Comino, so desolate, yet so rich a part of Malta's story

This is the first guest post from Evarist Bartolo, Shadow Minister for Education and a lecturer in communications at the University of Malta. More than 30 years ago, he taught one of Malta Inside Out’s founders, Alex Grech, to write and appreciate English literature.

There are at least 500 islands in the Mediterranean. One of them has six inhabitants: four men and two women. The youngest is a 42-year old man; the oldest is a woman, twice his age.

Throughout the last 23 centuries pirates, hermits, prisoners of war, exiled knights, farmers and tourists have settled the island. Some 80 years ago, one of the German prisoners of World War I held there, built a water mill driven by a rat. Apart from rats, bats and wild rabbits, most of the inhabitants there have been pigs.

2,500 years ago, the navigator Scillace called it ‘Lampas’. Cluverius called it ‘Hephaestia’. 1,800 years ago Ptolemy referred to it as ‘Chemmona’. ‘Kineni’ in Greek means nearest to and Comino lies nearest to Malta. The Arabs called it ‘Kemmuna’ perhaps a corruption of the Greek word, or a reference to the plant of ‘kemmun’ (cumin) which covered large areas of the island at the time.

In 1285, Abulafia, one of the earliest Cabalists and born in Saragossa in 1240, arrived on Comino to live there for three years during which he compiled his “Sefer ha-Ot” (The Book of the Sign).

Five years before he found refuge in Comino, Abulafia went to Rome to convert Pope Nicholas III to the ideal that Moslems, Jews and Christians could live together in harmony, instead of persecuting one another. He fled to Comino after being flung into prison for four weeks in Rome and then having to leave Palermo hastily as his teachings were considered too dangerous and he was going to be stoned by the people.

While Abulafia lived in a cave at one end of the island, at the other end pirates sheltered in the bays and caves which were excellent hiding places for them for many centuries. We know of at least two local hermits who lived there for some time. A small Catholic community must have lived there over 600 years ago, big enough to sustain a medieval chapel.

The island was probably abandoned when the raids by corsairs became frequent, as the inhabitants had no fortifications in which to seek refuge. In the 15th century, taxes had been collected by imposing an excise duty on wine imported from Sicily but the money was not used for the tower that had been planned for Comino. In 1533 Grand Master l’Isle Adam also commissioned a plan for a tower on the island but again this project fizzled out.

Grand Master Wignacourt built the existing tower in 1620 and 30 soldiers were stationed there. At this time, knights who had misbehaved in Malta were punished by being sent to Comino.

The island was to serve as a prison camp on a number of occasions. At the end of the French occupation, Comino was used for French prisoners, Maltese who were accused of spying for the French and common criminals.

150 years ago, farmers from Naxxar settled on Comino and started growing crops. The 1881 population census for the Maltese Islands tells us that 20 males and 13 females lived in Comino. Ten years later, the population had increased by 10: 25 males and 18 females. Nearly half of the inhabitants, 17, were children under the age of five.

In 1912, Comino served as a site for an isolation hospital for cholera victims. Soldiers wounded in the war of the Dardanelles were also sent to Comino for treatment. The hospital building still stands there.

Several times during the last 200 years there were several big projects to make use of Comino, including a big pig farm in 1993, when the island was considered ideal to rebuild the Maltese and Gozitan pig industry after African swine fever disease destroyed it.

Comino is a small rock that has seen almost as many twists and turns of fate as its larger sister islands. These days, apart from its six residents, it’s home to one hotel, seasonal staff and tourists, numerous sea craft and a very popular blue lagoon.

Photo: Therese Debono

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TLC by ELC means Malta's roundabouts are oases of green

The place to find green all year round in Malta isn’t the countryside, but our manicured urban areas. Here, roundabouts sport neat turf, irrigation sprinklers (sometimes on in the full heat of summer at 1pm for some reason), evergreen trees and a variety of annual colour – flowering rosemary, gaudily bright pelargoniums and various bedding plants.

The area of even turf can be so large on some roundabouts that kids in the back of my car often remark that they’d make tempting places to play football. Pitches here are Astroturf or gritty dust bowls usually.

