Friday 6 December 2013

Thai green curry แกงเขียวหวานไทย

thai green curry
an authentic recipe 
แกงเขียวหวานไทย
or as i would say; "Gan Keow Wan"

As instructed by my charming mentor in Phaisali, Nakhon Sawan

Ingredients:
thai green curry paste (Nam preet)
coconut milk
sugar, salt
soy sauce/oyster sause/fish sauce
garlic
basil
chilli
veg
meat/tofu (precooked is helpful if not add after step 1)



  1. Add oil to wok and chopped garlic when hot
  2. Add 1 cup full of coconut milk
  3. add nam preet (curry paste) heaped tlbsp and stir before adding 4 tblsp of coconut milk
  4. Mix in a little sugar, salt and sauce for flavor
  5. Meat or tofu added along with some more tblsp on coconut milk
  6. Continuing stirring for a couple minutes before adding vegetables of your choice
  7. 4 more tblsp of coconut milk stirred in
  8. Add basil and stir
  9. After a few minutes, add some chopped or powdered chilli
  10. Check taste and add sugar, salt or sauce to flavour if needed before adding last of the coconut milk
  11. Continue stirring before turning off and plating up in a bowl or over rice or noodles
ENJOY!

Sunday 10 November 2013

MALTA! Unesco sites, Comino & the blue lagoon, Gozo and dolphins!

SATURDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

MIERBHA - Welcome

UNESCO Tarxien temples, Megathlic, one of the oldest in the world& clubbing in St. Julian's Bay street

I let the others sleep on while I got up and hit the pool. I must have been still half asleep as I tried to leave with no shoes on! Woke up Lauren in the process of getting them. The Sun was out and it was quite hot this morning. I swam and enjoyed the feel of the water lapping gently against me while I looked put onto the sea. I sunbathed and read a bit before trying the ground floor pool/ it was darker with less people but more relaxing and with no breeze, I nearly dozed off!
Got Rebecca up and we headed to Valletta, we plan to go to the Tarxien Temples today, a UNESCO world heritage site. This time we did a different bus route, taking up inland instead of coastal. In Valletta, the bus we planned to get appeared to be broken down so we had to wait a while like ejits, and the one we did get didn’t go to the stop we wanted, it drove past the sign for it and I presumed it went another way. NO! Explained the situation to Rebecca and we nearly got off at a random stop but I had the bright idea of asking the driver (all the Maltese seem to speak marvelous English!) and he said we could get another bus to it from Valletta. He told us this when he stopped at the end of his route having got out and checked the bus timetable for us and when he came in he even offered us a rice cake. How sweet! We sat on the bus for a few more minutes before he started his return journey (In Belfast they'd probably tell you to f*ck off, we don’t have the nicest bus operators usually) we passed the sign I had spotted earlier and he suggested we could get off at the next stop and walk instead of heading to Valletta. It was easy enough to find, lots of signs and arrows (nothing like Asia that's for sure!) and we arrived within 5-10minutes. The town area was pretty empty and silent, sort of strange and eerie on a Saturday afternoon. We realised later that several were at the local football match!





These Neolithic temples are the oldest in the world, older than the Pyramids and older than Stonehenge! built around 3000Bc, this is on of the later settlements on the islands but its still amazing! Found in 1927 we saw some of the original walls, we could see where they had had their fires with blacks and red marks upon the wall, they'd built huge stone shelving units, and the info boards around the site told us lots of information about the site, such as how it was a temple and them a crematory, and how later the Romans used part of it as well! The rooms or chambers were curved walls and its highly likely they had a form of roof. There were holes in the stones around the chambers suggesting they'd held doors of perhaps animals skins. How amazing that people had concepts of privacy, space and interior over 5000 years ago! There were "cubby holes" and a recreation of the largest, oldest human statue in the world, a female, standing where she was originally discovered. The remains of the legs of a female fertility statue with dress. As we found out in the video from +Malta 5D there were lots of figurines and statues found of women and fertility symbols around all these sites. The original artefacts had been taken to the archaeology museum in Valletta for safe keeping so we decided that instead of visiting another site we'd go see the artefacts and got on a bus back to Valletta, excited at the prospect of seeing them.


