friends were arriving – asking them what they wanted out of their break, for example,  sightseeing or beach or just lazing around with good food and wine.  In the early weeks the weather was much cooler with daylight ending around 5pm, so we set off for the day to see more of the south of the island, as we pretty much knew the north area, or so we thought.  About a week before we left we uncovered St Paul’s Bay because the road to St Paul’s Bay horseshoed off the only road to take you away from the north and we kept saying “we must drive up that way” but never did until a couple of weeks before we left.  We had a request from a guy we met at a beach bar to come to his new restaurant/bar venture to have a drink….which we did.  We had found a beautiful bay that we would like to see more of, which we will next time we go. Malta is full of hidden gems and although I prefer the drive around the coastline….inland there are some beautiful villages that are totally unspoilt.

Upon arriving home to Kent we were pleasantly surprised when we saw the garden, although overgrown, it wasn’t too bad.  So the next couple of days we spent clearing the weeds, mowing the grass and cleaning the cobwebs from the house. Luckily we had come home to good weather. The next thing we had to tackle was the floor in our lounge and hallway, as before we went to Malta we had a leak from the tap in the bathroom that flooded our wooden floors……it had been leaking for nearly two hours! The day after the leak, the hallway floor and part of our lounge floor had swollen and lifted so we knew we had to renew the whole area.  It’s all been done now which was an epic task as we had to move all the furniture out of the lounge area and box up all the books and knick- knacks into other rooms. The washing machine had also been leaking so we replaced that too!  The car didn’t pass its MOT…..so I guess that’s the third thing to happen and hopefully the last! That’s life!!  We took a lackadaisical approach to all this work……..I think our 3 month trip did us the world of good.

Rip off Britain comes to mind when I think of Malta.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the UK, in so many ways as it offers such diversity like Snowdonia Mountain in Wales and the lush green open spaces of the West Country (including the historic Jurassic coastline and distinctive coastline and villages of Devon and Cornwall …..that I know so well).  The North of England  (like Cumbria and Scotland and it’s Islands, that I don’t know so well and it’s cold up there!!).  I plan to visit beautiful Ireland - as I have only been to Dublin (shame on me…having got Irish connections!).  Malta doesn’t offer any of that, although the coastline, being a small island, is stunningly beautiful (jagged, rocky and unique, it surrounds you everywhere you travel.  Malta is not noted for its beaches and the sea is usually calm and serene but the sea has always called me!  There are other places in the world I would like to see but if for some reason, I couldn’t - I would be more than happy to have spent a few months in Malta.

It’s great having free time to explore and be ‘be selfish’ in a free society like Malta …we can move about  Europe  so easily and we want to and will explore more of Spain.  Which leads me nicely to ‘Our trip to Spain’