Where do Malta’s green fingers come from?
The colour and variety of our roundabouts changes almost monthly as the public-private cooperative, Environmental Landscapes Consortium (ELC), that maintains them, seems to have a constant supply of seasonal plants from its Wied Incita Nursery on the Attard-Mdina/Rabat road. And, of course, replanting all the time keeps people nicely employed. I do wonder at tender pansies out in late February when they can be beaten down in an instant by the vicious rains and high winds we can still have this time of year.

A delight for drivers
Since Malta has large urban areas, with towns cheek by jowl, and a high density of cars on the road per head of population (Malta ranks 5th worldwide for cars per 1,000 people) we drivers spend a lot of time crawling along. So, we’ve have come to appreciate the greening of our urban landscape that has been going on since 2003 when ELC started up. For an interesting read on Malta’s car density issue, click here, and scroll down.

The approach to Valletta along St Anne street, Floriana is always a riot of colour despite registering some of Malta’s worst emission and particulate pollution. The roundabouts in Qormi, another heavily urban area, are a welcome sight as are the planted-up central reservations on the Regional Road. Even several countryside verges have had a make-over.

We’ve also bougainvillea attempting to clad the unsightly walls on the Kappara hill part of the Regional Road. How they will be watered in so dangerous a place till their roots find solace deep below Tarmac, I don’t know.

Urban safety first, urban plants second
In fact, the only negative thing I can say about the whole urban verge and roundabout greening is the traffic hazard posed by the badly parked vans of the maintenance staff or bowsers. It’s quite common to round a bend or emerge from a tunnel and suddenly find a maintenance van parked in your lane without prior warning. A few cones aren’t enough; we need notices saying ‘lane closed, men at work in 500m’, to give us time to change lane safely and avoid screeching to a halt with the potential of a mass of ‘front-to-rear’ bumps. I am waiting for the day an ELC man or a bowser guy is mowed down too.

We like the green, but with a few more cones, some commonsense and caution, we’d like the greening that much more.

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Viewing is one thing, doing is another: the dilemma of a would-be volunteer

Being a volunteer for a good cause comes naturally to some people. We all know of someone who fits this category, and we admire them. But what happens when we’re put on the spot and asked to ‘help out a bit’? Our pained expression belies our guilt at really wanting to do some good, but then we start thinking about our limited time, the pressures of work and our own families (kids’ extra-curricula activities take up our time, there’s the supermarket shop to fit in, an MBA to study for…and so on).

We’ve all been in the ‘I would help, if I could, but you know what it’s like….’ situation. But late last year, a group of students at the University of Malta came up with a new style of volunteering which makes it far easier for us to give some time, using our particular expertise, when and where we can. There are obligations, but within a far more manageable framework of volunteering. Here’s how it works, in their words.

What is Get up, Stand Up?
GetupStandup is a new voluntary organisation created to offer more channels for activism in Malta. The desire to promote love and friendship among all people is at the core of our beliefs. In Malta, there are many community-oriented projects, but the areas of human rights and cultural acceptance are often neglected. So, our initial focus has been on improving the conditions of immigrants, spreading awareness about human rights and campaigning for improved inter-cultural relations.

Whilst the immigration issue is close to our heart, there are many other social causes which we feel deserve more awareness. The environment, education and poverty, are particular aspects of human life which we feel passionate about, and which we want to devote our energies towards changing.

A new approach to volunteering
We feel that there are plenty of people who have a passion for social causes, but many don’t end up getting involved with any projects because of a fear of long commitments. Our website is designed to allow people to commit to roles within different projects and events. This means that you can choose a role depending not only on how much it interests you, but also to the extent of time you can give to it and playing to your strengths and areas of expertise.

Get Involved
Each project or event that we take on is coordinated by one or two project managers. This means that any project can be undertaken by the group, as long as there is a project manager to take responsibility for it. So if you can identify with our causes, or you feel like a cause you are passionate about ties in with our group, please contact us!

Apart from affecting change with small steps through our projects we also feel passionate about creating an environment where we challenge ourselves. Thomas Edison summed it up when he said “Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress”. We want to create an environment where young people challenge their beliefs and think creatively without the inhibitions of dogma. We hope to create a platform for debate, discussion and friendship!

