After a foggy night, today was clear, bright, cloudless and sunny. It was beautiful and our rocks were calling to us for a swim, especially since the forecast for tomorrow is rain nearly all day.
I went up the street to the market to buy a small loaf of Maltese bread and a couple of tomatoes. We have been enjoying our sandwiches a lot. Christine packed us our picnic and we set off a little earlier than usual.
We sat on a little wall near our rocks. In this area, Maltese tend to congregate, especially some older men who swim long distances and then sit and chat after their swims. We arrived before they did this morning. Soon, a Maltese woman arrived for her morning swim. She leaned over the railing to inspect the water and turned saying, “it’s no good today.” With the wind yesterday, the water was pretty churned up and murky. She said that because it was murky, it was difficult to see jellyfish and told us that 2 people she knows were recently stung by jellyfish while swimming here. We have not been aware of jellyfish during our visit. Maybe it’s best that we were not aware. The woman sat and chatted with us. We had a long talk, exchanging stories about living in Malta. The woman, Doris, moved to England with her husband after marrying, but they returned to Malta upon retirement. Doris said that Malta is great for older people because there is lots to do and easy to make friends. We saw that in action when Doris was joined by a friend walking by, a part-time Malta resident from London and then another Maltese lady. It was fun chatting with Doris and listening in on her conversations with her friends.
After Doris left, we braved the murky water and took a dip. We were really off-put because earlier we had seen a mysterious thing in the water that was moving around this way and that. We initially didn’t have a clue what it was, but I went to the edge of the rocks to try and get a better view. What I saw rather shocked me. It was a fairly large piece of fish. I think it came from the fishermen who throw bait in the water at the jetty to attract fish. This piece was encircled by probably a thousand small fish in a swirling school. They were getting their fill nibbling on the piece of fish. The movement of the swirling school caused the whole bundle to move around. This, and the fear of unseen jellyfish, had us bobbing around for just a few minutes. Christine chose not to take a swim down the shoreline and very soon we were drying off and sitting on the wall.
By that time, several older men had arrived. One of them started talking with us and we heard his life story. He was Maltese and lived in Malta his whole life doing various things including running a girls’ school. It’s kind of interesting hearing about people.
We enjoyed our sandwiches and watched the comings and goings for quite a while. It was such a beautiful day that just sitting on the rocks taking it all in was fulfilling. Christine then suggested that we walk around Exile point and say goodbye to the sea. We found a spot close to water’s edge and watched the surf for a while. Even though the tide was receding, we came dangerously close to being soaked as some of the waves came closer and closer. But it was fun sitting there and we enjoyed it immensely.
We then made our way back to the flat and cleaned up. We then set off to Spinola to one of our favorite restaurants, Raffael. We enjoyed our walk around Balluta Bay over to Spinola. By now it was dark and the lights reflecting on the water are so pretty. It was a chilly evening, but we opted to sit outside overlooking Spinola Bay. We had a drink and chatted about our experiences on this trip.
We ordered dinner. The reason Christine loves Raffael is they have Timpana on the menu. This is a baked macaroni dish that Rose, Christine’s mother, made for her. It is a Maltese staple. Timpana is the ultimate pasta pie. Macaroni is cooked and added to a rich Bolognese-style sauce, often enhanced by chicken livers. With the addition of cheese and eggs, the pasta and sauce is spooned into a pastry case and cooked until golden. I ordered crispy spaghetti carbonara. The waitress asked me if I had ever had it. Saying no, she said she’d describe it. Spaghetti is cooked and a carbonara sauce is added. This gets an egg wash and then is fried. She said it ends up looking like an omelet. Sounded good to me. Both our meals were very tasty and we ate every morsel. When the waitress cleared our plates, I pointed to mine and said, “I didn’t like that.” We all laughed because my plate was clean.
Whenever I see the Dolce Vita sign lit up, I think that’s exactly what I have and I am very grateful. Seven months ago this date, Christine was in a fight for her life, so I can’t believe how lucky we are to be here.
It was a very enjoyable evening in a beautiful setting. We strolled leisurely back to our flat, stopping at the gelato place. We ate our gelato standing out on the jetty in the bay across from our flat. It was a lovely view around the bay. With tomorrow’s weather promising to keep us indoors, we squeezed in all the enjoyment we could into today.
