Good bye summer

My new landlords are the sweetest people.  They are a 'mature' couple, Edwin is 90 ish I think and Mary is younger.  Edwin gets around great for a man his age, but he is hard of hearing and quite frail looking.  When I moved in, I noticed my refrigerator wasn't working right, so Edwin called a repairman, who said the thermostat needed replacing.  The next day I noticed a horrible noise coming from the freezer.  I took the back panel off and could see the fan scraping and the plastic blades being torn up.  And it still wasn't cold enough.  My ice cream was melting and the items in the lower portion, like the milk, were warm.  So I called Mary and explained the noise and the temperature, and soon enough Edwin came to check it out for himself.  The noise was so loud that it kept me awake at night and you could plainly hear it all over the apartment.  When Edwin came in the front door, I said "do you hear that"?  He cupped his hand around his ear and said "what did you say"?  I asked louder, "can you hear that"?  He stepped closer and said "what"?  I said "never mind, maybe you can hear it from the kitchen".  Standing in front of the fridge, I said "can you hear it now"?  He again cupped his hand around his ear and said "pardon"?  I yelled, "can you hear the noise"?  He said "I don't hear anything".  I said "it's because you're deaf".  He said "what"? I said "the fridge is very loud, you can't hear it because your hearing is bad"  He said "it sounds fine, it's no louder then mine"  I  told him it was so loud I could hear it in the bedroom on the other side of the apartment.  He said I must have exceptional hearing because it wasn't loud at all.  This went back and forth for a few minutes, with him getting a bit more aggravated at me because I was laughing.  I honestly thought he was kidding at first.  How could he not know he couldn't hear!  I finally realized this was getting no where so I removed the panel so he could see the torn fan blades.  That didn't make much of an impression, so I moved on to the temperature.  I showed him my melted ice cream and he stuck his finger in it!  Well, it was going in the trash anyway.  He left to go call the guy and in a few minutes Mary came down.  As soon as I opened the door, she heard the noise and said "oh my goodness, is that it"?  I'm glad she could hear it.   We couldn't get the repair guy back for a few days so Mary offered me a replacement one they had in storage.  We made arrangements to get it the next day so Mic could help.   In the morning, Mary called to ask if we could do it another time, Edwin wasn't feeling well and couldn't help.  Edwin is about 5' 2" and weighs maybe 90 lbs.  He's quite frail, as one would expect for a man his age.  He reminds me of the 'older' Habitat volunteers who insist on climbing on the roof, or other hazardous tasks, as though they were still in their 20's.  No way would I have let him help anyway.  I told Mary we wanted to do it now so Mic could get back to work.  As it turns out, the backup fridge was no good, so I just waited out the repair guy, who did eventually come and fix it.  Now it's quiet and cold.  Not too long after that the gas for my stove ran out.  I went to their apartment to get the number for the gas company and Mary had a hard time finding it.  Mostly because she couldn't remember how it was listed in her phone book, but partially because she didn't have on her reading glasses. About this time Edwin came in and started fussing at her for not using her glasses. Then he turned to me exasperated.  "She knows she can't see, I don't know why she won't wear her glasses, it drives me crazy!"  It was all I could do not to laugh.  I was thinking, she said the same thing about your refusal to wear a hearing aid.  They are both super sweet and pretty feisty too.  I've been so lucky with landlords here.  I've heard many horror stories, I really do appreciate how lucky I've been.  So much so that I'm extending my contract from one year to two when Mic moves in next month.

The days are getting shorter and cooler, so I guess summer is over.  Sadly, that means no more boat trips.  It was a fun filled summer, with lots of laughs, snorkeling, swimming, sunbathing, eating and just hanging out with some great friends.  The last 3 trips were certainly the most eventful.  I wrote about the one where our group leader fell and hit her head and we spent the night in the ER.  Here are two more stories from the final trips. 

