Welcome to the story of Ted and Jan Whitfield's first few weeks in our new home country

Chapter 12 - The first week in Malta

When we arrived at the flat on Friday, I did some essentials shopping, we washed and brushed up, put on clean clothes, and we went to Guys Bar for dinner. It was really relaxing to eat somewhere where we knew we were going to have a superb meal, in a friendly environment. Tomorrow we have to start sorting out our new life.

And the mail redirection is working – we have lots of mail – mostly junk. But there are a good number of “new home” cards as well

Saturday starts with us building the wardrobe we had bought from and had had delivered by Krea back in June. At least we can now unpack. Then to Tower Supermarket in the car – we spend Lm40 (£70 – but we had nothing in at all. We were going to get one of those disposable BBQs, but they haven’t got any, so we grill the sausages and pork steak, then eat outside and pretend. Then we sit on the balcony, people watching and get bitten to death. The sofa bed we bought at the same time as the wardrobe is only 4 foot wide and we are used to 6 foot, and there are ridges in it!!

On Sunday we pretend we that we are on holiday and go Pebbles lido for the day, we can’t do much else until things begin to arrive. In the evening we have a prawn and tuna salad in the garden of our empty flat.

On Monday morning Krea are delivering our bed, 2 bedside cabinets, another wardrobe and a sofa. They arrive at 11.45am! We spend the afternoon building the bed, and the bedside cabinets and after that we deserve a drink, so go to Tony’s Bar on Sliema Ferry, and then home for a pizza. We now have a sofa to sit on and a proper bed to sleep on.

On Tuesday morning we go to our nearest supermarket – Sisa is Sicilian – its different, there is a whole aisle of Pasta, and it seems expensive. Then we drive to Floriana to license the car, but we go to the wrong place, and are redirected. The place is packed with people carrying number plates. We ask where we need to queue, and quickly get to a counter. We are given a form to fill in. We will fill it in and come back Thursday. And we have to bring the plates and swap them for temporary plates. The car must stay garaged! Maltacom’s “One Stop Shop” is nearby, so we go to get the phone connected. We get a form to fill in. We will fill it in and come back Thursday. The Malta equivalent of the RSPCA is next door, we go in to enquire about boarding kennels for Smudge – we are given an address and phone number. Smudge is still in quarantine, until next Tuesday.

In the afternoon we call in at an Internet café. I have 40 mails – mostly junk. We have a drink at Tony’s on the way back. Then in the evening we assemble the second the wardrobe. The doors won’t fit into place (due to me not having an electric screw driver).

Wednesday is a public holiday, so after sorting out the paperwork for tomorrow, we spend the rest of the day at Pebbles lido.

Thursday morning, and it’s the bus to Floriana. At the ADT (Malta Transport Agency) we hand over the forms and the plates and LM35. We are given the temporary plate but they are only to bring the car for its valuation. They will ring us with an appointment. Apart from that it must remain garaged. We take the phone form in. They will ring us to tell us when they will come out to connect the phone. We call in at SPCA (RSPCA) and buy some books at their charity shop. I buy “The road to McCarthy”, which is the sequel to “McCarthy’s bar” which I read on the way to Malta. They are excellent observations on life as well as being one man's search for his roots and to where he belongs.

We walk to Formosa’s office in Tigne Street. They have just opened a Kitchen Studio in the old office. We are going to book a hire car with Andre, so we can collect Smudge from Quarantine. Then it is shopping time – bits for the flat and for the cat. Then we have lunch at Black Gold on the Strand – we are slowly visiting each of the regular haunts. And Black Gold has one of my favourite beers again – Erdinger Hefe, it’s a German wheat beer. The drink scene is looking up. The bottled Hop Leaf Extra is not bad, and M&S have a Burton brewed bottled IPA.

In the late afternoon we walk to Spinola, and on the way back call in at Guys, for me a draught Guinness. In the evening, we read and listen to music (free cds that we brought with us) on our new sofa.

