Wishing you a great week.

Therefore together with the above treats I made Hobz biz-Zejt, garlic bread, stuffed mushrooms and bragjoli (with a potato salad and fresh salad). I was mostly scared about the bragjoli as I had never cooked them before, but thanks to Bernard who supplied me with his mum’s recipe and some trial and error I got it

Myself and Ross were at my place first, cos he thankfully came to help me in my preparations. Then came Kevin and Monika who decided to cook a Carrot cake for the evening (MMMMM…no complaints there). Then at the appointed time of 7pm (actually a bit later but Oh Well) Zahra and Ali and then David joined.

Overall it was a great evening. We enjoyed our time together I think…I enjoyed it at least…it was my favourite foods, with my favourite people in Ireland and some of my favourite Maltese music…although this at the end was not appreciated by all grrrrrrr. I think no one really liked the music, cos they even switched it off at some times…oh well. The conversation was flowing, the food was nearly all eaten and we laughed a lot. It was good to also meet our new apartment mate Joe for an extended period of time. He seems to be really nice…and a good storyteller…something he said I am definitely not…well I have never said I was…I am short and to the point…never see the reason to extend a 2minute story to 15mins…but oh well.

It was a great evening, and I look forward to a Polish evening?…a Scottish evening? or perhaps an Irish evening…possibly another Iranian evening. Will see!

Yesterday morning, therefore Kevin and Monika went to pick up the car at the airport, and Larissa, Hoi (I think it is written that way, not sure) and myself were to be picked up from uni at 10:30am. But it was not until 11:15 that they picked us up, and 11:30 till we left. But it did not really matter. We started the trip to Waterford, which should take us around 2hours. But with the GPS taking us through all the back roads and the traffic going in to Waterford, it took more like 3 hours. But I must say that the system was well organised, with numerous park and rides in the outskirts of Waterford, where you could park your car and buses (loads of buses, you did not have to do much, if any waiting for the buses to come/leave…at the time we were leaving our park and ride, there were 4 buses, which quite quickly filled up, left and the cycle continued).

We made our way to the city centre, and first stop FOOD. By the time we had lunch, 4pm had come, so it was no longer possible to get access to the boats, but we could watch and enjoy. The weather was lovely and so even just walking around was great fun. And I believe all the other people present agreed, because the city was packed. It was like a Maltese festa replicated by a large number of times (estimates gave an attendance of 130,000 people). We then made our way to meet other friends from their lab who made it to Waterford earlier, and we just lounged in front of one of the stages. We listened to some great music by a band called Lebowski (who I think are these guys) and chatted.

At around 6:30pm, one of the girls said that she got tickets to go see a main concert…the tickets were free, but you needed to get them. Luckily she managed to get tickets for all of us, and we made our way to the main stage. The supporting act was Brass & Co., a 10 piece (according to their website but possibly more yesterday) live band, who really got us having fun. Unfortunately I loved the supporting act much more than the main act, Sharon Shannon. But this is likely since Brass & Co. played well known songs we could join in and enjoy whilst Sharon Shannon played traditional Irish music, which to me sounds more or less constantly the same, so I cannot really do with 1 hours or so of listening to it.

Therefore some of us made our way to find some dinner (it was 9:30pm by this time). And oh boy what a hassle it was. Most of the open restaurants were full (difficult to find a table for 7). But what I could not understand is the number of restaurants with ‘kitchen closed’ or closed for the night, when the city was still full of people. Oh well. We finally settled on a trusty source…Burger King…yes we are fancy . After having dinner, we made our way to the river to watch the fireworks display. Now I am not that wowed by fireworks…in Malta they are the order of the day every weekend throughout summer…with fireworks being let off everyday in at least 1 (but generally more like 4 or 5) villages. But I was pleasantly surprised that the show took 15minutes (I checked) and it was good…I also saw a type of fireworkd I have not seen in Malta.