Come and visit us here: www.getupstandup.org.mt

Final word (Editor’s note)
Clearly, some roles like project manager need people who can commit more. But, the ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ way in which we can give time frees us up to help with less worry about committing and at least gives some projects man-hours that otherwise would never come their way. Finally, don’t be cynical about this initiative; and note too that being generous and compassionate lifts our own spirits and can bring us well being (if we still have the need to think of ourselves as we volunteer).

Photo: Walter Lo Cascio

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Locked away. Because nanny state Malta knows best

Were any of you marching against censorship tonight? Or were you just curling up, waiting for the football to get going on TV? Or perhaps merely nodding at the comments that pepper the mainstream media about the issue?

It’s bizarre that we’re still talking about censorship in 2010 in an EU country. But that’s just the way things have panned out over the past 24 months or so. A play was banned; a magazine normally distributed on the university campus was similarly banned and the editor reported to the police; the normally raucous Nadur Carnival was more muted than usual following veiled threats that the police wished to ‘vet the lyrics’ of songs and harass people dressed in religious garb. And the debate rumbles on, online, with the Front against Censorship and offline. There’s more material here.

We’re not getting on any soap box or bandwagon. We’ve identified doing away with archaic censorship laws on our 2010 wish list. We don’t know if a march is what it takes to get people to resolve many lacunae in archaic legislation or even if the issue will get hijacked by groups with their own social or political agendas.

But the censorship issue – and particularly the censorship of all things ‘cultural’ – needs to be addressed and resolved quickly if the rumblings about a police state, religious zealots or high-handed tactics are to be permanently quelled.

The trouble with small places is that sometimes it is all too easy for someone in a position of power to lever on some long-forgotten piece of legislation to exert control. Malta needs to wake up to the 21st century, repeal its censorship laws and put some trust into the maturity of its citizens.

Photo: Gethin Thomas

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An old greenhouse - sadly not the only house Malta's centipedes inhabit

This article is about centipedes. And while this isn’t that appealing a topic, it will have a familiar ring to anyone living in Malta, particularly during the rainy, humid months of autumn to late spring. If you live in an old, stone house with pot plants, a patch of soil or rubble walls around you, then the black centipede will be your house mate for the winter. I live with plagues, and I mean plagues, from October to around mid April, when the stone finally begins to dry out. Then, in peak summer months, I find (fewer) centipedes in the house – but they’ve worked out inside is far cooler and damper than out when it’s 40 degrees C plus. But right now, I dread venturing out on my back patio after dark to pick a herb I need in the cooking. The stone is simply seething with the things.

I am writing this post to illuminate anyone like me who hasn’t quite cured the problem of how to rid premises of them, and also to assuage the fears of any unsuspecting tourist who may find one in a rented property, or, dread of dreads, in a hotel room.

If you have close fitting windows and doors, you may rarely come across one. If you do, rest assured they are harmless, if rather ugly. Internet research reveals them to be the Black Portuguese Centipede, and the majority of references to them as ‘pests’ come from Australian sources. Apparently, the creature arrived as an unwanted guest aboard a ship in around 1950, and has now colonised most of Southern Australia. Hardly anyone in the Mediterranean has commented on them – I think we’re just so used to them.

I am sure my son has a kiddies’ story that has a nice, caricature-style drawing of a centipede in it. And there’s Roald Dahl’s ‘James & the Giant Peach’ centipede of course. But my slithering companions are not nice. Woe betide if you step on one. Quite apart from the massive crunch, they leave an indelible stain on the limestone floor, and give off a really ‘orrible pong’. I was in an upmarket interiors shop in Sliema earlier this year and smelled their unmistakable smell – I, or another client had just done the honour of stepping on one.

How to cull their numbers
Not easy this one, but a quick way to stem numbers and hatching is to make sure you sweep up regularly all leaf and organic debris littering your patio. They are herbivores and thrive in leaf mould and damp conditions. Lift pots up – incredibly they sneak under them very easily however tight the pot is to the ground. I found an Australian company that does a kind of frictionless compound that you can apply as a strip along under doors ledges and right along the wall for a few inches. I am not sure it’s available in Malta, but here’s the link. On my rugged stone, I’d need a good few pots to remove the friction those centipedes’ legs love to move on.

For an amusing – if that’s the right word – low down on these kritters, see an American in Malta’s story here.