The fertility statue







The ground floor was dedicated to all the UNESCO sites around Malta and Gozo, the Megalithic sites. Rebecca, having studied Archaeology, pointed out that one of the theories on the "fertility" statues was that they weren’t in fact religious, but forms of  porn for men far off travelling etc. eww?
There were lots of intricately carved designs on some of the stones, amazing for something so old, I sort of imagined stick men, not beautiful swirls! We saw lots of female figures, big busty round woman, though no heads, perhaps there were before? Some penises, random animal figures and models of the other temples. The real statue from The Tarxien temples was there, exactly like the copy, so huge, amazing, to have seen it whole would have been overwhelming for something that old! The dangly boobies were also a feature on the famous "Lady of Malta" or "the Venus of Malta" and Rebecca was enchanted by another sexual "sleeping" lady. She believes the woman were depicted this way because at that period woman would have been slim and malnourished, men would have longed for larger fertile women that they did not have.

 sleeping venus
 The Venus of Malta ;)

 Ancient Penis
 not stick animals!

Upstairs was the Bronze period and Phoenician. The ceiling was amazing, a curved dome as it was an old Baroque building of the town, detailed frescos painted upon it, adding to the beauty of the museum.
The Bronze age section was more lively and kid friendly, comic book strip information, vine like setting with the artefacts surrounding it. I was particularly interested in the Phoenician section as I didn’t know particularly much about that period, but it turns out, not that much is known either. It was really interested. Their artwork more detailed, the first to make purple dyes. They suggested they may have had child sacrifices, there was a sarcophagus, papyrus and even skeletons. very cool!
unfortunately we needed to leave soon to meet Lauren so after Rebecca got a postcard of her "sleeping Venus" we hopped on the bus back to the apartment to get ready to head out for a night of partying in St. Julian's having did a sneaky visit up to the top to see the “sanctuary of our Lady of Mellieha”


 detailed pots
 A carving of the deceased? Or a warning against the dead?

Sarcophagus 

Once ready we got a bus to St. Julian’s, getting off near Bay street, all dolled up in our party frocks and ready to dance! Bay street is pretty much a long street packed full of different bars. Our first stop was "Soho" were it was still happy hour, Buy one Get one free on cocktails. Rebecca got a coffee as she doesn't drink while Lauren and I tried "Orgasm" it really was simply an orgasm in your mouth. so creamy and delicious. NOM! we then tried the "Vanilla beach ice tea" as well, a form of long island ice tea, nicer than that, but nothing in comparison to our orgasms ;) 


We dandered around before deciding on a nearby club, although quite empty for 9pm we grabbed some cheap drinks and sat outside chatting away. 1.50Euro a drink. Not going to complain at all! finally tried Passoa after all these years, it's okay, rather fruity, I'm sure it'd be nice in a cocktail. The streets and clubs began to pack out with people. With us charming ladies sitting out the front we did entice a lot more people to come which was good I'm sure.  So many fitties, Kids, and girls all dressed the same, then again the legal age for clubs is 17 here. Al the same generic outfits and all the same heels. sad really. no individuality. Rebecca and I rather enjoyed watching them, felt like David Attenborough in the wild. One girl in a leopard print cat suit was quite impressive. dressed different from the rest of them, she did have a stunning body and actually had a gang of men following her with their tongues basically out. the +Regina George  of Malta haha!  there was also a weird guy in a Darth Vader costume using a girl like a marionette with ribbons round her wrists, walking down the street. strange.


