Maltese Mondays

I don't think I can fairly say that last Monday was what most people would describe as a typical Monday. First of all, it wasn't a bank holiday, so most people were at work. Except me...because I'm on holiday. And my mother...who likes to take time off work when I'm visiting. And Ric, who doesn't work. Also, it was a hot day. 24+ degrees and barely a cloud in the sky.

Paradise Bay

Thanks to this exceptional weather, we set off for Paradise bay around 10am and when we pulled into the parking area half an hour later, there wasn't a car in sight. I've never seen the place so deserted! We went on down to the beach (which is down a flight of what feels like a million stairs) and there was one couple sunbathing and that's it. Completely empty, calm sea and our pick of places to chillax.

We settled ourselves down on a few sunbeds (and under an umbrella so my arms couldn't get more burnt). Mum and I were immediately keen to get our feet wet, so post liberally covering myself with sun cream we went into the water. It was pretty cold but so blue and lovely that we had to go in a little bit. My mum was insane and decided to go straight in, but I only went up to my waist. I probably would've manned up eventually but we realised there were loads of big purple jellyfish floating around. Creepy little bastards.

We'd come armed with loads of magazines, and I'm re-reading Game of Thrones, so we were pretty quiet for the next few hours. I had a lovely cold cisk with my hobz biz-zejt (that's bread with tomato paste and olive oil for all you non-Maltese speakers). After that I popped off to sleep for a bit - honestly it's just so lovely falling asleep in the sun and sand, with nothing but the sound of the sea to occupy your thoughts.

We stayed at the beach until just before 4, as we had things to do afterwards. Driving home was a bit of a mission because of all the roadworks happening on that side of the island, but I got to get a bit more sun in the back of the car :D

Fireman Sam Mummy!!!!

Later, I went over to my aunt's house to see the twins and have a bit of chat. Annemarie gave me another yummy cisk and I sat out on the terrace with the twins playing on their 'ride-ons'. Sebi seemed to have fully recovered from his ordeal the day before and had already been trained to say 'wear armbands'. Annemarie had given Oli the itouch to play with, so the only words that kid said to me all evening were 'fireman sam...fireman sam!!'. That kid is totes obsessed with electronics.

Sweet peppers on the BBQ

Amazing steaks and sausages

After an hour or so I walked home for dinner - we were BBQing steaks and maltese sausages and our standard veggies and potatoes. Honestly, maybe it's a good thing I don't live here anymore, I don't think I should eat like this all the time. Sooooo good.

That night was the Manchester Derby which I watched so I could tease boyfriend about the result. Actually I fell asleep half-way through. The sad part was that at that point I realised I'd managed to completely burn my feet that day. And the plan was to go back to the beach next morning!!