Still on the lookout for a shoe

 The search for that hiking boots is ongoing, and nearing desperation. Don't think I've been constantly searching non-stop though, I haven't! I had exams to think about.

The thing is that there aren't a lot of options when it comes to hiking boots, or shoes in Malta, especially if you have feet problems! As far as I know only one single shop would import a specific brand. For instance, Mochika get Solomon, Surplus and Adventure get Hi-Tec and Lowa, SportsDirect get Karrimor, Gelert, Merrell, and some others. To be fair, I think Solomon is amongst the few brands found across separate outlets. I saw it at Mochika, SportsDirect and Decathlon too, unless I am not mistaken.

I also came across two very cheap hiking boots from SportsDirect and Decathlon, which were selling for 17 euro. The one from SportsDirect honestly had a lot of potential, however I wear my shoes with a special insole, which unfortunately tends to be ticker than most soles that come with the shoe. Sometimes it takes up more space and results in odd creases with each step.

Donnay walking boots

The other 'bargain' was a Quechua shoe, also selling at the grand price of 17 euro or so. However, they run narrow and squeak most irritably! Oh well...

NH100 Walking Boots

Buying a hiking boots can be tricky, as this isn't any shoe where an uncomfortable spot can be tolerated. Spending hours walking in it means that an irritation becomes a blister, swelling, etc. I did, unfortunately, make one bad buy. The first, very first hiking shoe I put my foot into was a Hi-Tec - I just love Hi-Tec shoes. I was a bit hesitant about this one, and turned towards other shoes throughout my search, however, eventually returned to buy it. 

The Hi-Tec boots

Looking back, the fit was obviously small on my feet, and despite spending literally an hour, if not more, walking around with it in the shop I seemed to have overlooked this fact. It was just so wonderful I must have deluded myself into believing the size was right. Fortunately, my mother wears a size smaller than I do and needed a hiking boots too, so at least that's one problem sorted now!

An updated map of Gozo public transport

 This blog is Malta on a map, but er, it’s Gozo that will be getting a map this time. More specifically, an updated map of its public transport. 

My version

I came across a map of Malta and Gozo I had bought a couple of years ago. It isn’t that top notch detailed map to be used while driving, but does include the basics, like the main connecting roads between the towns and village and tourist attractions. This map is, in fact, mainly meant for tourists, and has sections translated in German, Italian, French, and so on.  

Big Map! Packet of Tissues for reference

In one section are two maps of the islands’ public transport. One for Malta, and a smaller map for Gozo. The Gozo one was quite simple, so I decided to make a more detailed, and now updated one!

Tallinja transportation links

I next plan to work on one covering Malta… however, this may be more challenging. There have been more changes to routes and new routes were added. Additionally, main routes ending in Valletta will be trickier to map in terms space comparing to those ending in Victoria, which would be at the centre of the page, and therefore space. I may split them…and have a map with routes serving to and from Valletta and routes between towns themselves. Thoughts?

P.S. I know the new map is looking bare, but I plan to make a copy of it and use water colouring to make it more 3D like the original one! 

Enid Blyton Locations pt. 1

After finishing reading L. M. Montgomery's 'The Blue Castle' last week I got a sudden urge to look up are re-read a book by Enid Blyton that is set in a place called Penrhyndendraith. This is actually a real place in Wales, but we'll get back to that later.

After a bit of searching, I found which book this was - and read The Ragamuffin Mystery within the day. 

As I child I basically grew up reading and re-reading Enid Blyton books, but I hadn't touched them in a while. Now, I read through the story with new perspective.

The beginning of the story in short: With Mr Lynton away in America, his wife and children Roger and Diana set off in a caravan and car, and invite their friend Miss Pepper with them. However, an accident to their aunt alters their plans. Mrs Lynton takes the car and goes to see her sister, and in the meantime Barney and his father who were touring Scotland travelled south to help the others (now stranded without a car). They end up staying at an inn at Penrhyndendraith, and are soon joined by their energetic, if not a bit crazy, cousin Snubby and dog Loony who was meant to be staying at his aunt for the holidays. 

Penrhyndendraith 

Here is Penrhyndendraith on the map- it on the coast in the North of Wales. Way above is Scotland... so Barney and his father must have had quite a journey to reach the others. I'm not sure where Roger, Diana & Co were touring in the beginning, I may have missed it if is in the book. However, they had planned a 3 week holiday and were apparently traversing several counties. The place Yesterley is mentioned, but a quick search on the map will show this to be factious. 

Just a mile or so from Penrhyndendraith is Portmeiron, which is perhaps the main attraction of the area nowadays. This little village will appear quite out of place and as if it's a part of Italy. Indeed, the architecture is remarkably different compared to similar buildings in North Wales. 

Don't mind the alarmy stock photo, but you can assume which one is Portmeiron. The buildigns are just so colourful!