 
 practising for my new job outside the gentlemen's cluB



 The Bouncer seemed to take a shine t us, most likely because we enticed so many customers to come in, he started giving us free shot tokens, and since Rebecca doesn't drink it meant we were getting an extra shot the odd time. I was pacing myself but these were easy going anyway as they were vodka red bull shots. We headed inside as it was quite busy. The tunes were great. we danced away. Rebecca had never been to a club before, and like me she loves to dance so we were having a great time! stuck on my silly leopard glasses. took photos. people copied my Thai dances moves, YES, I started a trend! the bouncer borrowed my glasses for a photo, (I think Lauren is in love, Terrence he's called, and he got us lots and lots of shots!)  so much for taking it easy. as it was 12 shot for 9.50 we got the vodka red bull ones. however these were much MUCH stronger. it turned into a very messy one for me, even though I was pacing myself =/ the more people that came in however meant more male attention. not something I'm fond of, and something Rebecca hates. She was getting eyed up like a tiger to it's prey, and during a toilet run, some sneaky bugger pinched her bum! for shame!


 FREE SHOT

 Bigging up Thai dancing
 Lauren kept declaring "I love you to Terrence" haha. we were then befriended by 2 Maltese policemen. apparently in their 20s, they showed us I.D as we didn’t believe them. the one that was chatting up Lauren looked very young, drunken Lauren of course loudly announced to me that he looked about 6, to which the guy I was chatting to "Sylvie" told me that not only could they both speak fluent English (duhr) but that Lauren was very loud. ejit! they kept feeding us vodka red bull. I shall be a MESS!  He seemed impressed that I knew a Maltese phrase, "Gratzi Hafna" turns out no one bothers to learn it really since they all speak English. understandable I guess? It was packed out by this stage an nearing 2.  packed together like a tin of sardines. the no smoking signs were ignored, people lit up and dropped the remains on the floor (gross) Rebecca was tired, bored and freaked out by all the pervy men so we decided to leave. Lauren was impossible and wouldn’t leave so Terrence said he'd keep an eye on her she I left Rebecca in charge, (she was sober and wanted to be more responsible and in charge of things so I left her to direct us home on the bus) I talked lots of Philosophical nonsense on the bus (let's hope I didn’t quote "gap yah") and upon our return to the hotel area, I decided to indulge in Rebecca’s favourite thing to do and go swimming at night. we had no swimsuits so we stripped to our undies and got it. PERFECT. no people. still waters nearly, soft lapping waves. not deep and the perfect temperature, the moonlight leaving gleaming ripples upon the waves. A perfect memory with my sister indeed. though it was spoiled when I realised later I had lost my phone and we had to awaken my brother in Ireland to get Laurens number from my dad, and stayed up (sort of) for Lauren to return at 6am. I konked out on her bed. feet on the floor on my back. charming. I had responded earlier to a group of older men and women who asked if we wanted to go home with them on our way back from our swim that  "It's a long flight" turns out I'm witty when I'm drunk haha.

 party animals, wonder why the policemen didnt arrest us!
 ILY TERRENCE

A great experience, who would have though I'd be sort of Skinny dipping in the sea in Malta at 5 am with my sister, my best friend after a fascinating day in the oldest temples in the world after a brilliant night on the town. I DREAD the repercussions tomorrow!

SUNDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER
COMINO & the BLUE LAGOON, GOZO & the AZURE WINDOW

KIF INTI? how are you, NOT WELL! hungover!

sooo thirsty! got up after 10 and with the help of reception rang lost and found in the bus station, to no avail unfortunately :( Lauren's last text from me from at 2.45am so definitely had it on the bus last. She filled me in on her shenanigans after we left, which included "twerking" Terrence, being harassed by black men and getting friendly with her policeman friend. The pictures from the night before are horrendous. I woke up beside her on my back whilst she was sprawled sideways over the 2 single beds snoring, charming! 
Our bus was a short trip to the port were we paid 10euro for a boat trip to Comino and Gozo in our own time. We got some food to see if it'd help ease the hangover. Spinach and Pea patizzerie along with some Maltese biccies from Rebecca, a tasty hangover delight. Our "speed boat" over was more like a party boat than anything, I'm sure if we'd briefly fallen asleep we would have woken up imaging we were in "Footloose" the club from last night still as it played music as it sped across the waves, we sort of stood, feeling the waves and spray splash against us. thankfully our food stayed down, not a journey to be taken with a queasy stomach for sure!  The view and feeling on the way over was great, the lovely royal blue water with large rocks and far off islands contrasting to make it a beautiful Mediterranean view, then abruptly the water changed from royal blue to clear azure. utterly Beautiful! crystal clear water <3


 powering through...
LETS GO TO THE BEACH BEACH LETS GO GET AWAY...