We have been here a week. We have renewed acquaintances, built some furniture, lost the car, still got no phone, Internet or TV. We have heard nothing about the furniture other than an acknowledgement to say it’s on a ship due in Malta “about today”. And Smudge, the cat, is still in quarantine. We have had 2 holiday days and 4 working days

Chapter 13 - The second week in Malta

It is Friday and Pozzallo seems a lifetime away. Things begin to happen today. The furniture is in Malta and they want to deliver it Tuesday afternoon. Can we take the car to be valued Tuesday morning? And we should be collecting the cat Tuesday, but we have no car. We arrange a hire car for Wednesday morning and arrange to collect Smudge on Wednesday instead. And all has to be arranged using a phone card in a call box. We are still not sure about Vodafone passport – the first bill will tell.

In the afternoon we do shops, and the Internet café. And we find good, reasonably priced butchers and fruit and veg stall

Jan has been fancying a Chinese for ages and we looked at the menu outside the Penang in Spinola yesterday. We try it tonight. Unfortunately it is just ok, but we are spoiled by Xiang Xiang in Bourne. And they only sell a poor house wine or expensive wines. I hate restaurants that entice you in with a menu that looks good value then only offer expensive wine. It galls even more as Delicata Green and Red Label and Marsavin La Vallette are good, well priced wines and to our palates.

It’s our second weekend and there is little we can do until Tuesday, so on Saturday we go to Pebbles again. It is a pleasantly warm day, and we have the added attraction of an air show over Malta, with the Red Arrows performing. On Sunday we take the bus to the Marsaslokk market and the heavens open and the market descends into a soggy mess. Back in Sliema, we do the Internet café again.

On Monday, we spend time in a public phone box talking to Budget Insurance. When Jan rang them before we set off to change the address, and get confirmation of cover during the journey and until we get Maltese insurance, the very unhelpful person she spoke to cancelled the policy because we were emigrating, but, she said, we could have driven for 60 days abroad and be covered, without telling them. After several lengthy calls cover was reconfirmed. We have now received a letter telling us that we are not covered, and this results from an action taken by the first woman Jan spoke to! The cover will be reinstated and a new policy sent. I hope the person who caused all this is having corrective training.

We call in on the Embassy to register with them in case of emergencies. We also get the address of the entitlement office. This is where we can discover what benefits (health cover) we are entitled to. End day at Tony’s Bar on the Strand for a drink.

Tuesday is a horrendously busy day. First we drive to the ADT to get the car valued. They check its chassis number and engine number and record scratches. And that is at – they will be in touch “in a few days”. In the meantime we should get a VRT test (MOT). We do this on the way home. It’s just like in the UK, but the car is only 9 months old! Why!

Back at the flat, the hire car we need tomorrow is delivered; it’s a wreck of a jeep. Meanwhile Jimmy must be confined to the garage again!!!

Then the furniture arrives in a fleet of DOM vans. There must be half a dozen of DOM’s men and they take about 2 hours to unload, and unpack the furniture, leaving us around 20 boxes of clothes, books, ornaments, crockery, bedding etc etc. they also repair our drinks cabinet, fixing the foot that was broken the last time we moved 7 years ago. We work until around 9.30, with a break for a beer at Time Square, about 150 yards away. At 9.30 we sit down to share a big bottle of Leffe, - we have a dozen bottles in the unpacking.

On Wednesday morning we are up early to collect the cat, in the hire car that has cost us Lm30 for the day including petrol. And it is a wreck – has it got a VRT. Getting to the Airport is easy, finding the quarantine unit is difficult and we have to telephone for directions. Then we have to drive to the cargo terminal to pay Air Malta Lm17, and then come back to the quarantine unit to pay 3 weeks board and food (LM40). Then we can bring Smudge to her new home. She is confused to say the least.

Rest of day is unpacking, as is Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I have to go out for a new washing machine inlet as one of ours is leaking. Installing the washer without the hoses leaking takes some time, but I get there in the end. We reward ourselves with an early drink at Tony’s Bar. On Friday evening, to mark the end of our second week and to celebrate the arrival of the furniture and Smudge we eat out at the Black Gold Diner. And I reward myself with an Erdinger, to go with my Chicken Curry. Afterwards we sit outside Il Bajra Wine Bar - our nearest bar- with a carafe of his homemade wine at Lm1 for 50cl. Not bad either. And they sell bottles of Warsteiner (probably my favourite German lager) and bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (7.5%).