At this point the throngs of people started departing. But we decided to stay a bit longer, since it was advised that if public safety is at risk, due to the large number of people departing at around 11pm, they would stop the park and ride service for 2 hours. So we made our way to a bar with live music (and another great band and singer) for some drinking and dancing. At 12:30 we were however quite tired and we made our way to the Park and Ride pickup point. We found a bus departing…at 1am…yes they were still working, even though not too many people remained, which I think shows great planning (other aspects which impressed me, and I must mention was the large number of mobile toilets, which were clean, and even had toilet paper in them, even if you went at 4pm, 11pm, whenever…well done).

We got to our car and started the 2 hour trip back to Dublin. Thank god I was not driving…thank you Kevin We all had a nap, whilst he drove, so his efforts are greatly appreciated.

All in all…a great day. I really enjoyed it and look forward to more trips like this

After transporting everything to the new apartment, we went over to the nearby supermarket and bought some supplies, came home and cooked some pizza and made garlic bread. They were delicious MMMMM. We chatted and laughed a bit (or a lot) more, and then they left and I got to do the actual unpacking :S. It did not take too long, around 30minutes, and now everything is in its place WEEEEEE. I now look forward to next Tuesday when I am having a sort of housewarming/Maltese evening for my closest friends. But more about that later

Thank you Monika and Ross. Without you it would have required much more effort, and you made it so much fun We are a great team

Update: as I had a complaint. I also had a call from my sister as she moved house today as well. We showed each other our new apartment (though mine is not much too different to the other I had before). Jealous of my sister…they have a big window and a balcony in their bedroom

On Friday, I then woke up as usual ready for my day at Uni. However I received a special call from Bernard asking me about my plans for the weekend. He does not normally call, but Oh well, I thought it was a nice thing. However before saying goodbye he asked me whether I was able to pick him up from the airport that night, and that is when the rollercoaster began. YIPPIE!…he decided to come on a surprise visit. That meant that I first had to organise my room a bit, and keep up with the Uni stuff. That evening I had a birthday party for one of the girls from the School of Biotechnology, Markella. I headed to her birthday party, but then had to leave early to go pick up Bernard from the airport at around midnight. Fortunately, Ross offered to drive me to the airport to pick Bernard up, which made things much easier, since buses stop running at this time (thank you Ross). We arrived a bit late to pick up Bernard (though it was because the plane landed very early), and then headed home.

The weekend was a packed weekend. We went shopping, visited the Street Performers World championship in Dublin (great event, really enjoyed it, even though it rained), went to the Jameson Distillery Tour (where we got selected to get a whiskey tasting…though at 12 noon it might not have been the brightest idea, but it was great fun), went to Monika’s for the evening where she told us all about her trip to China for a conference and Zahra and Ali showed us the photos from their trip to Malta and Italy. Then Monday, I made my way to the lab, since I had a couple of things I had to do after my visit to Belfast and so on, whilst Bernard entertained himself in the city centre. That evening, a good friend of mine, Marco, was visiting Dublin and DCU, with a group of 9 other Maltese for a course on Science education and inclusion, organised by AcrossLimits from Malta and DCU partners. So that evening, Bernard and myself joined the group for dinner at the city centre.

Tuesday morning, was time for Bernard to leave . However since Marco et al were in Dublin, I ended up going out to dinner with them most nights. The whole group was a great lot. I really enjoyed myself with them and we really had a great time. I hope they did not mind myself butting in to all their evening activities, but oh well, they seemed to be OK about it. It was a good craic as they say in Ireland. The group finally left on Friday afternoon (Boohoo, but thank you Marco for the goodies weeeeee, and Bernard too ).

The weekend was here again in the blink of an eye. Oh I forgot, I went to a softball game on Wednesday, and we WON!!!!…I did some good plays, and some horrible ones as well, but Oh Well. I was pretty tired when the weekend arrived, but first up was a farewell party for Ilaria, a girl from Italy who was doing her masters at DCU. I was pretty exhausted, but I made it to her house and stayed for a bit, before going home to flop into bed and sleep a long long sleep.