Back to the book - Penrhyndendraith supposedly has Merlin's Cove where the children go swimming, and have part of their adventure here. However, there seems to be no real such Cove - Blyton may have gotten the idea from a Merlin's Cave which is way down south in Cornwall, near Tintagel. 

Merlin's CAVE, Tintagel

Snubby ends up playing 'ragamuffin' and accidentally gets himself, and the others, involved in a mystery-adventure. As is common in many of the Enid Blyton story plots, the 'scourges' end up being fellow guests at the same place the others were staying in. Awkward! Needless to say, Miss Pepper is left completely ignorant of the dramatic happenings that unfold throughout the book. 

Despite trying to hide from these 2 men staying at the same inn, they are recognised. So Snubby makes a hasty escape halfway through breakfast and spends a day away in Dilcarmock. Barney accompanies him. Again, here is Blyton being creative, as there seems to be no such place.

They return and soon after the story quickly unfolds. The owner of the inn, Mr Jones, ends up being involved in the bad works and all 3 men are taken away. The story ends with his wife, Mrs Jones, apparently begging Miss Pepper to stay a while longer, to which Miss Pepper agrees. Her son Dayfdd and goose Waddle start to get along with the others and the lot spend their days at the beach. 

So it is a seemingly 'all's well that end's well' ending, but as a mature reader, I can't help feeling it a bit emotionally detached. After all, Mrs Jones' husband and Dayfdd's father has just been taken away and his family members appear to be left none the worse. They couldn't have been too close to start off with! Whatever their relationship was, they certainly showed resilience and adapted quickly!

Easter Sunday

 Happy Easter everyone! Hurrah, the day is finally here! Today is literally perfect weather, such a nice surprise after how it has been the past week, and we've already gone on a nice walk to Chadwick Lakes with the family. 

Despite the fact that it was raining on Friday afternoon by evening the weather had cleared so the procession went out as planned. Some other towns, like ones in Gozo and a few in Malta cancelled unfortunately.

Saturday was such a busy day - I was on my feet from morning to night with 'house stuff'. The big project is finally (well, almost) finished and we've been busy putting things back in their place. Some books, though, and diaries, will undoubtedly find themselves in a new location, as we have so many it's easy to forget where was where. In addition to that the university books have been placed in the outer wall unit, to make an impression on guests haha. 

I then later baked some figolli - which are a type of traditional Maltese desert - vary as much as you like with the sugar! Some recipes use over a hundred grams, others like to add icing. We use 50 for the dough, 50 for the filling, and like to keep the top plain, just for the sake of keeping a healthy diet. They are so good the whole lot practically finishes in a day or two... and that's a lot of butter!

NOT MINE!!

Unfortunately this year the usual heart shape cutter we always used got lost somewhere in the decluttering process, and is put away in a box, so we had to be a bit original with the shapes. I ended up making 4 big rectangles that fit in one dish, 2 smaller rectangles, 2 small 'sandwich' like triangles and a heart I cut without a shape. The heart actually came out pretty good! 

If anyone would like to try it out, here is the recipe>>

For the dough 

- 600g white flour

- 250g butter

- 50g brown sugar

- Lemon zest

- Water

For the mix

- 200g pure ground almonds (intrita)

- 50g sugar

- Lemon and orange zest

- Some orange juice

- Water

For the dough start by mixing the flour and the butter. You can use the rubbing in method, or alternately chuck everything in the mixer and let it do the mixing. After the butter is nicely 'dissolved' add in the sugar, and lemon zest. Then, add some water, until the mixture looks dough-like and good enough to roll open. 

For the mixture, simply add the crushed almonds and sugar in a separate bowl. Grate the rest of your lemon, and an orange, and squeeze some orange juice out of it. Add a bit of water until the mixture is a bit more moist, but not too moist!

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper, or whatever you like to use, and on a surface roll out your dough. I like to make the base thicker. Once done, spread the mixture over your base and place the thinner rolled dough on top. Seal the perimeter with your fingers or use a fork for a more elegant design. 

Bake in the oven (at 180? I think) for about 45m.

A clean up and a clear out! House project #1

 Well spring is finally here (although the weather does not imply it) and a major spring clean up is underway in the house. My so called 'clean-ups' are usually, quite frankly, a disaster. I take everything out of their place, go though the whole lot and think to myself how wonderful everything is. "This may come in handy later" and "oh, the potential of this one!" and dump everything back in the cupboard. Not much of a clean up...

But this time, a handsome amount of items found themselves in the bin! The parents have applied for an energy saving scheme and we now have the house upside down. It's literally a construction site with dust floating about such that the kitchen looks hazy from the end of the corridor. 

The 5mm gypsum boards. No dust atm

Also I'm down with the cold... with dad sneezing his head off (allergic to dust) and my sniffling into tissues made an interesting orchestra...

