Maintenance Malta

George is getting the real Maltese experience! Home and car maintenance abounds!

Vivienne (the car) has developed a vibration on the bumpy roads and her remote decided it would no longer work! This was yesterday!

We walked to Paola shops around midday and sorted the remote issue – new batteries! And realised we are in for a noisy weekend – it seems the local fiesta is on!

Bunting abounds!

Everywhere is gold and streamers and flags – and of course deep into the night “the fireworks”

Back to the maintenance – the noise – we took the car to a garage and a very kind man checked the tyres and gave it a good pull around and advised if it continues see a mechanic! Needed Kevin’s help here – he rang their mechanic and we were booked in for a check at 1pm today…in the meantime

After a swim yesterday afternoon I put thru a load of washing – then the pump decided to have a sleep, on the roof 5th level – ladder and George climbing. So we had cold mains water in the kitchen sink, but the rest of the house, showers, toilets washing etc only had a trickle – and no hot water! By this time it was dark and I wasn’t sending George on the roof!

I rang our neighbour below and he suggested that we wait for a couple of hours to see if the tank was empty and might restart. 10 hours later, and no flushing, still no water!

I rang the emergency plumber who talked George through resetting the pump (on the roof) – just to mention earlier I had had an excursion up there too…but the vertical climb made me dizzy! Good view from up there, I did take a moment! And we had water again! So off george went to the gym and I worked until around midday when George managed a shower before the pump went off again!

Another call to the plumber (still no shower for me) and he said to restart again and get some CRC and spray around the pump in case dust is jamming it! Water back on for now! No time for shower off to mechanic in 1pm traffic – google maps took us to a very industrial area – north – wrong place! But the man there showed George on map where his namesake was! Who would have thought there were two “Emy’s Garages” we had actually driven right past the correct one!

We left the car with our Emy and went and found a cafe – had the worst latte ever – two shots of black coffee and milk poured out of the carton – kind of tasted like dishwater!

No problem found – all wheels off – brakes checked, oil and engine fluid topped up and at least an hour of his time for €20 ($35NZ) what a deal! And the vibration we can still hear – but we don’t need to worry!

Close to my Cousins – we went there and George caught the bus into Valletta to meet his friend! I caught up with Anna, Sam and Rebecca and the drive home around 4.30pm via the supermarket!

Only to find, nope my dramas weren’t over! My NZ phone was missing! Retraced my steps….car,cousins, cafe, mechanics and was about to go to supermarket when I decided to check that I could remember my Apple login if I needed to buy a new phone and set it up! In the login in process – joy I heard a ping! And there it was on Kevin’s desk – I must have left it behind in our rush to get to mechanics!

Still no shower – but beer open – and water not guaranteed – Georges job in the morning is to (once again) get on the roof and CRC the pump! Actually not my happiest day on tour!