 There wasn’t much beach though and you needed to pay, instead we found a sea rock, Lauren wadded over in the water while Rebecca and I climbed down to it. What a relaxing beautiful way to spend a hangover Sunday! I could most definitely get used to it! the rock was sore to clamber over on your feet but it was worth it as soon as you got in the water, perfect temperature, the waves weren't too high either. Lauren looked like a crab clambering over the rocks, was hilarious!


We could even see a few fish in the water, and not big scary ones that bit you like in Thailand! Lots of yummy men to ease the hangover too, Lauren was in her element. Sun and sea! perfection. We headed for our boat at 3.45 to see a bit of Gozo before we met Karla.


We got another boat, this time to Gozo. when we arrived at the port we were persuaded to do a taxi tour with a driver called "Mario" for 50euro. he took us firstly to the AZURE WINDOW the same one mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, beside it is the INLAY SEA and FUNGI ROCK. The sun was slowly sinking, casting beautiful orange and pinks hues across the sky and the seascape. Divers were at the bottom, apparently this is one of the best areas to dive and there's and underwater tunnel that takes you up to the other side. unfortunately for Rebecca her hat blew off and floated down into the Mediterranean sea never to be worn again. she was raging haha! The Fungi Rock grows a specific Fungus which was so precious that people caught stealing it were persecuted. The inlay sea was pretty, a boat tour through it would be lovely, the small gap between the caves that lets in the water wide enough for a small boat. However it was slightly ruined by the square shape flats and buildings around it.
.

 azure window



 fungi rock
 

 From here we went to the Citadel and fortified town. Walking along the wall with the old carved graffiti form 2-3 centuries before and the old canons, you are able to get a 360* view of the island. So pretty seeing the brown and green valleys, and rising cliffs with an old church or two on them. there's 365 Churches on the Maltese Islands in total. one a day for a year eh? It was so empty though, it was slightly eerie! We briefly looked in the church which was currently holding a mass. It was stunning looking inside, beautiful painted ceilings and huge chandeliers. From here we went to the fishing village, MARSALFORM, little boats were bobbing around, we sat on the promenade and enjoyed the view, it was peaceful and relaxing. Unfortunately the UNESCO temples were closed for the day as it was around 6, our last stop was MGARR up on another hill, from here we could see Gozo where we stood, Comino and the Blue lagoon and on past it MALTA, before getting dropped off again at the ferry terminal. Our driver was pleasant like all Maltese, even took some photos for us