Photo: Mohamed Dabub

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The edible thistle, the globe artichoke, in season aplenty in Malta right now

I have just seen Jamie Oliver’s TED talk video. Love or hate his style, Jamie is just about the only celeb voice consistently banging on about the junk that’s in a lot of kids’ diets these days, whether they’re eating at home, school or on the street. His crusade to get us to feed our kids healthily has now extended to America. His TED talk showed a clip of what looks like five-year olds in class unable to name correctly, or recognise at all, basic fruit and veg like potatoes and tomatoes (let alone an artichoke). Scary stuff. They looked as if they’d never seen a raw ingredient.

A few weeks ago, my son started receiving a portion of fruit or vegetables in a small plastic container, once a week, at school break. The initiative is part sponsored by the European Union. Malta has high child obesity rates ranking pretty much alongside the US rates. The veg in schools initiative is therefore laudable, but has its problems. I saw one of the offerings as he brought it home, part eaten. It was watery lettuce, cucumber and a bland, anaemic tomato. Kids can like salad, but usually it has to appeal to them. This was rabbit food at its worst and I could barely eat it.

The art of veggie shopping in Malta
Having Jamie’s TED talk and my family’s health at the forefront of my mind, I ended up scrutinising more carefully than usual my shopping basket of goods in the supermarket today. I don’t mean I paused over the low-fat, but high-sugar yoghurt (health-con) products, but I made a point of taking a long hard look at the labeling of the fruit and veg. A recipe on my menu plan for the weekend required ’snow peas’ – not in season right now, if ever, in Malta. There were some on display though, cellophane wrapped, and stating that they were from Guatemala.

Far too many food miles to contemplate that purchase. Similarly, though I love pineapple and mango, I gave them a miss too and opted for what’s local, in season, plentiful and therefore cheap. At present, that means strawberries! I usually reckon on strawberry season in March, but with growing under plastic and our exceptionally mild winter, they are in the shops now – and they are huge, sweet and just five, reasonably sized ones can provide a child’s Vitamin C quota for the day (according to nutritionist Natalie Savona. See below).

Pick ‘n’ Mix, Squash ‘n’ Squeeze those veggies
In Malta, a good deal of our fruit and veg comes loose, definitely on the veggie carts, and even in supermarkets. That’s a good start to cooking from scratch with raw ingredients. The loose goods are generally local if they are common fruit and veg – or from Sicily.

You can of course get most things, like those snow peas, from anywhere in the world, but why bother? Only around three per cent of Malta’s population is in agriculture, but they work hard and eke out a fairly good spread of raw ingredients. Broccoli, spinach and artichokes are some tempting veg that is in season at the moment. I know that the impoverished soil here might mean that some farmers spray a lot of chemicals around, but who knows what is on most of the imported fruit and veg, unless is says ‘organic’, which itself has been in dispute as the manna from heaven. Wash, scrub and peel things, I say, when in doubt.

Like most canny shoppers in continental Europe, the Maltese housewife (and I use that term because many women do describe themselves here as that) touches and squeezes the produce and digs deep the in plastic tray to find the best of the tomatoes or whatever. There’s a lot of pecking and picking over goods, and the barging aside of other shoppers (as I witness on my local veggie cart days). The economical shoppers go out of their way to ask for any veg that’s almost past its best. I often see people buy a load of wilting this or that to pop in a ‘brodo’ or stew. These are people who use every last sad veg from the bottom of the fridge, and why not? In these times, we have a thing or two to learn from them.

Maltese-descent Celeb Nutritionists
As an afterword, it’s worth noting that the Islands have two Maltese-descent UK celebrity nutrionists to their name. Natalie Savona, an academic and practitioner who has written for and broadcasted extensively in national UK media; and Dr John Briffa who had a long-running column in the UK Observer and has an active blog.

Now, I’m off to work out how to dissect those massive globe artichokes I bought on whim, and see if I can learn what to do with them! They were going like hot cakes on the veg cart yesterday. Damn, I should have called upon the collective wisdom of my fellow ‘housewife’ shoppers to ask their advice…

Related Posts
Cost of Living: Food shopping in Malta
How to shop at the village veggie store
Pumpkin: not just for Halloween
Strawberry Fair

Photo: James

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Pointed comments in a blog. But who will come out of all this walking tall?