We have done 2 weeks. I think we are beginning to get organised. At least the flat is taking shape.

Chapter 14 - The Third week in Malta

It’s the weekend, so we went to Pebbles Lido again. It is deserted, and the clouds gather after lunch, so we give in. I start on the garden – pruning, turning the soil, and tying plants to poles. It starts to look better already. On Sunday we do our first serious clean, now that we have finished moving and unpacking boxes. We go out for our regular session at the local cyber café to check emails – the next big objective is to get phone and Internet sorted. We take the long way home, calling in at Guys for a drink. It’s a frozen “Turkish” chicken for tea, after which we people watch from a warm balcony. Smudge is still coming to terms with the new home, but does venture outside briefly.

On Monday we have a bus adventure. We take the bus to Valletta, where we change to the Zebbug bus. We get off in Qormi and walk to Krea. We need a dressing table, a double bed (the sofa bed is too small to expect guests to use it for any length of time) and a bookcase. We buy the former and the latter. They only sell king size beds, our bedding won’t fit. So we decide to visit a bed shop in Luqa – we have the address with us. We find a bus stop, with a Valletta timetable and people waiting. After about 10 minutes we are on a bus back to Valletta, where we get the Qrendi bus, which goes through Luqa. We get off too early and have a 15-minute walk through Luqa to the shop. We buy bed and mattress, and walk back into Luqa centre. One bus goes by without stopping; no others follow, so we walk back to where we got off the Qrendi bus earlier. We have around a twenty-minute wait before a bus appears. So it is back to Valletta again, then to Sliema. And it has taken most of the day. We recover in Black Gold with in Erdinger. Back at the flat, our landlady, Victoria, calls in with her mother, who actually owns the block. We agree what is dead in the garden. She explains the kitchen taps – there are 2 colds – one is mains water, the other is mains water too, but has come via the tank on the roof, so the former is better for drinking.

We wake up Tuesday to a thunderstorm, and read later that Birkikara valley road and Msida roundabout were flooded. Maltacom rang; they are coming to install the phone line tomorrow. DOM come to collect the empty packing boxes. We use a public call box to set up Jan’s telephone banking. Then in the afternoon, we take some Belgian beers to Andre Formosa. He had shown interest and they are also a small thank you for his help. We have letters/documents to send to the UK so use “Malton sub post office”; we do our emails at the cyber café. And I get ready for some proper work again – I have a tele-conference Thursday.

On Wednesday morning the phone is connected. Hurray. I ring Mum. And Chris, whom I am working with on a project that culminates with sessions at the Good Food Show in Birmingham at the end of November, regarding the tele-conference we have with the client. Back on Monday we had our bus adventure. The bed we ordered arrived this morning. But the mattress does not arrive. We can use the phone. It was not ordered, but will now come tomorrow afternoon. We build the base.

We start to get together what we need to get our residence/identity card. Passport, Passport pictures. Marriage/Birth Certificates, Evidence of funds. We need to get Jan some passport pictures. We do that where we took a film for developing yesterday. We now have photos of the flat to scan.

On Thursday morning we take the bus to Balzan, to order our broadband Internet connection. We return with a modem and a disc. We will be connected a week today, so we still need to go to the Cyber café. In the afternoon the mattress arrives and I have my tele-conference, and afterwards write up my notes and actions.

On Friday we use are new phone to ring immigration – we think we have everything we need. We need health insurance, so we ring a number from an advert in the Times, and make an appointment for Monday. Friday has become weekly shopping day – butcher (Joe in Bizzazza Street, Tower Supermarket, and fruit/veg van outside the “Tower Palace Hotel”. We do another journey to the Cyber cafe, and call in for a medicinal Erdinger at Black Gold.

