Daytime fireworks

Here I sit on my terrace in Paola, Malta, sipping on a cool Cisk(beer) at 6.30pm with the incessant thundering of fireworks! Broad daylight so there’s nothing pretty just load banging – in preparation for the feast tomorrow!

Monday work morning and a coffee after in the town, laziness kicking in at 1pm, and overcast sky! Time for a good walk! So running shoes on (instead of jandals) and off I went making my way to Bormla (around an hours walk) with the promise of a two for the price of one cocktail at the Cafe Rouge…

First gate navigated, no footpath through the gate and a little sprint as a van approached my run way! Then down to St Helens Gate – the entrance to Bormla

This one a little safer with a middle walkway! Decided to stroll up the old street where mum and I spent 2 months at the old house Kevin used to own. Looking for the “RED” door!

Which is now a blue door! Nowhere near as eye catching…

And from the end of the “walking” street that I walked many a times, to cut through the steps, past the drug dealers house, to the town…

Many of the old houses doors are bricked up, not sure what this means, maybe there is work being done or after hundreds of years they are no longer inhabitable!

By this time, I was quite warm (actually I was sweating from my little sprint through the tunnel) and thirsty, around 3pm, surely not too early for a cocktail!

Made a beeline for Cafe Rouge past the Bormla church statues at its foot, and plonked myself at a table in the shade under the trees.

Yes – the happy hour runs til 6pm so I ordered my Pina Colada and got two…not one at a time… really needed a friend to share with!

The first one went down like a milkshake! The second one was getting warm…so I very politely asked the grumpy waiter for some ice to freshen it up, as I couldn’t waste it! Reluctantly (on his part) it arrived and I sipped away until I had finished both!

With quite an uphill journey ahead, I slipped through the first gate and veered right in search of a safer route through the second one (after two cocktails I wasn’t game for another sprint!). In the now afternoon sunshine walk to the top of the next hill and still no way through the wall…spied a bus stop and finished my journey back to Paola on the back seat of the bus!

As I was nearing home my neighbour (Adelina) was sitting on doorstep waiting for someone to chat to – so that was me for the next hour! Several other neighbours stopped by and we all had a neighbourhood ladies catch up! (as you do in the evenings in Malta)

I took my leave as bathroom was calling and back at home to the cacophony of fireworks and dogs barking!