Malta, at last!

 It's half-term, so Angie and I are going to catch some sunshine while there's a chance. And there's one place forecasting 25 degrees Centigrade all next week! Malta!

So we are there for six days, from Sunday, and it is really quite remarkable that this is the first time I have been, as I have lots of connections with the place.

Most pertinently, my children's grandmother was born in Malta, and with a bit of luck they might even qualify for passports. Both of them have been to visit their extensive and very Maltese extended family more than once. They have various Tias and Tios that they tell me about, and it sounds a scream. Although perhaps if you are from England, it may seem a bit full-on

But even before that connection, two of my uncles who married my mother's sisters had Malta connections. 

My uncle Jim lived here during the war and I had some vague idea that my older uncle Charlie was in the navy.

Uncle Jim (who only died this year at the age of 97!) lived in Malta for a couple of years when he was a schoolboy. His father worked out there in communications. Jim used to tell us lots about his experiences, as he was there in the war when all the German and Italian bombing raids began. The family was eventually evacuated back to England, but he described walking down towards Valetta, where the docks were, only to look up and see the sky black with bombers, like in one of those wartime posters. Uncle Jim is the boy sitting in the sunshine in the photo at the top.

Uncle Charlie had actually served in the Navy out there.  I had seen a nice photo of him wearing tropical whites (I think he was a junior officer). But I didn't know exactly when he was there or what he did till my cousin told me. He was on HMS Phoebe, the Royal Navy cruiser that was part of the final key convoy that relieved Malta's siege as 'Operation Pedestal' in 1942!  (Operation Pedestal) What a history to have, as the mild-mannered schoolteacher of my childhood.

(Update: so we are now actually here and on Gozo after a day walking around Valetta yesterday. I'll post more, but for now I will show you the two gloating photos we took at Stansted on the chilly night we flew out and in Valetta the next day)

As they say in Maltese: 

Ikollok ħin sabiħ!

And I am very glad to have finally got here.