Malteasers

That is the official residency of Chris and I with our ID cards and we can vote here also now! hooray!
Only don't ask to see my card as on the day we registered (last week) we had a photo taken. Today they decided to take another and use that instead, the ONE day I am not wearing make up! typical!
They have a 70% vote turnout here, that rivals the UKs...the UKs voting rate on X factor that is 'cos too many people don't vote there!

To celebrate I think Chris and I shall have Maltese wine and some victoria sponge, the perfect marraige of Malta and the UK :)

It means I get the bus cheaper too, things like subscriptions: TV, mobile phone etc they are all cheaper with the ID card.

Storm again today, the full works, have had 3 in the less than three weeks i have been here. Go in the streets and you are ankle deep in water, on the roads anyway, 30 minutes later it is sunny again.

Chris and I watched "Never mind the buzzcocks" last night, just bits like that you miss, the good old British humour. Not sure I am desperate enough to watch Eastenders just yet!

Went to Gozo yesterday, the beautiful scenery was somewhat spoilt by a German lady who was heckling me everywhere i turned because i dared to sit next to her on a packed bus and she would not have enough room to keep adjusting her shawl if i sat next to her....crazy woman, less said about her the better.

It was a lovely place, seemed a bit more arable than Malta, they have a lot of sheep in Gozo, maybe it is the welsh equivalent! Heard a lot of good things of the Gozo cheese. It was dare i say it quaint (i hate using that word it is so demeaning!) and it was boring. Boring but pretty! Apparently it is fairly customary for middle class people in Malta to rent out a farmhouse in the summer over there with a few other couples and have a chilled out stay.

Here are the pictures (of Gozo, not crazy person)

The Particular happiness of lemon cake

It starts to feel like home when i do some baking and today I decided to treat Chris to one of his favourite cakes, lemon and poppy seed, the jamie oliver recipe. its in the oven now.

still getting used to the lack of manners some people seem to have here, pushing my way to the front of the bus queue as i was infact at the beginning of said queue only everyone decided to ignore this and try and rush on. Hana 1- 0 crowd. Bought myself a new pair of trainers, am excited to begin my running along the promenade, excercise always creates a bit of positivity to the body and mind. I want TV!. I am of the tiny school of thought that thinks TV is actually very good for you and educational!! Most disagree. We will sort it soon enough. Have heard most things are cheaper and quicker when you have an ID card, we are waiting for ours to be processed, should be with us at end of this week I hope.

Not too much more to report. Chris and I had a good weekend.
We decided to pick up the little bits we did not have: a grater for cheese and veg, some small bins for the bathroom and some other decorations such as plants, garden furniture (for our balcony) and the all important coffee maker. We headed to the area where the where a couple of homeware shops. One was awful, it was like a pound shop and was absolutely packed. We picked up a couple of bits there but favoured the other shop which was more upmarket with better choice and not even much more expensive. We picked up some stuff there to make the apartment all the more practical and pretty!
We went to the Notte Bianco festival in Valetta on the Saturday night, which led to a dangerous taxi ride home. Some of the drivers here..... Some shops stayed open late so we had a browse, lots of galleries and museums were free admission. Chris and I went to the Maltese museum of Archaelogy. It was fairly interesting, we got to see the fat ladies of Malta


It was overcrowded, there were thousands in the streets. It was not as slickly managed as an event in the UK (no I am not being sarcastic!) but that is the beauty of Malta. As I say the taxi ride home was terrible, poor Chris did not have a seatbelt. At one stage we were on wrong side of road heading for another car. Needless to say there was a lot of beeping going on. The driver was a bit worse than we have seen in general on the roads here, but not too much!!

On the Sunday we went for a drive to get our bearings. We dropped into a garden centre. Got some ideas but forgot to bring Euros out with us so will be back another time for some citrus trees :) that will mean more lemon cake!

Missing home?

Not really missing UK too much, missing the people i.e family and friends. There are a few things I do miss these are:

The Greenery- England is a lovely lush place, here it is dry and when you see soil you can tell it is not very fertile just by sight. There are palm and olive trees about but not much grass at all, in fact Im not sure I have seen any grass yet!

The food- now I am a bit naughty in saying this because so far at every restaurant I have been to, and I have been to about six or seven here now, they are really tasty. However when you go to the supermarkets, I have found a few now, mainly in Sliema, there is not much choice and it does not always look to be the best quality. Having said that there are a lot of french food products here and of course Italian.
Meat, fish and dairy are cheaper though and you can get some juicy prawns out here for next to nothing.

The people- yes us Brits are a bit less warm than people over here, but we know how to queue. Enough said!

Thats about all I miss, you really do realise though what a plentiful array of commercial goods the UK has (im sure most is imported but still) so clothes, household goods, food, just seems that bit more expensive for less.