Our last BBQ trip was truly a death defying experience, for more then one person this time.  The bus ride, not the boat or the island. Our ride started off poorly and just got worse.  The driver seemed a bit confused as we were telling him where to stop to gather our people.  We had to repeat ourselves over and over.  "OK stop up here at the light'.  'Stop at the light', 'STOP AT THE LIGHT'!  'Stop at the big hotel', 'the hotel', 'THE HOTEL'!  More then once he passed the stop before he even took his foot off the gas.  Things went from bad to worse once we picked up our last person.  The last stop was near the top of a hill; on the other side was a steep decent down a slightly curvy road.  The bus was about half way down and had picked up a bit of speed when the driver suddenly slammed on the breaks and came to a complete stop in the middle of the road.  For absolutely no reason!  We continued down the hill at a crawl.  Once on level ground, we picked up speed but now the driver began swerving into oncoming traffic, nearly sideswiped cars, signs and guard rails.  He braked suddenly for no reason, he sped up and slowed down so much that several of us were feeling sick.  It appeared for all intents and purposes that he was drunk; with very slow reaction times and swerving all over the road.  (I don't think he was actually drunk, just a really, really bad driver, much too old to be behind the wheel of a car, let alone a passenger bus). Just before we arrived in Cirkewwa, we all watched as a small car crossed the road in front of us, into a parking lot.  14 of us saw him in plenty of time, yet the driver never took his foot off the gas until he nearly ran the car over.  He seemed genuinely surprised, as if the car magically appeared in front of him.  The person normally in charge of the charters was home sick.  We called her to tell the bus company we wanted another driver.  This is where the typical Maltese attitude toward customer service kicked in.  She was told that the company looked at a computer that showed the driver's speed and his driving was just fine.  He was driving safely, it was the passengers who were confused.  All 14 of us.  They would not send another driver.  We decided even though we paid for a round trip, we didn't feel safe riding with him.  We called a cab company to send a van to pick us up after the boat trip.  There were 3 other people scheduled to go back on the bus who had not come with us.  The driver was told to be back at the dock at 11:15 PM for the 3 new people.  The cab was also requested for this time.

The rest of the evening was fun.  Once the mad crush of tourists left, we had the beach and cove all to ourselves.  You can swim across to a cave and once the people clear out, you can see some really cool sea life using just a snorkel and mask.  Aside from the fish, we saw sea snails, a moray eel, and some interesting sea crabs with flat bodies and very long thin legs.  Once inside the cave, we saw more crabs.  The cave is more of a tunnel, it goes through a rock formation and comes out the other side, to the open sea.   Inside the cave it's very dark and the water gets very deep.  It's a little spooky, but a cool swim.  The BBQ is normally for two boats only. There is a schedule for which charter boat gets which night, but this time there were four boats for some reason.  That meant twice as many people on a small patch of sand.  Normally, everyone faces their chairs toward the water and the spectacular sunset.  This time, we had to form small circles to get everyone on the beach.  Those of us facing the rocks were in for quite the treat.  Just after dusk we noticed movement on the rocks.  Apparently, living in the rocks and out of sight during the day, is a colony of rats.  Not the cute little mice, but big ole rats, and a lot of them.  We backed our chairs as far away as we could get and just watched.  They were like little acrobats, jumping from rock to rock, climbing upside down etc.  I had heard of them before, but had no idea there were so many or that they were so big.  All the trash is removed from the island every night, so I'm not sure what they were living on, but there must have been quite a bit left behind.  Those of us facing them took comfort in the fact that, to get to us, they had to first cross the line of the people facing the sea, 98% of whom had no idea what was going on behind them.  There was a tiny chihuahua running around all night, we did keep an eye on him.  I think the rats could have hauled him up in the rocks, never to be seen again. 