A week is a long time in politics, they say. But it’s more like thirty years if you’re talking about Malta. Because this week has seen some thirty years of dirty laundry (including juicy bits that leave Sex & the City seeming bland) washed in public by Malta’s very own A-list blogger, political and social pundit, commentator and doyenne of the media columns – Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Who? Say the name ‘Daphne’ to anyone who’s been more than a few months in Malta, and they will not be thinking of a middle-aged mother of three grown-up sons, but of a razor sharp pen, no-holes-barred approach to writing about anyone and anything, and a publish-and-be-damned approach to the media. Daphne this week became the ‘Daily Daphne’ and I would hazard a guess that the majority of Malta’s 400,000 population was reading her next installment. Daphne grew up writing print columns, but what we’re all reading is her blog. That’s where her power base now lies.

Malta’s past has seen institutional powers try to censor and even close down print media; the last few days has seen the powers that be get to grips with the blog. We’re all waiting to see if the daily Daphne will be gagged, switched off, sued or whatever else can shut her off.

So, as the word got around this week, Daphne’s blog was getting more hits than the mainstream media, such as the Times. If you click on the ‘Most viewed’ and ‘Most commented’ section of her blog, you will find out why.

But what’s of real interest is that in Malta, blogging and citizen media are finally coming of age. You could opine that the furore this week is an exception, that Daphne is simply a trusted, trained journalist who has managed to migrate her skills sets and social capital seamlessly to new media; but you cannot fail to notice that something is changing as far as media production and power systems in Malta are concerned. That while only a couple of years ago, you had to rely on a letter to be printed in a newspaper for you to have ‘a voice’, you can now set up your Web 2.0 stall somewhere and become a media producer in a matter of a few minutes. As long as you have something to say, even in a micro-market like Malta, you have a chance to connect and engage with people who would not necessarily be buying a newspaper. And perhaps more importantly, to say things that the mainstream, for various reasons – including concerns about libel – would simply not support.

It’s been the week when the term ‘global village’ really resonated in Malta.

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The signs are that Gozo is the place to head for dental treatment these days!

Malta has quietly been establishing itself as a medical tourism destination in recent years. The islands can claim a long and veritable history in medicine from the time of the Knights of St John to their role as ‘nurse of the Mediterranean’ in World War II.

Despite the Sterling-Euro exchange rate of the past year or so, Malta still seems to be attracting medical tourists. Its pull is not only its value-for-money, professional medical and dental treatment but also its climate, culture, English-speaking medical staff and relative ease of access from European cities.

For Britons, facing a lack of NHS dentists and exorbitant rates for ‘going private’, a trip here makes sense. For some, it’s almost a home from home. At the tail end of last year, journalist Jennifer Pulling joined them, taking the dental tourism trail to Gozo, Malta’s small sister island.

Here, she describes her ‘dental Odyssey’ on Calypso’s Isle.

It actually all began the Christmas before last. I wanted to escape the frantic shopping fest and plumped for Gozo. I basked in warm sunshine, sat in deserted village squares and discovered the mix of sacred and pagan in the island’s folk lore and myth. But even here I couldn’t escape the nagging anxiety about my teeth. As I walked across the salt pans on Christmas Day, I told myself I would not let another year pass without resolving it. I wasn’t sure how as I knew that I could never afford the verging on £20,000 my UK dentist was asking.

The answer came out of the blue. One evening, I opened the local Yellow Pages and looked up dentists. The following day I stood in a telephone box in Victoria making a call to a dental clinic. A few days later I flew home with all the literature.

Never one to make decisions swiftly, it took me almost a year to find the courage to go for it. In the meantime, the enormity of the problem and the lengths Brits go to solve it surprised me.

Some 70,000 Britons went outside the country for health care in 2007, a figure which was expected to rise to 200,000 by 2010. Out of a sample of 650 UK health tourists, savings on treatment cost accounted for 92% of the reasons for having treatment done abroad. 97% of medical tourists said they would ‘definitely go abroad for medical treatment again’. The ex-UK medical tourism market is currently worth £375 million. Dentistry is a particularly good example, due to the UK’s shortage of National Health dentists.

I’m a journalist who goes for research in a big way. The Google machine was both a blessing and a curse, taking up hours of my time as I ploughed through websites on dentistry abroad. The British Dental Association made gloomy reading as it only pointed out the pitfalls: number of visits required, qualifications and experience to check, and darkest of all, what does one do if things go wrong.

