Careful not to Move That Chair a Few Inches to the Left

---

We decide on yet another morning of relaxation, this time at the local “lido” which is only a couple of hundred metres along the waterfront from our apartment. I remember being taken to the Lido when I was growing up in Melbourne. I’m pretty sure that was a theatre, but if there are movies playing here they’re keeping them well hidden. This one’s a waterfront terrace with sunlounges, umbrellas, a bar and a restaurant, plus of course the old Maltese staple, a step ladder down into the water …. and very pleasant it is too, almost a bit too warm to be refreshing.

There’s entertainment out of the water too. First up is a party of half a dozen or so seventy or eighty year old ”girls” stretched out on sunlounges next to some balloons tied around a pole. Two of them are wearing small plastic hats in the shape of birthday cakes. We reckon they might be eighty year old twins celebrating their milestone, and why not. Then there’s the English party sitting next to us. Nothing funny there I hear you say, then why does Issy burst into giggles every time the blonde cockney lady opens her not so quiet mouth.

Then of course there’s the owner. We found out when we came here with Louis and Lily the other night that he’s from Albania. We didn’t have much choice but to get into conversation with him then when he questioned Issy’s assertion that we had a booking. Apparently they don’t honour bookings made on their own website, we should instead have booked on Facebook or some other social media site that we’d never heard of, and we were warned (maybe that’s not quite the right word) never to make this ridiculous mistake again. I’m sure Albanians are very nice people, in fact some friends of ours who’ve just been hiking there said that everyone was lovely, but think I’ve been watching too many movies; I always associate them with gangsters. Movie gangsters all used to be from the Sicilian mafia; whatever happened to that tradition? Anyway owner guy’s not doing too much to ease my fears. Apart from issuing warnings, he also looks a bit creepy; he wears a black glove on one hand for no apparent reason other than to perhaps look slightly more menacing than he would otherwise.

We head off on the bus to Valletta where we’ve arranged to catch up with some of Issy’s relatives for dinner - cousin Louis, his wife Mary and their daughter Melanie, and cousin John and his wife Iris. We stop to admire the excellent views over the harbour from the iconic Upper Barrakka Gardens where they fire blanks from cannons at midday every day … well I assume they’re blanks. We stop to read a memorial to fifteen British sailors who died when their ship the “Orwell“ ran into another British ship near here and sank back in 1903. I wonder whether confusion on board might have had anything to do with the mishap; that can happen when more than half the crew (well eight out of the fifteen who died anyway) are called William.

We pass a monument to Malta’s Great Siege in a square opposite the law courts. The base of the monument has been converted into a makeshift memorial to Maltese journalist Daphne Carranza Galicia. She was an outspoken anti-corruption activist who was murdered when a bomb planted under her car exploded near her house in 2017. We watched a documentary about her back in Melbourne earlier in the year. It seems she was killed as she was about to blow the lid on a corruption scandal involving senior government figures.

Valletta’s a bit hilly, and our restaurant’s on the side of a particularly steep example. Our “table” is actually four tables, each on a different step. I’m on the top step, and conversation with John who’s at the other end, two metres away horizontally and what feels like a similar distance vertically, is proving a bit challenging. Our chairs do fit on the steps, but only just, and I’m trying not to think too hard about what might happen if I move mine a few inches to the left and send everyone and everything crashing down the hill onto the diners on the tables below us. It’s nevertheless a very pleasant evening catching up with these wonderful people again after five years.

---

Photos

Memorial to the Orwell
Too many Williams perhaps?

Comments

[RENanDREW]

Malta
I've heard/read that Valletta is very beautiful. I don't like the sound of the 'stepped' table arrangement... probably not the best for anyone who has vertigo! I need to catch up on your blogs - you've moved countries since I last logged into TB :)

[DaveandIssy]

Malta
Just read your latest post about Greece. Our posts are a couple of weeks out of step. As you will have seen from a comment on your post earlier we’re now in Greece as you are!

[D MJ Binkley]

Valletta
What a great sign. It made me laugh. I hope you stopped in to get a beer. You said Valletta is hilly,.... that is an understatement! We really enjoyed Malta. keep those blogs coming.