In the evening we do our weekly eat out. This time its Mama Mia on Msida Creek. They do excellent pizza, and it’s always a filling cheap meal. And it is again. We end the evening at our nearest bar – Ta Bajra for a jug of his homemade wine

Chapter 15 - The Fourth week in Malta

When I visualised the format for this epistle, I had imagined we would have had more organised by now. Will another week see us completing the formalities – Internet connection, identity cards, and a car on the road? And we are beginning to miss the TV. We have 3 TVs and can't get anything to watch – we need cable or satellite. So that is something else to organise.

On Saturday morning I walk to the main Sliema post office at the top of Triq Manoel Dimech, but get to it by walking up Amery Street to Sisa, then right, past the Imperial Hotel, through road works and there. On the way I spotted a fish stall we should try, and the Salisbury pub that looks interesting. Posted mail to UK, and did photocopying of supporting documents for our Residence forms. We then take the chairs, books and a picnic down to the rocks opposite the flat, and it was really pleasant until the sun dropped behind the buildings. Back at the flat I did more gardening –pruning, tying up and removing dead leaves etc. It is getting there.

Sunday morning was spent cleaning again, then after lunch we took a late afternoon stroll to Spinola, then back to Guys

On Monday morning we have an appointment at the Insurers we had contacted, and we arranged our Health Cover. We have a receipt for our money so will go to Immigration tomorrow. We also get a second and more helpful car quote. It’s more valuable because she uses the computer to access a value. We have not heard from the ADT, but we will go in anyway. Shortly after we get back KREA deliver 2 “libraries” and a dressing table, which we assemble, so the last of the things can be put in their resting places, and we have a couple of empty library shelves. We go out to the Cyber Café – we should be connected at home soon. I have an email offering a project in the UK from one of the companies I get irregular work from. We stop off at Te Bajra on the way back (This cyber café lark is getting expensive, what with the Lm2 per session and the alcohol afterwards.) I try the bottled Warsteiner, which is by far the best lager on the Island, for my taste buds. Back at the flat I ring the client and get an outline. I need to check out my commitments and ring back. I also ring Chris, to update each other on the Good Food Show project.

Tuesday and Wednesday are really stressful. If there were a gold medal for pointless bureaucracy, Malta would be favourite to win it. We arrive at the Immigration offices at around 10am on Tuesday. The room is full of Russians, Ukrainians and North Africans queuing for visa extensions plus “fixers” with piles of passports (there are large signs stating applicants must be there in person – so what are these guys doing). We eventually – around 11am, reach a desk, and start to go through the copies of the documents they need. We have to have the actual health policy; the receipt of payment is not enough. And the summary of our financial situation is no use. They want copies of bank statements. We have brought all the evidence, but the person we see just collects data, they don’t examine it…So this is a wasted journey, after I had offered just this and got approval of the phone.

At 11.30 we are at the ADT. They have our valuation. And this means they want Lm1770 registration fee, which is the minimum we could expect. We have to bring the monies as a bankers draft or cash! And we need insurance. And there are 2 forms to fill in and bring back. So we trek into Valletta to get the draft. Whilst there, we check out the cost of one of the Cable TV Operators. They charge per TV. We have some lunch and pick up an air Malta timetable so I can start working out some work travel options. We take the bus back towards Sliema stopping off on the way to organise the car insurance, at the exact value, she had suggested yesterday! Black Gold beckoned to help us relax (purely medicinal). Back at the flat we fill in the forms with all the data we have already supplied on previous forms, and which the technical guys put on the valuation form! Oh and when we got back to the flat the letter asking us to go in to pay our monies is in the letterbox! We try to relax by connecting the broadband Internet modem. It works but we can’t access our account until Thursday. Yet more frustration.

So on Wednesday we arrive at the ADT at 10.30. There are 3 people ahead of us in our queue. Like at the immigration offices, there are guys (they seamed to be dealers and looked like wide boys) with piles of application forms. We reach the front at 12.15!! Its absolute chaos, and when it is our turn it takes about half an hour to input all the numbers – our passport, the cars engine and chassis, and god knows what else. But we come away with 2 number plates, a Maltese registration document and a tax disk. Hurrah – Black Gold beckoned. We can drive the car again, and not have to use the bus to get to Qormi, Luqa, Balzan etc.

