Photos

In Portomaso Marina, all the posh resturants and six figure flats surround this bay

View from Upper Barraka Gardens, Valletta

Jean and I in Mdina

View from the Cafe in Mdina

Another Visitor

We had our second visitor 2 weekends ago... Cameron's mum.  Ryanair, one of the European budget airlines just added a new direct route from Malta to Edinburgh so Jean decided to come for a visit.  She was here for three nights and stayed in our flat with us.  Cameron and I both had Sunday off and we went to Valletta and walked around, watched the noon day salute where they fire off a cannon, then we went to Mdina and had chocolate cake at a cafe overlooking the island. We had nice meals out and Jean and Cam even came to my work on Monday and took a sneaky dip in the hotel pool.  It was really nice to have Jean out here and fun for family to see where we are living.  I hope my mom comes soon:)  

Our new Instructors for the season have arrived.  Both are from England and I have helped show them around, both driving and diving.  It is consistently warm now and in the high 80's low 90's.  I am already going brown although I've got a farmers tan complete with flip flop lines on my feet. Tomorrow is my last day off with Cam for the summer. We were trying to get on a boat trip to dive a cool wreck, but it is full so I'm not sure what we will do now.  We will probably celebrate our birthdays tonight as well... We've got a little over a week, Cam's is the 7th and mine is the 9th... Agh, I can't believe I'm turning 31.  That's worse than turning 30.  At least my boyfriend is only turning 27... LOL

All the new Instructors and seasonal workers are arriving and we are meeting lots of new people. We spent the evening with friends at a beach bar called Exiles on Thursday night.  It was one of Cameron's friends 30th birthday and we had a great time.  We met the new pilots of the sea planes they have here, one is Italian and one is Greek and they are so much fun. Maybe we can trade some diving for a ride!  It's great to see things start to liven back up after the winter.  I think both Cam and I are glad to be able to have someone else to talk to!  

Cameron is busy taking some online business classes and I just finished a 10 week writing course online.  The sea temperature is steadily increasing, thank God, and I've had some really experienced divers recently which makes work much more fun... I'm looking forward to the summer and to see what comes next!

After I had settled into being back in Malta, I stupidly volunteered to work on a Sunday (we are closed Sundays in the winter) I contracted some type of Rotovirus... no really I think it was  some gastro thing or other... either way, I didn't return to work until the next Monday.  I am blaming getting sick on the diver I had on Sunday, something was going around his hotel, and I will never volunteer to work on my day off again!  I guess it was good as I lost the 5lbs I had put on while I was home.  After 4 days of visiting the bathroom every 2 hours I finally went to the doctor almost in tears asking when I was going to get better... he said it could last up to a week. It started on a Monday and by Saturday morning I was finally starting to feel better.  That was brutal but thankfully Cameron didn't get it which was good since I needed him to take care of me.  After a few days back at work I started diving again and managed to regain my strength and am now 100%. 

 

At the end of the week I returned to work our friends from the UK arrived.  Kathryn and I met in Honduras while Cameron was her dive instructor.  We also met up with her and her boyfriend Leigh for New Years this past year.  They arrived late on Thursday night.  We went for one dive on Friday and then out for some drinks.  On Saturday we went to Gozo for the day doing 2 dives where Leigh managed to get a serious sunburn on the back of his neck.  We spent the night out again eating dinner at a Maltese restaurant drinking the Maltese Special Reserve wine(costs about 3euros a bottle) and we had a great night.  We stayed in bed late on Sunday and then headed to Mdina (the old capital, it's Valletta now) and walked around a bit and then napped in the afternoon.  Sunday night we headed to Paceville (pronounced parch-a-ville) which is the trendy area in Malta, needless to say we don't frequent the bars there but we checked some fun ones out and had a great night.  The night ended with us smoking sheesha at a salsa bar called Fuegos.   

We were both sad when they left, we had such a great time while they were here but we are already trying to make plans to meet up with them and Anna for New Years again this year.  

With Kathryn and Leigh gone we have been trying to catch up on our sleep and taking a break from the wine...  Work is really starting to pick up and the weather has really been nice lately. This week we are looking at a high of 70F this week!  I have divers everyday starting tomorrow through next week so I'm hoping for a bit of a tan soon!!!  I love the sun!

Happy Spring everyone! 

 

First pictures then words...

Cam and I outside the gates of Mdina, Malta's original capital
View of Blue Hole (we go diving in there) in Gozo.
We are standing on top of the Azure window.

All of us in Egypt... just kidding:) Yummy sheesha

Me swimming out of a cave in Gozo

Cam and I

Cam Kat and I looking out over Malta from Mdina

Walking through Mdina

Checking out someone's birds...

Cam and I on a night out in Paceville

Kat Leigh and I after a dive in Gozo, with the Azure window

in the background and really bad hair!

I have so much to catch up on but wanted to post these pictures first then will work on writing... Cam and I had friends out from the UK and had a blast... Here are some photos...