The weekend was pretty relaxed. On Saturday I went to IKEA with Monika. Then Sunday I went to softball training and to mass. Then it was back to another week. Sorry for a long post, but I tried to include everything in it. Sorry for the delay, but I was quite busy, and I needed a whole weekend to get my energy back up to write it. Will try to write more regularly, and keep the posts shorter from now on

First up was a trip to Taste of Dublin last Sunday. I won the tickets through the menupages.ie facebook page. I did not get the tickets in the beginning . Luckily for me, some people did not reply back to the email telling them they had won the tickets, so they redistributed the tickets, and WIPPIE, I got 2 tickets to Taste of Dublin. I asked around in my lab, and David took me up on the offer, so Sunday afternoon saw us heading to Iveagh gardens where the event was being held. The weather was not too favourable. The rain had luckily stopped by the time we made it there, but the place, being outside was all muddy. Oh well, we still had a good time going round the different stands and tasting some of the food on offer.

My only possible complaint about the event is perhaps the price of the event (I did not have to pay, but this i what would hold me back next time). Entry to the event is €25 for advance bought tickets (this is the part I got for free). However once you enter the event you still have to pay for most of the foods (you get some samples for free), though most were quite reasonably priced in my opinion. Unfortunately I could not stay too long, so I left David enjoying the evening at the event, whilst I headed to the end of year Pizza BBQ by the OLV young adult group, since during the months of July and August no Sunday 6:30pm Gospel Mass is said, so we met at the Parish Priest’s house for some pizza, drink and an overall good time.

The next freebie was 2 tickets to a preview of the Bridesmaids movie. I got the tickets through the seefilmfirst website. I have been registered on this website since I moved to Ireland, but this is only the second time I received an ‘invitation’, and the first time I actually went. My accompanying partner this time was Ross. We left Uni and made our way to the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre where the cinema was. After a slight detour (to see the sights heqqq hmmm) we arrived at the shopping centre in time to have some dinner, followed by an ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s (MMMMMMM) and then made our way to the cinema. The cinema was completely full (the last 2 people who came in used up the last 2 seats in the cinema…they could not even sit next to each other). But we managed to get relatively good seats I must say.

The film was really funny, and the atmosphere in the cinema was great. We all laughed, gasped and enjoyed the movie together. In some scenes it was pretty disturbing I must say (hence the 16 rating hihi). But I haven’t laughed as much in quite some time. Overall the acting is not that impressive, especially of the Bride. But it does not detract from the story. I loved the actress playing the groom’s sister. I would definitely suggest it for anyone to see.

Those were all my freebies for now Have a good week and hope you are happy to have me back writing instead of Ross

Finally thoughts: 

Overall it was great holiday. Malta is a great place to visit as it’s steeped in history and the people our lovely. My highs were the temples, Mdina by night, swimming with the Fenechs, Seaside reataurant and the fishing village. My lows were getting burnt but apparently I can’t avoid that. I’d like to thank all the Fenechs for their wonderful family [Thank you...I chose my family especially to make you happy with them ] especially Cec’s Mum for putting up with all of us. I’d also like to thank Bernard for driving us around and being our tour guide. Ann it was great to finally have a conversation with you and you’re as nice as you sounded on Gmail chat. Also want to thank Stephen for giving up his room for me. Zahra and Ali , it was great to a have you with us your cooking and company made the trip great. Last but not least I have to thank Cec for inviting me without her the whole trip wouldn’t be possible. She’s a great host , tour guide and lab mate [WEEEEEEEEE]. I will definitely be back to Malta [OH NOOOOO!!!!!!! LOL...you are welcome whenever you want].