In my capacity as a journalist, I got the chance to check out a Bulgarian clinic, but the young age of the dentist there, and the clinic’s rather austere atmosphere despite its professional manner somewhat dissuaded me from taking that route. So I returned to Malta to combine a holiday with a trip to that Gozitan clinic. It was incredibly hot and the long bus journeys coupled with ferry crossings were exhausting. But from the moment I stepped into the practice I felt I had come home.

[eds. note: Jennifer was mid-way in her treatment writing this but was impressed with the care, attention to detail, time and professionalism she has received at the Gozitan clinic she chose.]

The confidence in knowing I am now on the road to correcting my teeth has over spilled into other areas. I have no qualms about returning to begin on the next phase, the implant procedure I need. In fact I can’t wait.

Perhaps I won’t have absolutely perfect teeth. There have been far too many years of my own and some UK dentists insouciance…..but I’ll be able to talk, laugh and eat with confidence. I have taken the step in time. I dipped into my savings and had the initiative to take myself to Gozo. What of those who can do neither and must suffer broken, painful and missing teeth for the rest of their lives?

I look back on that call I made from a Gozitan telephone box; it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Jennifer was treated at the Savina Dental Clinic, Gozo.

Photo: Therese Debono

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Full of character, but still waiting to be understood.

If you’re thinking of renting a house in Malta, for a holiday or longer stay, you’ll come across the term ‘house of character’. My first reaction to this charming personification that crops up in holiday brochures and estate agents’ descriptions is ‘yes, they certainly are’! My second is ‘but whatever their faults, I love them!’ I’ve 12 years’ experience to fall back on, so I’ve got to know every quirk of my place.

But if you’re new to the concept, what is a ‘typical house of character’ in Malta and Gozo, and in what sense do they have character?

What they are
Well, the pictures you’ll see mostly show honey-coloured old stone houses perhaps with a shock of bright pink bougainvillea over the door or gracing the courtyard, but hopefully not near the pool as it drops brachts (the ‘flowers’) all the time! The limestone will be mellow and roughly hewn, not smoothed and bright white in the sun. You’ll see arches, wooden beams, spiral stairways (internal and outside), terraces, never a straight wall, pregnant (bowed, wrought iron-clad) windows and myriad niches, nooks and crannies. Charm indeed.

Where they are
Houses of character are mostly found in old village cores up the winding alleys. Even though terraced houses in theory, they are often called farmhouses because they feature large, arched rooms that were used as stables or as milling rooms. My neighbour must have one of the few mill rooms in a time warp, with the old mill stones still in place. Occasionally, you’ll find a house of character detached, out in the countryside; though the standalone ones are often partly or entirely newly built from old stone (a trend in Gozo where developers realised there weren’t enough of the right-sized holiday homes to meet demand). The term house of character is somewhat loose as it also covers older town houses with roofed balconies. I don’t tend to think of any 20th century town houses as being ‘of character’.

Living in them…
Their true character shines through when you live in them though. If you are passing through them on a week or two’s holiday, they will charm. But here, we relate the findings of some longer-term residents of character houses. Their experiences are useful to those thinking of moving to Malta and renting one.

Finding the house
Most properties (sale or rental) are listed with more than one real estate agent, so make sure you don’t see the same place twice. Be clear about what you’re looking for and if you are an expat, be prepared for some raised eyebrows. Quote: “Our agent was young Sliema (ie. town) lad and shocked we would consider a character house and the countryside! Most assume expats want to live in penthouse flats.”

Rates you can expect to pay
Rental rates vary widely, and it’s not always a case of you get what you pay for. Be prepared to negotiate on the rental. For a 3- to 4-bed place, with some guest space, outdoor BBQ area and pool/pool deck area, you can find properties ranging from €2,000/m – €6000 (and the upper rate one included a view of the old rubbish dump)! Houses of character can have weird bedroom layouts, with one room accessed only via another (so no landing or corridor). So the concept of ‘bedrooms’ to gauge size is vague. You have to go and see places to really know what’s what and whether they are worth the price.

