I'm writing this in the cafe on the front at Marsaxlokk. The weather has been glorious and as I walked past the fishing boats with my laptop one of the fishermen mending his nets offered me a boat trip. There was a big post-Easter feast here on Wednesday and boat trips were part of the fair atmosphere all along the front together with tombola and horse cart rides. The feast of St Gregory dates back centuries and originated as a thanks-giving pilgrimage but there are various ideas about what people were giving thanks for. It could be for the ending of the Great Siege in 1565 or the release from the plague of 1519 or even further back to protection from a heavy storm in 1343. Now it is a general thanksgiving at the end of winter and some brave people have their first dip of the year in the harbour.
I missed most of the day's activities on Wednesday as I had to take two cases over to be stored at my cousin's place in Sliema. I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have accumulated in the six months I have been here and it looks like I will have things scattered all over Malta whilst I am away in Australia. Today I'm still sorting things out in the flat and will be leaving three boxes with my landlord as well as my pushbike. Yesterday we went up to Valletta to sort out the final payments on my water and electricity. The office was crowded and we had to wait with a queue number for an hour or so. Joseph, my landlord, gave me a lovely little candle holder as a going away present and it will be one of the first things to decorate my new flat in Valletta when I return.
I stayed on in Valletta to go to a lunch time concert at Manoel theatre. There is a Dutch orchestra visiting this week for the String Festival and their bass clarinet player gave a challenging performance of pieces from 20th century composers. The instrument makes a rich range of sound and my favourite piece had the tones of didgeridoo with the feel of jazz.
Afterwards, Valletta was glowing in the sun as I strolled round the bastions overlooking Grand Harbour on my way to meet someone who already lives in the block of flats that I am moving into in January. Olive briefed me well about the etiquette associated with living harmoniously in such a large block of flats and I am glad that she will be a neighbour when I return.
On the previous Saturday, Valletta was colder when I visited with my cousin and her daughter. We came across from Birgu by dhaighsa (I made a mental note not to ask for the harbour cruise rather than the direct crossing again - it costs twice as much and doesn't go much further than going straight across the harbour from Birgu). But the walk up from the Customs house drop-off is always interesting and we cut across to one of the band clubs on Republic street because Helen wanted to try rabbit and chips. I then left them to explore and walked down to Fort St Elmo where Heritage Malta were offering member tours of the re-opened War Museum.
Sunday, we planned to stroll through the market at Marsaxlokk and then jump on the double decker bus for the South tour. I still haven't made it to the Limestone Heritage and I thought this might be my chance but it wasn't to be. Perhaps because of the weather which was threatening rain, the bus never showed up so we changed to plan B and got the ordinary bus up to Tarxien and went to the temple. I enjoyed having visitors and it was fun to test out some of the things I have learnt about Malta this time.
Some friends have just dropped in to the cafe so I'll post this and hope I can find a cafe once I am traveling.
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