 Marsalform



Carla came and picked us up in her car just out of work, she's a small tanned blonde thing, really friendly and full of chat, Lauren and her had went to school together and been closed years ago before she'd moved to England with her family as her step dad was in the army. We went to her house. it didn’t look much on the outside, a small dusty looking area but it was amazing! sandstone interior, arched kitchen living room area, stained glass window, an outdoor pool and lots of bedrooms. beautiful! She has some dogs too and upstairs in the spare bedroom her mum "Bobbi" introduced us to the adorable kittens she'd rescued. They'd lived in Nomad near Dubai for a while, she was telling us that dogs are seen as dirty there and some of the Arabs kill them and shoot them for fun! how awful!  They shower if one touches them, though the "toy" dogs are pampered. bit like in Asia. We all went to Marsalform for dinner. Had another margarita pizza, nicer than the one I got in Silema actually! We chatted away, Carla and her mum are both very friendly and nice, we got on easily with them. We went down to the local bar and because they know Carla well and it would entice other customers we were given a free sheesha! finally able to try it after seeing them all those years ago in Camden, London. Rebecca choose Cherry flavour and even gave it ago. I love it as did Lauren so I've sworn to get her one for xmas. felt like a "Hookah Smoking Caterpillar" Carla got us all a drink and we chatted away. we table next to us was full on ones from Ireland. Very drunk. they'd been at a dry wedding the day before and were making up for it. the girl was wankered, in her 30s she thought I was much older than I was!!! she kept going on about the wedding in a droll voice, repeating herself and saying her name was Regina but some people have called her Rejina. Another guy was drunk and boring, on the rebound, we couldn’t be bothered with him so we left him to harass poor Rebecca. He gave her Laurens Facebook name, like I'd done to guys the night before, she's raging she keeps getting random adds haha. Bobbi was quite jolly by the time we were leaving too, unfortunately we just missed the 1 am ferry, thankfully Carla let us stay, she'd asked us earlier, so instead of waiting until 3am for the next one, we went back to hers to stay in the huge spare room with lots of beds, solid wood furniture and a cooling fan for some sleep to just get up early. We chatted in her room. Her ex got her a cat, the kitten is crazy, it bites and scratches. It didn’t seem to mind me though. he kept clawing up Lauren, he had her in a corner at one point. tall Lauren vs. a small kitten, he'd originally named it "Rufi" what the hell, that's more like a date rape drug than a name, kept pouncing on her, was hilarious!. Bobbi explained to us why people were smoking in the bars, the sings stats that they do so at their own risk, so the bar cant get persecuted but the individual can. cunning eh?  The police aren't the bet, lots would smoke and drink drive etc. Lots of the men are virgins due to religion and cutely enough a sense of Romanticism, it's also a small place, everyone would know everyone’s business, especially in Gozo!
We got the ferry then at half 7 in the morning, its free over but 5 euro for the way back unless you're from Gozo, its a wee tit for tat they have since the Maltese didn’t share supplies during the war and they're still a bit annoyed. Meeting her again at the airport as she's going to London for a couple days


MONDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER
DOLPHINS!!!
KIF INTI? how are you?

MONDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER
DOLPHINS!!!
KIF INTI? how are you?

The ferry over was only 20minutes, lots of students going to university as there is none in Gozo. Like a bus in a way? We got picked up early for the dolphins, two of the women we picked up were even from Belfast! One of them was missing her two front teeth, nice. Our Swim was scheduled for 1.45 and we get a free drink from the expensive cafe with it. haha. It was then time for the first show, The parrots! 7 different Macaws were out, some had bred and their offspring were in the nearby aviaries. Red ones, green ones, and some smaller Amazonian breeds. They mate for life, how cute! The guy running the show introduced us to each bird and had them show us a trick, such as doing twirls on the bars, pretending to sunbathe on a sun chair, along with giving us facts about them. Such as their powerful claws (I got to hold one on my shoulder to show this!) or their powerful beaks (Rebecca got chosen to come and give the bird a walnut which is cracked!) The birds did memory games, shape games, one walked on a cylinder up and down the table while another drove a little car and pretended to fill it with petrol, very cool! Though the annual air show that was on scared them slightly when a couple planes went past.





So we wandered around exploring the reptile house. Lots of snakes, beautiful Californian King snakes, a Thai scorpion like the one I saw, reptiles and randomly a dead frog
After this we had more free time until the next show and visited the Terrapin pool and had lunch. There were so many of them I couldn’t even count them!
We visited the different animal areas, seeing my first dolphin that kept leaping up in one of the nearby closed pools, so excited! The seal lions were awesome too, really psyched me up for the next show with "Junior" the sea lion. The show was amazing, again we were given facts about sea lions and shown ways in which the sea lion is trained so it can be health checked, such as lying flat. He did his "roar" was amazing, no wonder they’re called sea LIONS, when he stood on his tail flipper he stood taller than its trainer, did a "dance" to footloose and pretending to be looking for a shark which was in fact his side fin haha. On all "fours" he reminded me of a dog. Would LOVE to swim with a sea lion! we did a class routine to Grease Lightning as well, a sort of sliding belly flop haha!