By Ross O’Dwyer

Marsaxlokk Bay

We went to visit the ancestral home of the Fenech’s. Cec’s three aunts live in this huge house with a lovely garden in the old part Zurrieq. Ann was there already rocking her new hairstyle. Only two of the aunts were there at the time. All three are aunts are used for their cookery and sewing skills [And for their wonderful company too ]. We had some Kinnie and torta stuffed with peas. It was great. I got to see some pics of the twins when they were young. It was difficult to tell them apart.

We then dropped in on Bernard and his Dad and their boat. I was then given a “choice” of “more battlements” in the three cities or a refreshing swim so judging by the facial expression of Cec I “chose” swimming. After a making a quick phone call to their mum where the sisters ordered her to get ready for swimming. We then went to the house for a quick change into our swimmers and we were off to Ghar Lapsi. The water looked lovely and clear. It was strange for me to get into the sea where the water is up shoulders straight away. I think the Fenechs found the water a bit too cold but for me it was much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean. We were treading water for a bit which was also unusual for me. It’s normally so cold that we have to keep moving! It was nice relaxing though.

At Ghar Lapsi

After our swim and moving the lazy dog that fell asleep behind the car we went home for a quick shower and headed to Mdina Glass to look for presents. There was a huge selection of colourful artistic glassware. You could even see how they made the glass. We then walked to the craft village where Bernard found a plastic banana for 2 euro! We then went to get Cec’s ear re-pierced. After the third shop we managed to find a place that would do it. Cec put on her brave face in front of a scared little girl who was going to have her ears pierced. We then went to a supermarket to stock up on gbejna [Gbejna is definitely the one food item I miss most from Malta, and the one thing I always stock up on when I go home/people come visit]. I got one of each flavour. Then it was off to pick up Bernard’s ukulele. That’s right I said ukulele.

We then headed home to doll ourselves up for a nice and last dinner out . I finally got to wear my shirt! [Are you implying that we did not take you to enough fancy places?...next time it is high class Malta all the way ] We went to this lovely restaurant called Ferretti by the sea at Birzebbugia. I got to have the stuffed squid that Cec had told me about but unfortunatetly it wasn’t stuffed with salmon but rice [Yet still the same prices as if stuffed by salmon, which I think is a bit stupid in hindsight but Oh Well]. It was really good though. For starters we shared a garlic ciabatta with rocket and parma ham. Delicious! Cec had an interesting dessert of lemon sorbet in a hollowed out lemon. The rest of us went for yummy banoffi pie. It was great evening. I am now the unpaid wedding planner for the Fenech-Brincat wedding of 2014/15.

Ross's Dinner

The hosts

Beauty and the Beast (figure out who is who )

When we got home we were pretty tired so went to bed early enough.

By Ross O’ Dwyer

Pastizz

Then we walked up to the main church to have a look around but there was a mass on so we had a walk around the battlements and took some pics. We then went back to the church and had a gander at the interior.

We then drove to this place (Cec help) for some lunch [Ta' Kenuna]. It was a nice restaurant which in a little village that had some great views of the countryside. Cec and I had risotto romano which was a chicken and bacon risotto in a cream sauce. Now I hate to leave food behind but it was just too much for me. Cec left more than me so I won! [Congratulations Ross...you get a medal ] We then changed into our togs (or as the others like to call them swimming costumes) and headed for secluded harbour area where we lay on some concrete and I got burnt through the clouds. After one failed attempt at entering the water Cec never one to give up got in again and her sister and brother soon joined. I thought I’d let the Fenechs bond [Excuses excuses Ross]. Zahra went in to wet her toes and then later for a swim. Poor Ali slipped on the way in and hit his head but still went in.

Dwejra Bay: Inland Sea

[We also looked at the Azure Window...unfortunately the weather was not too nice so it was not really blue, but here is the whole group...except me...infront of this natural beauty].

