You probably have been wondering what’s been happening here in Malta, so I’ll quickly catch you up. This past week was a full week of work for Christine. With Eve’s arrival and week in Malta approaching, Christine didn’t want to be distracted by work, so she really buckled down and worked every day, all day, and into the evening, since last Sunday. Most of her attention was on her largest, newest customer, but she also had other things going on. One of her current customers has a new employee and so getting her software installed on that person’s computer, which should be a relatively quick process, took days and days of trial and error due to issues with operating system and software on the PC. This past week she spent a few hours working with that company’s IT person trying to figure out what was wrong. Perseverance pays off and finally, the installation was accomplished on Friday.
Another work-related thing was a new potential opportunity for Christine that presented itself with a company in Australia. There’s a business trip I hopefully will get to participate in, if that ever comes to fruition! What a hoot if it does. We’d love to spend significant time back in Australia with Louis and the other cousins. And, while in that hemisphere, New Zealand beckons us again. So Christine is starting to negotiate a possible consulting job with this Australia company. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it will work out.
While Christine worked, I lazed around and mostly read and did the things necessary around the flat, cooking, laundry, shopping, etc. We did manage to get to the “beach,” our rocks, a couple of times. The sea temperature has warmed about 8 degrees since we’ve been here, up to 71, so it is great for swimming. Unfortunately, there is an abundance of jellyfish around Malta, and it is important to look closely while in the water. Goggles or a mask need to be standard equipment while swimming in order to prevent swimming into jellyfish. Watching Christine is hilarious, because she’s swimming along and then you’ll see her madly kicking in a different direction, usually heading toward shore. That kicking let’s me know she’s spotted jellyfish. We were seated near 3 older Maltese ladies yesterday who really knew what they were doing in terms of looking for jellyfish. They had plastic bags and two would be spotters hanging over the railing pointing out jellyfish and one would carefully scoop up a jellyfish and hand the bag to another who would dump it under a bush on land. Once they were satisfied, they’d get into the water and paddle around. That’s when and where I entered the water and I stayed close to them. Several people were stung, including a little girl who got stung on her hand. One of the elder ladies went over with the remedy, white vinegar, and assisted. So, we now know the treatment. First, rinse the area in salt water, not fresh water, gently scrape the area, best with a plastic card, and then pour or dab white vinegar over the area. That should reduce the pain and inflammation and remove any of the remaining stingers.
After our swim on Saturday, we went back to the flat and got it and ourselves ready for Eve’s arrival. She was flying in to Luqa Airport at about 4:30 and would take the X2 bus to our flat. Through the assistance of FB Messenger, we kept updated on her position. I stood out on our balcony with binoculars watching the buses round our Balluta Bay curve. As soon as I spotted the X2, we rushed downstairs to meet and greet Eve. Not too excited about her coming, you think?!
We sat with Eve on our balcony and had drinks and chatted, catching up on what’s been happening. Since Eve is an avid blog reader, we don’t have much to tell her, because she’s read all about our adventures, so she has to carry the conversation load this week while we create some new adventures. I’ve learned to make Aperol Spritzes, which Eve turned Christine on to during her last visit. Still Cisk for me. We then walked Eve over to Triq Sir Gorg Borg where her Airbnb is. We met her host, Fernando and his wife, and got the tour of the flat, a nice place that hopefully Eve will find comfortable. We then went for a walk down below the esplanade near the Surfside. It was an amazingly calm evening and the sun was still brightly shining as it was dropping into the western sky. We opted for dinner outside on the terrace at it-Torri. We had a lovely dinner and good conversation.
Over the past couple of days, we’ve noticed a lot of activity down below our flat on the esplanade and learned that there would be a little event being held Saturday night with food and music offered up. As we were walking Eve back to her Airbnb, we decided to walk to the event area to check it out. The event was sponsored by Socjeta Muzikali tal-Karmnu Balluta, the Musical Partnership of Mount Carmel Balluta. This is the band and the musicians associated with the Mount Carmel church around the corner. There were craft stalls and artists, food, an amazing stall full of the most beautiful cookies, a little stage where singers were either lip-synching and dancing or singing for real (one guy was really good, others not so much). And, for our beekeeper friend JoAnn, there was a guy selling honey. He’s set up on the esplanade pretty regularly in the evenings, but he had a bigger display with a plastic box full of bees and honey frames and lots of products involving honey and beeswax.
After checking out all of that, we walked Eve part way back to her Airbnb. We stopped at a kiosk where Eve bought some bottled water. We saw some fireworks popping across the bay and we sat on a bench watching for a few minutes. We then said our goodnights. It is lovely having Eve here and we’ll have a good time further exploring Malta and hanging out with her.