Afterwards we chilled and played cards and then the ground just swallowed me up.....





I WISH

However, No, being the good Samaritan that I am I tried to put up another Parasol from Rebecca and Lauren, my Albinos since we were not allowed to wear sun lotion for the dolphin swim today. BIG MISTAKE! The industrial sized parasol , as it's Malta and they don't care for health and safety as they cannot get sued, the parasol had not been properly secured. as I started to rise it up I felt it begin to move with me it hit my left shoulder and continued, the end pole riding up whilst the heavy parasol sloping down from the pivot at my shoulder and then it made an impact. I dreaded looking round but I already knew what had happened, the two Irish women where behind, I heard a shout, as I turned round I dropped the parasol as the smaller woman was already on the ground with her hand to her head yelping in pain. I recoiled, I dreaded seeing blood. It just had to hit her head!!
Thankfully after a few minutes she moved her hand thankfully no blood but she was in agony. I felt utterly scundered, embarrassed and very apologetic but instead of her being nasty and upset she just kept saying accidents happen and asking if I was okay as I had gone white as a sheet =/ my shoulder was sore but I’m sure her head was A LOT worse! we stayed with them for a while until we had to leave for the dolphin show, I felt awful but at least they were able to follow us. utterly scundered, embarrassed and annoyed at myself even though I knew it wasn't my fault it was an accident. Tried to enjoy the show but it did but a dampener on it.

 Afterwards was another slight disaster for me, when we went to our meeting point the girl wasnt sure if I'd be allowed to do the swim with all my braids as its very very dangerous for the dolphins if they swallow anything. All piercings and jewellery would need to come off, but it would take way to long for the braids, and I'd had them in for ages!!! Got really annoyed and my stubbornness kicked in off course, I'd rather watch and take pictures than have to take them out, besides it would take to long. another Irish couple, a middle aged man and his wife were saying it was unfair, thankfully they agreed I could if I tied my hair up in a tight bun as I assured them that the braids were secure and had been for a while (phew!) the couple and a friend of there's joined Lauren, Rebecca and I in a group and then there was another with 7 others, we showered, and stuck of a wet suit sleeveless top. tight and completely buoyant!










The dolphin swim was amazing. split into our groups we were given snorkel goggles (which completely stank of fish!! as did the water understandably) we were to swim out and float, watching the animals in their "natural" habitat. they swam close, it became even better when we looked under the water. seeing them swim and even hearing them communicate with their high pitched squeaks. absolutely amazing. even with the other their I felt like I was in my own private world. Myself and these fascinating lively dolphins. the swam underneath us which was amazing, and we were then allowed to smoothly stroke them if they came close. amazing!
After this we sat at the sides, Rebecca and I chosen first to stand and have 1 on 1 experience with the dolphin together while our instructor told us all about the mammals. Both in the pool and the show are males, adolescents, (who are sexually active and like to fight, hence the scratches on them) they have freckles which is class, their blowhole is basically their nose, their skin is described as being like the white of a hard boiled egg, smooth in one direction, slightly rougher on the other. You can feel the power, muscle and strength in their fins and flippers its amazing, no wonder they could pull along a grown woman in the water easily with them! They have razor sharp teeth and randomly love getting their stomach's rubbed. but they can be known to be bullies. smart animals. both of these dolphins were born at the resort, hence why they were so good with their trainers. Mediattareaneano is one of two of the only places in Europe that you can swim with dolphins.
Rebecca and I stroked the dolphin while chatting to the girl before we had to swap with two of the others. it was pretty cool!
after this we switched sides with the groups to get photos. Rebecca was first, getting two taking then it was me. The dolphin leant its head (which was quite heavy!) to my right while I leaned on the edge on my left arm. Next I posed with the dolphin raised up behind me for a photo. Rebecca was then told to swim out and told to direct the dolphin to swim in a circle with she twirled with her arms up and it swam around too, pretty cool. When it came to my turn I raised my arms feeling like a ballerina in the water, dancing with a dolphin, unbelievable! When it came to Lauren's turn I suggested she fist pumped (The classic Lauren dance move)and she did. WHAT A LEGEND. she fist pumped with a dolphin!!!