Around 10:45 we called the bus driver to confirm the 11:15 pickup.  He said he would be late, he was taking another job.  We told him no, we booked you for these times and that's what we expect.  Remember, the bus was just for the 3 other people.  The original 14 had booked a cab.  At 11:15 our cab called to say he was 1 minute out.  At 11:16 the bus driver called to say he was just leaving home, he would be there in 20 minutes.  I later learned that the bus did not appear until midnight, a full 45 minutes late.  A response from the company to our written complaint went something like this: (1) The driver was delayed by traffic, it wasn't his fault he was 45 min late.  (He told us he was just leaving home and at that time of night, there was no traffic). (2) On a previous trip, someone threw up in the bus (couldn't have happened without everyone noticing it).  You are lucky we will take you anywhere.  Sadly, that is pretty much the answer we expected.  Customer service is very different in Malta than in the US.  Mic and I recently rented a car in Italy and I was charged almost double in added insurance charges.  The counter refused to refund the charges, so I wrote to Avis.  Mic kept saying it's a waste of time, companies never refund money.  I told him, you don't understand American customer service.  Sure enough, in less then a week, I got an email from Avis saying the overcharges would be refunded to my credit card.  Mic was in shock.

Our last trip of the season was on a catamaran docked less then a block from my apartment.  Now that's what I call service!  It was our usual fun time - great friends, great weather and great food.  This time, instead of our usual Comino destination, we went to St Paul's Bay.  Malta, being an island, has a lot of seafood.  There are several fishing villages where people still go out in traditional Maltese boats.  Of course commercial fishing is also quite prevalent as one could see from the fresh fish markets, if one were to get up at 4 am in the morning, which this one does not.  In addition to catching wild fish, there are also huge fish farms just off the coast.  These are basically gigantic nets where fish are kept in the sea, like a corral.  In St Paul's Bay, you can pay €50 to swim in these cages with giant tuna, most the size of a full grown man.  I had long wanted to see a fish farm up close, but didn't feel like it was worth the money.  Plus, who wants to swim with a fish at lunch then eat it for dinner?  When our boat dropped anchor near one, my friend Eva and I decided we were going to swim over.  We had to cross quite a bit of open water and there was the risk of being run over by a passing boat, so we decided to take a bright yellow noodle with us to increase our visibility.   Well, we swam and swam and swam.  Every time we stopped to check our progress, it hardly seemed like we were getting anywhere.  There was a boat tied up to one of the corrals and that's where we were shooting for.  After about 30 minutes, we finally made it.  Everyone on the boat was sitting on deck, with a drink in hand, watching us.  When we got close enough we all say hi, how ya doing etc.  They asked us what in the world were we doing.  We said we wanted to see the fish farm.  They said, its empty.  NO WAY!  We swam all that way for nothing!  They asked us if we wanted to come aboard but we decided to just go back.  It was past lunch time and we were hungry.  The swim back was faster since the current was with us.  At one point a small boat was heading right toward me, so I stopped and waved my noodle at them.  They slowed down and looked at me like I was crazy, made a few hand gestures and went on their way.  Once back on our boat, Eva said when they saw me waving my noodle, they veered toward me, as if to render assistance. They thought I was flagging them down.  I guess that explained their look. When we got back to the boat, everyone was already eating lunch but they did save some for us. 
I have written in several posts about my two best friends, Sylvia and Stephanie.  These are the two girls I went to Coasta Rica with and both are like sisters to me.  I woke up one morning to read a Facebook post about Stephanie suffering a sudden stroke.  I was devastated and in shock and reached out to her sister Joey for more information.  I felt like I knew her already by the way Stephie talked of her and she was just as warm and sweet as I imagined her to be.  She was obviously still in shock as well, and I will be forever grateful to her for taking the time to talk to me over the course of that first night.  She kept me filled in on her condition and we talked of Stephanie all night and of the many people who loved her and were praying for her.  One thing that she did that still bring tears to my eyes was to hold Stephanie's hand and tell her how much I loved her.  My heart was broken when she sent word the following day that Stephanie has passed away.  It was no surprise to me that there were 60 people in the room with her when she passed.  I have never in my life met anyone who touched as many lives in such a profound way as Stephanie.  To know her was to fall instantly in love with her.  She was so vibrant and full of life and the most giving person on the planet.  I'm overwhelmed by all the stories her friends are sharing on FB.  I am forever honored to have been her friend.  Her passing just brings home the point I often make.  Life is short, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get to live life to the fullest.  It also made me realize how easy it is to lose touch with friends you don't see every day.  I spent the next few days reaching out to friends back in the US.  Since I moved to Malta, I have let those relationships fade. 