Malta does have the pleasant climate which will at some point bronze me, beautiful bays, splendid restaurants and much more relaxed feel to it, which is amazing and welcomed by myself and Chris.
You walk along the promenade and see people sitting for a chat, runners taking route among the beautiful coast, people sitting in a bar at the side, with a cool beer. There is no council tax, yet they pick rubbish up every day. No TV license. Less taxes. Plus you can get a brilliant apartment for about a third of what they would charge in the London area.

I have spent my days trying to be constructive, shopping for the essentials, cleaning products, water etc. Ironing and washing for Chris. Tidying the place. Relaxing, reading ,eating lunch in a little cafe. Trying to get familiar with my surroundings, went on another bus tour. Saw the beautiful Blue Grotto.


Set up a bank account here, sent some postcards...Its been great. The internet is now set up, it was sorted this morning, we have good and fast connection and I feel more in touch with the world. Was previously relying on free wifi in cafes and bars. At the weekend we have some exploration and shopping planned- we need some household items, on the list at some point is a barbecue for the balcony, a coffee machine and probably now a new bed- ours is not very comfy and creaks at every turn, hell almost every blink of the eye it is that creaky!
Went to the supermarket today, a Carrefour in Sliema, picked up dinner for Chris, made him a nice chicken dish, I myself had pasta but Chris having eaten pasta and pizza for almost 5 nights in a row, like myself, decided no more carbs! Went on a touch to the South of the island, which is where I saw the Blue Grotto- it was a treacherous journey on this open topped, rickety old tour bus, I myself not being on the small side was eyeing up the obese tourists who boarded and sat on my side. It was our side which dangerously swayed probably unsurprisingly, leaning, the breaks groaning at our cumulative weight. Not comforting when we drove down winding roads next to cavenous ravines. It was really quite scary, but the view was worth it!

Settling in nicely

Yesterday we had the big move. It went smoothly, probably mainly as we only had 3 suitcases to take and unpack! We met the owners, a large building company and sat with the Director for a bit, discussing through the contract- thank godness it was written in English! For me there was a bit of waiting around during the day as Chris started his new job and the contract was not to be signed until 5ish. So I did a bit of shopping in Debenhams of all places, to pick up some towels (we had packed them but had to abandon when we realised we had too much stuff.

The place is stunning, with the spectacular view, its large size and classy furnishings- I really cannot believe my luck. Its a great area too, being obviously by the sea and alongside a popular promenade with lots of lovely restaurants dotted about. We are in between the posh Tigne point which has the shopping centre (albeit as discussed ealier a so- so one) and the lively St Julians and so we are pretty happy about that. I am particularly happy about the main bathroom which is pretty swish, lovely tiling, his and her sinks and also the living room (again THAT view)

We had a lovely meal out that evening, a yummy pizza and a couple of drinks to celebrate the move.

The women in Malta are well groomed, usually dressed to the nines, slender and tanned and in comparison I feel very British!
The drivers are not very careful. The people are mostly friendly- I was told how lovely they are and how welcoming they are particularly of the British but I would not go that far!

First weekend in Malta: Open bus tour and other fun

On our day off on Saturday we decided to do the tourist thing and get on one of those tour buses. I am a huge fan of these! It was a hot day, as per usual and we sat at the top in the open air to feel the wind in our hair.
It was a good way, without a car to get a feel of the place, put place names to the location. We passed our new apartment along the promenade and went on to Tigne Point. This is a desirable area in Malta, we know someone with a lovely apartment out there and there is a shopping centre there.
I am a big shopper, I like my possessions and the joy that searching for them brings. We had a wander and I was a tiny bit disappointed I really hate to say. There is a small Marks and Spencer food shop, were a talking small but it is better than nothing! There were not too many shops there really, a few European clothes shops, a couple of the upmarket high street stores like United Colours of Benetton. The supermarket at the bottom was a good place to look round to get an idea as to the choice and prices available to us. There was not a lot of choice and the prices were similar to the UK but with UK brands like Iceland (who wants Iceland food anyway?!) being three times the price.

Chris stopped for an expresso (he was not impressed) and I went to a bookstore (I was not impressed) it was a poky one and again the prices were about 3 times the cost of here. Probably only to be used in times of desperation!!

So we stayed at the shopping centre for maybe an hour, such was the anti climax and went on the bus for more of the tour. There was lots of limestone buildings to be seen.
The port des bombes in the picture and a few other monuments, statues and the like. We stopped off in a lovely little marina type village (they mostly are being a small island with lots of bays) called Victoriosa. It was pretty with lots of showy boats again. We stopped off for some lunch at a place called "Two and a half lemons" it was alright there, Chris could not rave enough about his beef sandwich. Mine was OK. The atmosphere was the enjoyable thing as there were friends and family gathered having a very slow lunch that you could tell began way before we arrived that day and long after we left. It impressed upon us the slower, more relaxed way of life.