We then all gathered round the edge again to say goodbye to the dolphins. giving them a nose/head stroke before being shown the sign for the dolphin to give us a goodbye, in which he swam and slapped his tail fin on the water like a loud clap.
What an amazing 40 minute experience. We showered and eagerly went to await the photos, particularly as we had asked for an extra one of all 3 of us. Though we had to pay for these on top of the already expensive fee.

Our bus journey back was with the same people, we sat near the back in front of the ones I injured...I was standing when the driver decided to start the car, had to stop myself from falling of the seat onto them....the woman joked saying I was trying to kill her, I had better stay away, and I had better watch out back home, she'd get me back, we all laughed but it just brought up the awful awkwardness I felt about the incident. Thankfully they were staying in Buggiba and not near us.
We chilled at the hotel before getting ready to go out. we went to Valletta for dinner. it was quieter and all lit up like our first night, quite peaceful, a nice way to remember it. we sat under a gazebo like area with music being played in the background. we chatted about everything and anything, a real close binding experience for our final night. Our waiter was a right joker, when we asked for the toilet he said there was one and then started laughing away!
We got our bus to St Julian’s. We got stuck with a bunch of lads already on there way to getting drunk and one in particular thought he was the gift to all women, he really wasnt, nothing special just a cocky wee shit. he kept referring to Lauren and I, who were sitting together as "lady Gaga" (Lauren was raging) and "Rhianna" due to the red and blonde hair and apparently because I had style? (My mum later suggested Lauren was Rhianna due to the fake tan haha!) apparently I’m a trendsetter. the main guy was from Austria I think and referred to himself firstly as "sex machine" and then "pussy destroyer" charming. he spotted that I was wearing a leopard print bra ( I was wearing my striped maxi dress) and kept going on about how he loved tiger print... eugh
we got off and the wrong but different stop. they'd made Rebecca feel really uncomfortable so she went for a walk and then got a bus back to the apartment. Lauren and I decided to do a bar crawl and use up lots of free tokens we were given. Bar 1 was dead, we got BOGOF cocktails, pina colada, I downed them, loveloveLOVE pina colada, the moves the kids were doing in this place were ridiculous!
Bar 2 was a free cocktail of sex on the beach. it was vile! The bar was quiet and the drink was so sickly sweet that I couldn’t drink it all, there was a pole (Ofc!) so we stood up and took photos with it. the bar guys. Bouncers loved it, they were English and kept saying how we should stay up there and were beautiful, they even tried to get us in a conga line when we came down haha! Outside before we left we got speaking to the main bouncer, he was telling us how he had came over around 11 years ago to help his parents move out for retirement, how he couldn’t get back as all the flights got cancelled due to the 9/11 and randomly applied for a TEFL, got it and has stayed since, he gave us his card, his bouncer friend for the night was new, a Russian, he told me he loved Irish cream TO MY TITS! (ironic eh?!)
bar 3 was called Havana it was packed out and pumping, one of the most popular bars on the strip, one of the bar tenders was pretty easy on the eye too, another free sex on the beach, much better but I do believe I’ve been put off for life after the last one , we stood outside and chatted, we befriended two foreign students, a polish guy and a Vietnamese guy,  both we're on a study year or something in Malta, Bar 4 had lots of sheesha's outside it, we got a cheap but very watered pitcher and weren’t allowed to take it outside. then the frigging bus guys spotted us and were around us like flies, myself in particular, the "sex machine" kept stroking me and asking me for a kiss. umm no! he bigger guy who was more friendly reminded me of silent bob of the "jay and silent Bob" movie duo, or big matt. Lauren and I then went to the loo and snuck out the side door. sad but definitely worth while, creeps! thought the eastern friend of theirs was pretty haha.
Bar 5, the favourite of course, "Footloose!" FREE SHOTS YES PLEASE! I didn’t drink for a while as we sat outside like last time. spotted the Vietnamese guy from before Tommy, he joined us and I chatted away to him about travel and history, he's a trained optician and is training to become a doctor. Lauren got blocked and spoke quickly with an accent, he couldn’t make her out much. He was so good at his English that when he used slang he could have passed for English, was pretty cool. Befriended more of the bouncers. Lauren and Terrance foreverrr. moved to the back bar for pitchers, dancing and photos. MESSY!! we stayed until closing as we thought we could get a bus but they all ran to Valletta. Lauren thought a guy looked like her uncle and took lots of photos and when the bar shut and we were still inside till the staff left (Terrance rocks!) I got chatting away to the Russian bartender. she was beautiful, slim with long blonde hair, turns out she'd been in China and spoke Chinese too!
we rolled in around 6. terrifying Rebecca by appearing a the foot of her bed in the dark. Lauren wanted to continue chatting to the point we locked our door for sleep. I conked out and Rebecca roused due to lots of banging. Lauren had locked herself out on the balcony having a smoke haha! Was annoyed we stayed out later, particularly as we have to finish packing and have checked out by 11 wehhh
