What to look out for when viewing. Hidden extras to pay? Ease of getting maintenance done?
Some larger places do come with a handyman/caretaker,which is a boon to new arrivals in Malta. Electricity is expensive, so look for other ways of heating and cooking (and cooling in summer – ie. some people almost never use AC). There is a pool licence to pay which can mount up if your pool is large. Pools need maintainance (€40-150/month!), and in the summer if being used a lot, pump needs to run 12+hrs a day – which bumps electricity usage up. If you’ve children, be aware of pool safety. Many pools are in courtyards or open to deck areas.

Location: do check the vicinity
Beware noisy neighbours! Especially dogs on the roof. Constant barking can be mind-blowing. I’ve had a neighbour’s dog bark for 10 hours non-stop, literally. And think about parking in those alleys and village cores.

Costly houses don’t always buy you peace and comfort. The vast place for €6,000pm out in the countryside was swamped with flies (surrounded by stables), stank (because of rubbish dump), and was noisy (dogs and a generator next door), and when the wind blew (most days in Malta), it picked up dust and dumped in pool.

Hunters – I can hear their guns from a village core, so expect more noise at dawn in the bird hunting season if you live in the countryside.

Heat, damp, shade and light
Beware rising damp, or penetrating damp and humidity. It seeps in everywhere in most limestone houses, but can be difficult to contain in old ones with no damp proof course, and with wells in the house or courtyard. Damp is not good for asthmatics. See Heating a Maltese house. Air character houses as much as you can – open wide the windows (and let in dust of course) everyday, winter or summer. Some old houses have rooms with few apertures and little light. Do check some rooms have enough task lighting for comfortable reading.

Outdoor areas need shading in summer. Trees are better than relying solely on canvas. Quote: “If you have a shadeless courtyard pool, in peak daytime hours in July-August you won’t be able to use it!”

Trees also mean deep shade in winter, so any limestone paving outside will inevitably go emerald green and dangerously slippery during the winter rains.

Furnished or unfurnished?
Long-term expats usually move with furniture so just want the kitchen kitted out with oven, hob, dishwasher and perhaps washing machine. These do usually come standard in rental places. But be prepared to face the landlord’s mass of furniture, whether you want it or not. There is no storage facility in Malta (apart from the odd private (damp) garage, so landlords prefer to keep it in the house! Beware expensive breakable antiques and bad taste – sometimes the two go together. Again, negotiate to get it shifted somewhere if you want your own stuff in the house. If you need to store furniture, do be prepared to find it smelly and damp when you dig it out to use. Tip – air, air, air everything from wardrobes to kitchen cupboards, year round.

Travel & Transport from out of town places
Buses do go almost everywhere, eventually, even if on long, winding, rough routes. But expect to drive to get around easily unless you are central or in an urban area. One family moving from London had this to say about their location in the Maltese countryside: “We’ve got a cliff-top view, so it’s very quiet and beautiful, and feels very remote sometimes. Amazingly, the local shop delivers and the school bus comes here, but do check as one person we know in Bingemma said the school bus wouldn’t come her way. If you need them, check their routes before you rent.

Final word
Don’t let the list above dent your desire to live in a house of character. Just realise that they do have character, and so, like people, need getting to know and managing! And, they rarely loose their price, wherever they are located, should you love one so much you want to buy.

Photo: Gethin Thomas

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If only they were all less eagle eyed!

There was a time in Malta, up to the early 90s, when the islands had one set of traffic lights, few roundabouts, and no drink-driving limits. These were also the heady days when all roads were more pothole than Tarmac. If you’d been used to driving abroad, driving in Malta was not only the same adventure it is today, but had an even more reckless, gung-ho feel about it.

In those days, I remember seeing cars going the wrong way round a roundabout (if turning right, why go all the way round?), reversing around roundabouts, and more frequently than now, stopping mid roundabout to drop off passengers.

I read recently that in Italy, many German motorists, once over the Alpine border, drive far more casually and carelessly than they would back home, simply because they feel traffic laws aren’t enforced so well in Italy. Well, in Malta today, you can expect quite rigorous traffic control and monitoring, so don’t be fooled just because you see some natives still meandering around the road breaking laws.

Here, we do a round up of the traffic control methods to keep your beady eye out for, to avoid mishap. First some useful links:

Malta’s Highway Code
Malta Local Government site FAQs on all aspects of fines, contraventions, by-laws etc.
EU site listing Malta’s fines (drink drive, failing to stop at red light etc).
Who makes what money from the fines!
Malta Facebook group against new speed cameras (great resource!).