In short, our house gets very hot in summer. We are on a high floor and hot air rises, so between mid-day and the afternoon, especially it feels like a mini-boiler inside. Furthermore, there are no other buildings touching our block so that makes it much hotter. The government has been giving grants to encourage home-owners who 'upgrade' their property to be more sustainability. I'd think we'd probably already topped the charts...what with solar panels, solar water heater, triple glazing, and parquet... But dad decided to insulate the house with 3mm and 5mm gypsum board around the kitchen, corridor and two of the bedroom's walls.

The corridor. 

The work has started this week and it should take a week or so to get everything finished because the gypsum needs to be cut to fit some tricky corners, and there is quite a big area to cover. 

Well anyway...back to the 'clean up'. We've had to empty...

- the three and a half meter wall unit that spams the whole kitchen/living room wall

- two wardrobes that have a considerable (ahem, allow me repeat) CONSIDERABLE
amount of clothes

- a further smaller wardrobe; and 

- some open shelves

Besides that everything in the corridor, and other main areas had to either be moved or covered with large sheets of plastic.

Dad's room isn't going to be affected by the project so needless to say it's currently exploding with stuff at the moment.

That's all for now. After 2 days the kitchen, corridor and half a bedroom are already finished! That's quick work. 

Creative photo? Sitting on my cushion.

Cat's doing well. She's been in dad's room navigating the jungle of books, bags and furniture added to the room. 

Downhill All the Way

The above title is what K.M. Peyton decided to name her book, and it describes exactly the type of walk my father and I went on yesterday. 

The book

To start off with, it would probably be a good idea to give a brief overview. After 2 months "in convalescence" it was high time I got to do a little exploration again, and what better way to do it, than going 'downhill all the way?'. To be fair we had been going on a walk here and there, but yesterday happened to be an off day and after running some errands around the central areas of the island we had some time to kill and headed to Bahrija. (Not directly though...we're not that energetic).

What I really had in mind was to explore Fomm ir-Rih. This little pebbly/rocky beach is quite secluded and not easily accessible. Usually we'd walk to the hanging cliffs above it from the Bingemma area (path in red) but there would be a road from the opposite side (yellow line). This seemed to be coming from Bahrija, and I intended to find out! 

Map of Bingemma/Bahrija area

We happened to arrive right when school was about to be finished for the primary children. Already some parents had parked their cars to the side, and the building struck me as being in such an idyllic location. It was the furthest in the village, overlooking the flora and fauna. 

The walk was so beautiful, and everything felt so fresh, especially after not being in the 'proper' outdoors for a while. This week has been really nice and sunny. It's a good break from the previously stormy and very windy days of December and January. 

At a point the path forks and we took the left path. When I looked it up on the maps later I found that it was the other road that led to Fomm ir-Rih, but the one we took was still nice. There was even a hiking trail along the cliffs but that will be an other adventure...

In search of a new hiking boots!

Shoes, shoes, shoes! If you're anything like me you'll probably know what a hassle it is to find the right shoes - that perfect pair that will then stay in your shoe closet until they fall apart...

Or until you notice there is a huge dent pressing on your toe! Unfortunately this week I had to remove my old hiking boots after finding one such dent in the toe box, it wasn't the type that could be fixed and continue wearing it would most certainly have resulted in an ingrown toenail...

I had got the HI-TEC HELONE MID WP WO'S AVS.220.05 hiking
boots three years ago and have put it to good use indeed. It has travelled a thousand miles to step foot on foreign land while on holiday in England, and traced miles of the Maltese (and Gozitan) countryside! Despite only being the second pair of hiking boots owned it definitely beats any pair of shoes I previously owned. The toe box was decently wide, wide enough to be comfortable for a bunion, and by time the structure changed to match my feet's shape. And it's waterproof, which is a big plus for British weather and trekking through muddy lanes.

Now the search is on for a new shoe. I've already had a look at some of the main outdoor shops that sell hiking boots and such. There aren't that many in Malta. Probably the most decently priced are Decathlon and Sports Direct, although Decathlon has a limited number of options. That is where I got the first pair from. It wasn't waterproof.

Sports Direct has much more options and has brands like Karrimor, which like HI-TEC, is also a British brand. It also has an online website with additional discounted prices but I consider getting shoes without trying them on a big risk. Especially if they are going to be used for a lot of walking. Another good shop is Surplus and Adventure, where I got the HI-TEC boots. 

Despite spending near hours trying on practically every shoe in the shops I still haven't found the right pair. Having a bunion tends to limit options more - most boots aren't wide fit from the front. I shall probably be visiting these shops again to re-try some of the 'so-so' shoes, because no shoe will be perfect, and I do need a shoe!

Hope to find a good pair soon...