Made it to Malta!

  

Something tells me this isn't Dover, New Hampshire. 

 

See that photo above?   I live here now (as of five days) with my cat Egypt and Mr. S.  But we don't live in this beautiful part of Malta.  We live on maybe the ugliest street in Malta--in Sliema--with abandoned shops and houses.  In fact, we're right next to one.  But that's OK; in fact, it's normal in Malta.  As for our place, I love it.  I LOVE it.

 

The place we rented is an old-style Maltese townhouse about 90 years old.  It was the first place we saw and we loved it--the tiles, the walled in-stone yard, the ceiling beams, the heavy wooden doors and windows and marble staircases.     And the whole flat roof is ours!  The broker, of course, told us not to wait too long to make a decision.  I never believe that kind of stuff; all brokers say that.  So we waited a while before calling back to make the landlord and the broker sweat it out a bit.  But you know me...five minutes later, the place was ours.

 

I apologize to my two loyal blog fans (one includes my cat who lays on the PC); I haven't had time to write in the blog about arriving in Malta--which was the whole point of the blog.

So I'm going to list the major events so far:

-Egypt was totally quiet during the plane flight. One security guard asked if she was alive.  That was helpful. 

-Our townhouse has a well, or rather a cistern, in the yard!  All townhouses must have wells by law.  But you can't drink from it; maybe you can water the plants with it.  But listen to this:  The Maltese from years ago placed a single eel in the well.  Yes, I'm talking about that creature from the ocean.  The eel would keep the water free from garbage and organisms, etc.  The eel would live for fifty years or so!  I have to say I think that's very cruel to make a creature live alone without another member of its species for 50 or more years. 

-People are very friendly here.  When I was arguing with Mr. S in a phone shop about what cell phone to buy with my own money--not his, a local woman took my side in the discussion. 

-Our bed that comes with our place looks like a double coffin.  So we need to get a new bedroom, as they say here. That means a bed and a wardrobe (an armoire)  because European bedrooms don't have built-in closets.  In fact, no rooms do.

Mr. S made me buy a huge flat-screen TV with him. I could have lived without it.  But Mr. S couldn't.  But it was either that or motorbike or Mr. S going to a woman's hairdresser place to get his hair trimmed (?).  So I went for the flat-screen TV. That solved Mr. S' Maltese midlife angst for the moment.

-Here's who we met so far:

1. Joe, the phone man--very smart who actually talked me out of the Nokia Smart Phone with the slide-out keyboard because he thought it was too expensive for what I needed. 

2. Joe, the nice man, and his wife Janice whose clothes shop is two doors down from our place.  Most of the men are named Joe in Malta.

3. Joe and Janice's 20-year-old,  university-student son Andrew who happens to work part-time at the Milan Duo hotel we stayed at until we found our place.  Andrew is very cute and sweet and gives me free gelato ice cream.  Oh well, this will just have to do until I find Ben and Jerry's here in Malta.

5. And Enrico, our accommodating landlord,  who said to fix the place anyway we want as long as we don't walk off with the place.   Enrico is not named Joe, apparently.

 

Basically, so far, I love Malta and the people and....the weather.  Eighty degrees today; snowing in New England.  Sorry, I won't mention the weather again.  More later xxxx

 

Comments

[Sennuwy (an ancient Egyptian name)]

Hi there. No, I'm not joking about most of the men being named Joe. And Joe the Plumber was copying the Joe's in Malta. They came first. The people in Malta are very friendly and I'm so happy for that. It's even made me friendlier. Last night I gave a man directions because I thought he was lost. Can you imagine that? Hope I don't run into that guy again....as if I know where I am.

[Brooke]

A few things: First, you're right, I don't think you're in Dover anymore. That picture just doesn't look like N.H. to me. Second, why is everyone named Joe? Was Joe the plumber even named Joe? I thought at first your list of people that you had met was a joke and a play on "joe the plumber." Third, I'm glad the people you've met are nice and friendly. That's definitely important.

[Sennuwy (an ancient Egyptian name)]

Mr. S,

You left a comment! And historical moment for sure on this blog. Grazzi.

[Mr S]

Hi Lynda ,
the ' footprints ' of the Astra satellites don't cover Malta so the British Sky programs won't be available through Astra but they are on Hotbird 7 A hosted by Sky Italia and encrypted with Videoguard .
Otherwise there are many sports channels available through the Maltese cabel companies so Malta is definitly not a sports-free-zone .
Mr.S

[Sennuwy (an ancient Egyptian name)]

Thanks to all of you for reading and writing. Some answers to each of you:

-Steve---I would be very lonely without that big-screen TV now. I think you should keep your exotic name and not change it to Joe.

-Lynda--I'm not sure about the SKY sports. I will ask Mr. S to address this question when he returns from Germany (can you believe he deserted me already? A light bulb went out and I can't change it because of the high ceilings here. What am I supposed to do?)

-Katie, welcome new reader! I know the hotel you're talking about--but I live about ten minutes walk from there. I am actually up the hill from the Waterfront Hotel and Milano Dua. But I do hope you come here and please get in touch with me when you do.

[Katie]

Hey, new reader here! I am Maltese and live in San Francisco. I must have stayed very close to where you live in Sliema when I was there last. I stayed across the street from the little health food store (if it is still there) and one block down from the grocery store. You could see the sea when you walked out of my building though, it was down the street one block. Closest hotel was the Preluna and that was my meeting place for my family, etc. when I was there. Maybe we will meet one day, I am hoping for a trip there in the fall. Love your blog and would really LOVE to move to Malta one day!

[Lynda Adlington]

Happy that everything has gone well, and yes i suppose a flat screen TV is quite high on the list, but what I want to know is if you can get 'SKY' tv there, especially SKY sports ( my husband said that not I)
It sounds similar to us here in Spain where everybody seems to be called Jose or Fernando. Its useful for those of us with menopausal memories though.

[Steve Holmes]

Welcome to Malta.
Glad to here that Egypt does not feel the stress of traveling that us humans do.
I agree with Mr S, a large flat screen TV is a must.
And I may change my name to Joe, or do you think that is going a bit to far?