Wardens

The local warden service has just celebrated its 10th birthday. When it first started, most people were enthusiastic about its introduction, and looking forward to improvements in not only the lackadaisical driving and parking but also a tidier Malta as they had litter patrol duties too.

The wardens have three responsibilities in the area of enforcement: to educate, to deter and, finally, to enforce. The system is operated by a private management company which also runs the growing speed camera network. There have been some low points in the service’s history (with the murder of a female warden in Gozo in 2001 while she was on duty), and there are always mumblings around the heavy handedness of their ticket issuing, which some allege is to fill quotas.

On the whole, wardens are part of a modern European state and the system is needed here. Motorists worldwide hate wardens, let’s face it. I do have my reservations sometimes about their ability to direct traffic clearly. Very often when they are posted to road works, I’ve seen them haphazardly directing traffic (safely?) around the obstacle. I often think timed, traffic lights would do a better job.

Watching out for them...Mostly, you’ll need to worry about them when you park. Certain areas like Sliema, Valletta, San Gwann, St Julian’s, Naxxar and Mosta (the key urban areas really) have heavy warden presence and they regularly check parking time limits (get a disc from local council offices). Beware the numerous local regulations – parking limits, residents’-only parking spaces (marked blue in Valletta), and odd notices like the one in my alley saying ‘park front bumper to kerb’. My neighbour was issued a ticket for having reversed into the space!

Be aware also that a lot of restrictions (disabled-only spaces) are painted on the Tarmac and so fade off in the sun. I found my car towed away once after I’d parked at night in a space that had from what I could see no indication it was restricted. I could barely see the lettering in daylight either.

Most large roundabouts are patrolled by hawk-eyed traffic wardens or police, particularly during rush hour – hence the queues you find approaching them. At these times, make sure you indicate, and obey roundabout rules as you may well get pulled over; if for nothing else, a spot check of your tax disc.

Speed cameras: A short note on these as they are sprouting like mushrooms, but we’re almost learning to live with them. The main worry about them is the varying speed limits they’re ‘enforcing’. Some main bypasses and country roads have limits of 60Km while others are 70km. You can easily forget which camera watches which limit and get caught out. The fine is Eur 70.

Traffic Police

These are a rarer breed than wardens, but often stay together like birds of a feather. They lurk on the side of roundabouts or watch wide country roads (Attard-Mdina) to make sure no one goes across the no-overtaking double white lines. You may be behind a crawling veggie lorry, but don’t be tempted to overtake as with your luck, it’ll be the day a policeman is on duty there.

Traffic police do have a habit of sneaking up behind you, if you aren’t using your rear view mirror much, that is. They mostly just want to get past, light flashing, but as they do so they will be eyeing your vehicle up for any infringement of the law. Generally, they pull over ancient vehicles and lorries carrying heavy loads (stone, rubble etc). If you have an overseas number plate, they will almost certainly pull you over to check whether you have either the ‘tourist’ permit to drive it in Malta or whether you’ve paid the vehicle registration taxes on import. They are very prickly and stiff about this. So have paperwork to hand.

Traffic police have a certain air about them with their helmets, black boots and massive motorbikes. While seeming intimidating, I’ve found them generally reasonable (bar on one occasion) and amazingly helpful when you’re stuck out in floods on wet, windy nights! One arrived like a white knight when my car died in Qormi near Pavi Supermarket.

Parkers

An odd breed this; and one that may well be extinct soon. In a few years, I am sure ‘pay-and-display’ ticketing systems will replace them with one single guy who does spot checks on lots of car parks. They must be licensed to do their job, though they never sport badges. They vaguely wave you into a space in areas that can look like proper car parks (Mdina bastion parking, Golden Bay, Valletta’s ditch) or just be rough off-the-road spots. They can be amusing (Golden Bay parker is a great guy), or just odd-ball types lurking around (old men, who’ve done the job for years in all weathers like the one I used to see at Hagar Qim).

You just need to tip them something – anything from 50c upwards according to how long you’ve parked, your generosity and whether you’ve chatted with them a bit and so on. Keep spare change handy as you won’t get change back. Do pay them, even if you think the system balmy and antiquated. It seems to be a livelihood all year round for some! A relic of old Malta…

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