Only in Malta

Life in Malta is full of surprises, some fabulous and some not so fabulous… first the fabulous…

Last Thursday found me in Valletta with my cousin Evelyn to visit the grandmasters Palace…which has recently reopened to the public after a renovation hiatus….sporting a 450 year history dating back to the knights of Malta..security was at a premium and most artefacts behind the tourist lines…

Rambling over a full square in Valletta .,,

With its internal courtyards, staircases, restored armour and doorways for very tall people, which the Maltese are not!

Artwork in every corner from ceilings and chandeliers to clocks and doors…

To the armoury of the knights, sabres, cannonballs and helmets…..10€ well spent

I arrived home (Paola) in the late afternoon to a flurry of activity (at my penthouse level) of concrete pouring ready for the next stage of Maltese building…

This didn’t bode well as the workmen arrived at 6am the next day ready for the craning up of the blocks…

And so it was ready…the last two days have been filled with sawing and laying bricks – straight across from my front terrace garden .. interspersed with the banging of constant fireworks, and sheets of concrete dust filling my morning coffee time! The joys of living in the burbs! and just to add joy to my day the watering system has failed 2x….not ideal while trying to revive a water deprived garden…so needless to say lots of battery changes and hose watering activities!

My friend Jill arrived yesterday on her delayed travels…rather exhausted having had travel hiccups (or rather chokes)!on her way….so an early night last night and an early start….this is where the fun (?) began…

A nice early morning walk through the green belt, followed by a shopping excursion to collect some “cockroach hotels” , yes these guys are rearing their ugly heads (inside) looking for water, some more batteries for the retarded watering system and a couple of zips for some overalls! (having found a design fault)…just as all was going well….a Maltese lady fell in front of us and landed on her face…I rushed to her as blood was pouring everywhere from her face….grabbed the trusty packet of tissues and sat on the pavement with her trying to stem the blood flow ….Jill raced inside the nearest cafe to gather more tissues and water…meanwhile another man (with a walking stick) went off in search of medical help!! We had managed (with help of cafe owner) to get her in a sitting position…and three police arrived and called an ambulance…..she had a bump the size of an egg on her forehead and a very mangled nose and knee! I finally got her name….. Margaret….and handed her care over to the police! And carried on with the shopping expedition! Both Jill and I sporting her blood!

Poor Margaret will have a very sore head I am sure!

Then we needed a coffee…finished shopping and went to see Sammy and Anna with a bag full of Pastizzi (cheese and pea pastries) for lunch…

After our visit it was off to St Thomas bay for a swim….and this hit a road bump too! Nearing our destination…there was a couple of road cones, which appeared to be warning us of a broken car on roadside..as I went to go through the gap (easily large enough for a car) a grumpy old policeman stepped out and started abusing me …. Telling me I had to take the detour (which was far from obvious) and said “do you even have a drivers licence?” To which of course I said yes (politely) he proceed to abuse me and tell me “I don’t think so! You saw the (2) cones!” Then “get out of here you are blocking the road”….which I wasn’t as no one was allowed to go through and Vivienne is very small… I finally worked out to take the side street….and followed my nose!

I can just assume he was having a bad day! Anyway the swim was very refreshing…

Followed by a beer at Lemon and lime afterwards before tackling the drive home…pleased to see the grumpy cop had gone home to abuse his family and a local was doing a great job of redirecting traffic!