Azure Window

We then went to a coastal town where we got some ice-cream. The flavour selection was pretty diverse but my chocolate orange was gone [Boohoofoo]. I shouldn’t have let that kid order before me. Anyway then we went to see the salt pans which were holes that had been dug to evaporate off the sea water so that salt would remain at the bottom [Actually we went to see the salt pans before hand hihi].  We also saw some crabs and sea urchins (which apparently goes well with pasta) [Next trip we will find a restaurant that cooks them and you will have to eat them MUHAHAHAHAHA].

We then headed to the ferry terminal but much to Bernard’s annoyance there was a detour in place except the detour wasn’t signposted. So  after a nice alternative view of Gozo we made it back to the ferry (a double-decker). We then left the love birds to it while we stayed put and watched the views. I then switched cars with Marilyn and went back to the Fenechs. Marilyn was dropped off home and the lovers joined us [First you complain that our embrace was not ''romantic'', and then you comment when we spend time together...you are never happy are you ].

We had the aunts famous Ravoli which Cec had be talking up over the past couple of months. It lived up to its expectations though [WEEEE go aunties]. It was delicious. It was topped with a tomato and onion sauce and grated gbejna. Pure perfection. Thankfully Ali and Zahra weren’t too hungry so I got their leftovers [Such a nice friend ]. The plan was to play some board games and then maybe go for a walk around Zurrieq but that didn’t come to pass as we were too tired. Instead we just watched TV while Zahra and Ali packed for their flight to Rome the next morning.

By Ross O’Dwyer

Saturday started early much to Zahra and Ali’s dellight (see positive!). We had some more fruit and fibre and were on our way to see the local delights. The first stop was the Hagar Qim temples. [These temples are older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids in Giza and we are rightly proud of them]. We got a lift to the visitor centre there by Cec’s mum’s friend [Mum was helping out her friend's son, and needed the car to go to pick up Annfrom the airport later].  Bernard had wedding obligations [Not our wedding, but a friend's wedding at which he will be best man and of all days they chose the day I am there Oh Well] so he couldn’t join us. Again we availed of our student discount and proceeded through the new visitor centre which Cec had not been in before. We weren’t very awake [Weren't we happy to wake up early ??] so we kinda skipped through it fairly quickly. We then walked to the tent covered temple. Apparently it was quite controversial to cover the ancient temple but I liked the mix of modern and ancient and it also will preserve the area for future generations. I really liked the temple and ancient carvings. We then moved to the other temples called Mnajdra which was a bit of a walk away and it was quite windy but sunny.  The Mnajdra temple was also covered and was quite similar to the previous temples but had some nice carvings.

Zahra, Ali and Me!...You can see how windy it was

Ross...ensuring the Temples stay up

We then went for a short walk to the Blue Grotto viewing site which was quite impressive and it was nice to hear some stories from Cec of her swimming and diving days around the grotto.

The Blue Grotto

We moved onto to a port and diving area further down the road where we sat, chatted and dipped our toes into the sea. I think we all found it nice to sit down and watch the divers while we soaked our feet in the clear water. [The 'port' is Wied iz-Zurrieq...it is where I spent many a day swimming in past summers, it being a short 20minute or so walk from my house] I saw the famous Italian in Malta joke that Cec was talking about before on a tea towel for sale at a local shop.

At Wied iz-Zurrieq

Wied iz-Zurrieq again

We then got picked up by Cec’s sister Ann and her mum. Cec was picked up by Bernard who was bringing her to their friends to give them a wedding present. It was the first time that I saw Cec’s sis in the flesh [Not true...you had seen her for a few seconds when she visited the lab over Easter] as we had only chatted over gmail before. She had just arrived home and was in good form. She looks and sounds like Cec but most of the time I can tell them apart [Good for you Ross ]. Ali had more trouble distinguishing them. We then went to the house for a traditional Maltese lunch. I’m sure Cec can give you the proper name [Hobz biz-Zejt] but it consisted of bread roll with tomatoes, tuna, olives, capers, onions and gbejna. Cec instructed her mum and sis that I wasn’t to have tuna in mine because I’m not a major fan of it. So they made a special one without tuna. It was yummy! I later tried some of Cec’s with the tuna in it and it did enhance it.