On the Sunday we decided to just relax, having only just arrived and already explored and got an apartment. We sat by the lovely pool at the Hilton most of the day, reading. Then packed in the eveing ready for the move the next day.

Apartment Hunting

We woke at around 8 got ready and went down for breakfast. The hotel looked much better in daylight, no surprise there. Having finished a large breakfast we decided to take a walk in the near vicinity to get our bearings. It was a beautifully hot day, around the high twentys already mid morning. we explored Portmasao, the area around hotel which is a bay and is highly prestigious area, an area we know we could not afford comfortably unless we wanted a place like our previous fairly small one beds back in the UK.
It was a lovely area and a nice walk. There are lots of restaurants in Portmasao. They are fairly pricy but lovely (we have been to a couple now).
Then we met our agent at a well known real estate company over here and began our flat hunt.

There are many things ascertained during our trip that day and these are the following realisations on Maltese property.
1) they like to have their washing machines in their bathrooms
2) they are cheaper like for like than the UK. Again no surprise there!
3) they are one of the following in terms of style: chic and minamalist or 80s style. there is nothing in between, no shabby chic and so forth.
4) They like to keep the place dark to lose as much heat as possible.

We saw some nice spaces but the old fashioned interior did make them less desirable for us. It is hard to imagine them with our style in it with such garish items around. Take note house sellers!
We ended up liking 3 properties. Each had a good amount of space and modern interior and air con in each room. One had the most amazing view but it was the more expensive of the three. After some weighing up we decided it was worth it and affordable.

Leaving day

Leaving day, we had to also leave our old flat, which meant to “Check out” and tidy the place leaving it in an acceptable condition. I am choosing my words carefully here as when we moved in we remarked how the place was grubby: cupboards not wiped, walls a bit dirty and there were quite a few cobwebs about, in essence the place did not to have had the professional clean we were told it would have and so we were not going to a) provide payment for a professional clean on the way out b) spent too long cleaning. However 7 hours later (I try to clean thoroughly so it takes a while) we were ready to leave the place, the main hold up was not the cleaning really but deciding on if we were going to have to leave certain items behind. One such item was the brand spanking new iron I had purchased. Unfortunately we decided we had no space for it, such is life!

I will not deny leaving was a stressful time, having cleaned and scrubbed our flat, scrutinised our possessions for worthiness and then saying goodbye. Chris brother Ben proved to be a huge support that day, moving things, packing things and driving us about despite currently studying. Both our families have been lovely, and shown their love by helping us organise things so thank you Ben, James, Janet, John, Beth, Claire and Bill!

Janet drove us to the airport, Chris was a backseat driver. I was nervous all the way, anticipating a hiccup. We were lucky not to have any. Our luggage was overweight, I am sure it would prefer the label “big boned” and we had to pay pretty steep excess charges- think the price of another business class ticket!!
We were lucky enough to be going business class and to those as full of wonder as I was as to what this would involve it is the following: You are sitting at the front so it is a bit noisier. The attendants literally wait on you, offering you free drinks a lot. The seats are bigger and you have more space. There WILL be annoying rich men “yahhing”. The seat space was worth it all, as a nervous flyer you need all the comforts you can get. My vegetarian meal involved chicken and Chris and I did wonder if this would set the tone for our adventure food-wise for a vegetarian.
The main perk aside from the seating for a business class passanger is the business class lounge. I had been to one before when we went on our honeymoon. Theres free food, it is a dream for someone like me (someone much like our poor luggage, see earlier!) Free drink, wifi, magazines, a nice quiet spot to rest and in this one there was a small “Six Senses Spa” where I readily accepted a back massage. I had never had a male masseuse; he asked me the pressure I wanted. “Medium” I quickly retorted, him having just given a quick and very firm shoulder rub. He was not medium throughout, not by previous standards. My back gave an almighty crack and I have had less trouble with it since, so brilliant. I had a glass of wine, well a few sips of a glass and we were on our way to the gate.

The flight was smooth and quick. Chris and I watched Lost. Now I love Lost, but the whole premise surrounds a plane crash. In fact the plane in Lost crashed on the 22nd September- the day we flew out. So we were pretty much watching the programme on its rightful day, Lost day!

Arrived into Malta at about 1 o clock and had a twenty minute drive to the Hilton hotel we are staying at. It is a beautiful hotel and we have since been told the best on the island. I am writing this (the morning after) with a great view


We marvelled at our surroundings and retired to the very comfy bed.