It rains heavily in the night again. It is Thursday and we should be connected to the World Wide Web. After breakfast we connect and download about 100 emails in to Ted’s in box. Then we try to download to Jan’s in box and fail, with an error message. We eventually ring the help line. They suggest various things, then they ask us to bring the modem into Balzan. So the next job is to fit the number plates to the car, which takes me about 45 minutes. Then lunch. Then to Balzan, via petrol stop. But it is far quicker than the bus! At Maltanet, they test the modem and it is ok, and blame “Norton’s Firewall” I am sceptical. We drive back via San Gwann – we have found a fish mongers there in yellow pages. We see a different one that is just reopening for the evening session (4-7), stop, and buy swordfish, salmon and prawns for Lm7. Back at the flat; we disconnect the firewall without success. An hours call to the help desk solves the problem (we hope), after changing, and re-changing settings, removing and rebuilding the firewall, then demolishing it for a different firewall. But it now seems to be working. So lots do delete, reply and action!! At least we have another – and vital – task ticked off.

So to Friday, and it is the anniversary of 4 weeks on the Island. I am up early, to clear my emails and to try and get up\to date “electronically”. Its also shopping day, and we have a car. In the evening we do an anniversary meal at Guys and drinks at Il Bajra

Next week we need to sort out the tv and identity cards. Oh we also have a problem with Sky. They have confirmed we are disconnected, but separately are threatening to disconnect us and take us to court for not paying our October fee!! Eventually I manage to talk to a helpful guy who I think has sorted it.

Chapter 16 - The Second and Third months in Malta

Deeping seems an age ago; equally a month has flown past. We can now use the car to get to places that seem to take ages by bus. We go to Marsaxlokk market for cheap bits and pieces. We find a BBQ shop, a fish shop, a decent beer shop (Cheers in Lija) – they have Leffe, Hoegaarden and Erdinger. We research satellite TV options and subscribe to Melita Cable, so can now watch “ICC Cricket World”, premiership football and BBC Prime. Time is spent planning both, a visit to the UK to close down some work issues at the end of October, and a major survey in Ireland in November/December that will put me on the road for 3 weeks – and the money will be useful. Oh and we have 2 unwanted pets. A mosquito (there may be a whole family) – we are be bit to bits. And a mouse –it doesn’t seem to live with us but it has been eating smudges food and traps have so far failed.

At the end of October we also get the BBQ set up and have our first in Malta, complete with a working water feature too. And the garden is looking tidy and healthy. The mouse is cornered in the pantry a week after it first appeared. I intend to take it down to the rocks but it dies whilst in the box I have put it in. And we block 2 possible holes. The mosquito is harder to get rid of. We do the Sunday BBQ for 3 weeks before the weather deteriorates. Eventually sort out Sky, but we continue to encounter issues with cancelled direct debits – does little to give confidence in the bank ing system. Our health insurance certificate has arrived, and we have copied all our financial documents, so we make another journey to immigration. Another long wait, then the officer checks our forms, counts the sheets of paper, records the number, staples them together and … well that’s it. They are not doing anything with them, as they don’t know what to do! But don’t we get identity cards? Not from here that’s from an office in Valletta, but I could get citizenship too.

Another journey, and more queuing, where we fill in another form and get our pictures taken, then we will send for you. The letter is waiting when we get back from 3 weeks in Ireland and the UK. Back to Valletta with the letter, another photo is taken of each, and the cards are issued. As mentioned, the task of establishing our selves in Malta is disrupted by work with most of November and December being taken up with earning a crust.

Chapter 17 - a new beginning

We still have tax, and Malta work options to address, but the flat is now definitely home and we have 2006 to look forward to in a warmer climate, without the intensity of the UK and a new business to plan for. Time will tell its tale, and chapter 17 will be written one day.