Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving

Some very lovely embassy folks hosted Thanksgiving this year, so we were only responsible for bringing a dish - my apple pie, of course, as Terry only gets pie when I make it for others (sorry, but it's pretty busy around here!). For my job, though, I did conduct a relatively thorough search for fresh turkeys on the island, as I had located several vendors of frozen turkeys.

Maltese traditionally eat turkey for Christmas. So .... lots of places had small, live turkeys that were not ready for slaughter yet because it is still another month until their turkey season. Plan for next CLO - make nice with a butcher or 2, tell them about Thanksgiving, and convince them to get some turkeys fattened up in time for the American hordes.

Our next adventure is to find Terry a ham for Christmas. I wish him all the luck in the world.

We haven't been adventuring much lately between the craziness of managing Thanksgiving and Christmas as CLO (will never do this again, and I hear it is a common refrain) and the turning weather. Stay tuned though, as we head off the island on Friday for a week on the mainland.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Beating a world record

Tonight Terry came home and said he wasn't in the mood for the dinner we'd planned for tonight, instead he was in the mood for fried chicken after driving past a place on the way home. Once he said it, I immediately craved greasy fried yumminess so I agreed. We gathered food for Alex's dinner and left.

The place is in Birkirkara, so we had to drive. We left the house at 6pm. We got there, drove around the block to find parking, ordered, ate and returned home ... at 6:45pm.

Has such speed ever been met in Malta?? (OK I bet I could get a pastizzi in that time too). Even Burger King takes longer.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Amazing Alex

We try really hard to keep the blog about life in Malta (or, soon, life in St. Petersburg) but sometimes the antics of the diaper set just have to be described. Alex is just over a year old, and took her first real, identifiable steps the day before her 1st birthday. She is also very strong, has been pretty much always.

Last night, she took the empty laundry basket, walked it all the way down our hallway (yes she fell a couple of times but always picked herself up by herself), put it down near-ish to the washing machine, then went over and opened and closed the washing machine door a few times (it's a front loader, she isn't THAT tall). I started giving her small pieces of dirty laundry, a shirt of hers, a sock of Terry's and one by one she stuffed them all into the machine. A few times when i slowed down she would try to shut the door, then she'd open it again when i handed her another piece.

Yep, she's ready for her own set of chores!!