For the afternoon we went to Golden Bay beach as Zahra was hankering for some sunbathing.  Ann kindly drove us there. The Fenech sisters were quite competitive about their driving skills. Zahra and I decided that Cec drives faster but Ann drives smoother. They are going to kill me now! Anyway we arrived at the beach which was definitely golden. There was a hell of a lot of steps down to it but it was worth it. We lay on the beach for a bit whilst waiting for Bernard and Cec to arrive. Once they arrived, Cec, Ann and I went for a swim. They found the water cold but for me, being used to the Atlantic Ocean, it was relatively warm. The sea was so clear but I that wasn’t good for me as it made my legs look eerily translucent .The others lay on the beach. When we got back to the beach Zahra and Ali went for a romantic walk while we dried ourselves off. We then went for some Ice-cream at the cafe and Zahra and Ali joined us. Zahra got herself a long awaited coffee.

Golden Bay: A photo taken on a previous trip by my sister's bf Michael

Off we went back to the house where we left Ali and Zahra make their Iranian food. I tried to help but you know the saying too many cooks spoil the broth. Cec, Ann, Bernard and I went to a Maltese mass where one of the numerous aunts was saying a reading. Obviously I had no idea what the priest was saying but I could follow some of the responses and prayers by reading the pamphlet and looking at the projected screen. The young priest a friend of Cec’s and Bernard’s was really nice and said body of Christ to me when I went up for communion. I thought it was nice of him to make the effort although it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t Maltese as I was translucent (as Ann kindly described me) and also was taller than everyone in the church.  After a lengthy chat with the priest and Cec and Ann’s doctor and his wife, we headed back for our Iranian grub.

The food was impressive as always and everyone enjoyed it. I think I’m getting a taste for Iranian food after Zahra’s yummy birthday feast. We had a chicken, lemon, mushroom soup to start which was certainly different to any soup I had had before and tasted really refreshing. We then had the main course of stuffed bread which is a favourite of mine from Zahra’s birthday.  As usual Zahra with the help of Ali made a great dinner. With all the slagging I give her I can’t slag her cooking. I can’t wait for her to open her Iranian restaurant in Dublin! We had some walnut Ice cream for dessert which was a first for me and some fresh fruit.

We then went to a village feast. This was nice for us tourists but the Maltese were probably sick of going to them. From what I could gather most villages in Malta (apparently towns don’t exist) have feasts to celebrate saints. Each village could have more than one feast. Each feast has a colour and the village would be decorated in this colour for the week of the feast. The village feast we were at (can’t remember the name) was decorated in green [St. Joseph's feast in Ghaxaq].  For the feast the church is decorated and the particular saint’s statue is proudly put on display. It was Saint Joseph’s feast that we attended. In the village square there was a great atmosphere where the band played. Most feasts have firework displays which are made by local volunteers with no chemical experience. We moved to the viewing area where the fireworks are supposedly timed to music but most didn’t seem to match with it. Ann had to leave us to pick up Stephen her brother from the airport but joined us later with jackets as some people were getting chilly. The fireworks were pretty amazing but Cec and Bernard didn’t seem impressed as they had seen so many before. It was longer than other fireworks display that I had been at. Zahra and Ali said they had never been as close to the fireworks as we were. We got a little shrapnel near us but nothing too dangerous. Zahra wasn’t impressed when a piece hit her square on the nose. We then moved to see the ground fireworks. Apparently it is quite common to have these at the feasts. I had never seen them before and I was quite impressed with the intricacies of the designs. Zahra should have some pics and videos of them [Will upload them once I get my hands on them]. Once one of the ground fireworks was lit another is lit and we moved forward to the next. Every time I thought we were moving to the last firework more appeared. After the finale firework we went home to bed.

By Ross O’Dwyer