TUESDAY 1ST OCTOBER
the end! goodbye Malta :O

eugh, exhausted and queasy. got up in a grumpy drunken blur. chucking the last of my packing into my suitcase and getting a cold shower. Lauren was still very drunk. Left our thing sin the luggage room and hit the top pool to re-hydrate in the sunshine and chillax, and perhaps sleep some more, unfortunately I could not. filled Rebecca in on our shenanigans of the night before. Tommy kept facebooking Lauren trying to meet up with me for a romantic scooter ride to the love sign...no thanks. DYING!"
I had planned to do the catacombs but I felt horrendous. Rebecca took pity on my and after much deliberation I gave up and decided that perhaps I should have a final chillaxed day on the beach in the sunshine, not rushing about feeling grim. however we did something which was 10 times worse, we walked in the heat and my dehydrated lack of sleep hangover up to the town of Mellieha, YES, up that huge hill that is agonising enough when sober! boked at the loos near the church, felt better after and Rebecca got us some Pastizzeries (will miss these immensely!) we sat  and chatted while I slowly savoured my final piece of deliciousness. Rebecca then got some final souvenirs in the shop. Back at the hotel Lauren had fallen asleep in the sun and had burnt the back of her knees (didn’t even know that was possible lol) We then headed back down to the beach, staying on the quayside area that had the easy access water and shade and was also close to the restaurants, spent our time chatting, swimming and lazing in the sun. perfection, the perfect hangover cure for sure! very relaxing.


We returned to the nearby restaurant for our final meal. I had pizza, wasnt the best but it was still pizza, along with a pint of sprite! we then all split a tiramisu, not the nicest, too much coffee liquor =/ we then tried to fix our luggage and then we got picked up :O got Jade's email to ask her questions (unfortunately I’m still waiting on a reply...) it was a pleasant journey. we went the scenic route. our check in was quick. I was quite over the 15kg limit, I was in fact 18kg, but I wasnt charged. YES! we then met Karla at the bar, Lauren got a drink and we all chatted away before we left to our gate. we nearly bumped in to the crazy REGINA and crew! thankfully they didn’t see us. we all spent the last of our cash on a star bucks and were the last to board the bus to take us to the plane. we thought we were in trouble as we'd taken our time, but know. the Maltese crew loved us, the driver referred to us as the spice girls and introduced us as the spice girls to the others when we were boarding the plane. will definitely miss the Maltese banter!
however, as soon as we were back on our Belfast plane it turned to shit. we got stuck in front of the trio from hell. drunken old Belfast people. loud, they kept hitting against our chairs. having loud jokey conversations with the staff to the point that I wanted to kill them. we were exhausted!!
arrived in after one and my dad picked us up, all groggy and tired, thankfully our luggage came quick and soon we were in our beds, well, Rebecca joined me.

SAHA MALTA!

A wonderful trip!

this song will forever remind me of it
due to the clubs of course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes&gl=GB&hl=en-GB