My friends Judi and Steve are living in Germany.  We met in DC and got back in touch because of Stephanie's passing.  We made plans for them to come to Malta and I'm so glad they came, we had the best time.  As an added bonus, they brought me a suitcase full of goodies from the American food store on base.  One thing they brought was a giant bag of assorted Halloween candy.  I brought some with me on the last boat trip and everyone got to enjoy some sweets they had never tasted.  The tootsie rolls went over especially well.  They arrived on Friday afternoon and our first stop was a great little Irish pub called Dubliner.  They have the best food, especially for a bar.  We got a seat outside and enjoyed the afternoon just catching up and watching the people on the promenade.  Just as evening hit, it began to sprinkle.  Our next stop was happy hour with my expat group so we made a run for it.  We arrived well ahead of the rest of the group and barely ahead of the rain.  It was a bit of a dismissal evening as we were outside and people were just not very lively that night.  I think everyone was huddled around a few tables trying to stay dry.  As soon as there was a break in the weather, we headed home.  We wanted an early start to the day as we were doing the hop on hop off bus tour.   Steve has a goal of eating at McDonald's in every city he visits.  Lucky for him, there was one just around the corner from me, and I love their Sausage Egg McMuffin.  He volunteered to go for breakfast so we gave him our order.  As we were eating, we noticed there were no eggs on our Egg McMuffin.  I should think egg would be a key ingredient, but none of our sandwiches had one.  What a rip off!!  The next morning he went back and made a point of checking one of the sandwiches.  That order too was wrong.  They corrected that sandwich, but the rest of them were still wrong.  This time I got no egg, but 2 sausage patties.   OK 3rd times a charm right?  The last morning he carefully watched them make the sandwiches.  It was at that point that he happened to look up at the menu.  Apparently its called the Sausage McMuffin, not the Sausage Egg McMuffin.  No where in the description does it say egg.  So the few times I've gone since I moved here, I've eaten it with no egg and never noticed!!  Well, didn't I feel stupid...
We had near perfect weather for our sightseeing and enjoyed the bus tour.  Steve is really interested in photography and took some amazing pictures.  That evening Mic joined us for a festival called Birgu by Candlelight. This event takes place in Birgu (also known as Vittoriosa); one of Malta's oldest and most historic cities.  The aim is to highlight the town's historic and architectural beauty and Birgu by Candlelight was set up to highlight this in a romantic manner. All the lights in the town are turned off and the streets are lit up with a gentle glow by thousands of candles.  It's not just the street lights that go dim, almost all of the residents turn their lights off and light candles.  They open their doors and invite people to look inside.  The front rooms are lit up, as are any stairways.  It's really quit beautiful.  Of course there are always people who ruin things just by being thoughtless.  We went down a particularly pretty street with candles set in bags on the ground.   The glow they put off lit up the street and walls and it was just beautiful.  Until a family came up behind us with flashlights.  Although there were no street lights, the candles illuminated everything very well.  There was more then enough light to see where you were going.  There were 3 young children, shining the flashlights everywhere, including our faces.  Of course the parents were totally oblivious.  At one point Judi and I noticed the little girl, about 7 or 8 years old, blowing out the candles as she walked.  Both of us spontaneously yelled at her to stop.  Luckily the parents didn't say anything to us for scolding their child but did tell her to stop.  All in all, it was one of the better festivals I've been to.  It was beautiful and there were many cultural activities to see including an interpretive dance show, several medieval displays, live music and several nice food venues.  When there is a festival, it seems like everyone on the island turns up and the venue is too crowded to even move around.  Since this one included the entire town, there was more then enough room to walk around and really see everything. 
All too soon, it was time for Judi and Steve to go.  I'll have to go to Frankfurt soon, they have some great adventures and I can't wait to join in with our other friend Tonda. 
 
Link to pictures

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