this & that from my everyday life
Living in Malta
Breaking News: The roof of Portomaso Tower collapsed early this morning
Dec 6th
Breaking News:
The roof of Portomaso Tower collapsed early this morning
Roof of the Portomaso Tower collapsed early this morning, leaving massive structure damage to the rest of the building. Now when the roof is gone, there is no weight on the walls and it will probably take a few days before they fall down. If they still stands by the end of next week, they will be demolished.
The building constructor Emma Brynils says that she will not rebuild the tower until the problems leading to this collapse, has been analyzed and actions taken to prevent this from happening again.
-It’s really no fun to put all time and effort into building houses or in this case – a tower – when it only lasts a couple of days, Emma says.
Since the collapse were predicted the building was already evacuated and no gingerbread man or women was injured.
The tower without the roof
The walls split up when the roof collapsed
The roof and antenna is broken in pieces at the bottom of the tower
My tower splits apart more and more
Dec 5th
My soon-to-be-gone tower
Look at my poor tower… not much to do about it now.
I’ll just wait and see how long it takes before it falls apart.
I know for sure it won’t last until Christmas anyway.
The cinema got evacuated because of bomb scare
Dec 5th
In the afternoon I went shopping in Sliema and then Bugibba with Elaine and her friends. I bought 2 long-sleeve shirts and 3 tops. So now I have clothes for both Christmas and New Years Eve. After the shopping we had kebab at a new place in Bugibba and then she drove me back to Swieqi.
When we came to Paceville we saw a lot of people out in the street outside Eden Cinemas and the police had closed the road down to Bay street. We thought it was the Maltese movie “Maltageddon” that had premiere, but I read on Times of Malta that the cinemas had been evacuated because of something that might have been a bomb.
Eden cinemas briefly evacuated in bomb scare
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Eden Cinemas in Paceville this evening because of what informed sources said was a bomb scare.
Policemen and soldiers from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit were seen going in as people were pushed back from the street that runs between the cinemas.
The situation was described by people on the scene as being calm.
Patrons started being allowed back in after some 20 minutes.
Read article on Times of Malta
Evacuated people outside Eden Cinemas on Bay street
Big waves today
Dec 5th
The wind picked up speed during the afternoon and reached force 6 (strong breeze). On the way back from Mellieha we stopped outside Salina Bay and I took some pictures. Do I need to mention that I was wet and salty after my photo-expedition? 
Looking at more penthouses
Dec 5th
I like the view - but please let me cut that wire!
Play with me!
Today we saw 8-10 places in Mellieha. 2 or 3 of them were penthouses, but we didn’t fall for any of them.
We liked one mansionette that had bathroom and 3 bedrooms on one floor and the living-kitchen on top floor. It had a nice big terrace with view over Ghadira Bay. But. Just across the view is a white wire that really bothers me!
This little cute puppy was in another mansionette we saw. Unfortunately he wasn’t included in the price. 
The last property we saw was a 3 floor house-of-character in central Mellieha. Recently refurbished and with furniture included (that’s good, so we won’t have to buy everything). But the windows are small and few in number, so floor 1 and 2 were very dark. And there is now view to talk about.
Nice house but not the best view...
Didn’t get much sleep last night
Dec 5th
Yesterday I was feeling very homesick and sad, so I went to bed early. But after just one or two hours Gizmo started to wake me up. He was restless and wanted me to pet him constantly. There was some thunder, lightning and strong wind that made some noise and that probably kept him awake.
After 3 hours of being half asleep half awake I had to get up. I went out on the balcony and took down the laundry from the lines. I didn’t want it to disappear in the wind or get soaking wet if it started to rain! I also checked that windows were closed and after about one hour I went to bed again. After just some 20 minutes a heavy rain started and keept me awake even longer (but at least the laundry didn’t get wet again).
Now, this is what I call a gingerbread house!
Dec 4th
…I think I need to practice on my gingerbread-house-building skills… ain’t this amazing?!
Foto: Tomas Jakobsson, Länsmuseet Gävleborg
Pepparkakshus i jätteformat
Entrén
I år är det tionde gången som konstnären Margareta Persson designar och bygger ett pepparkakshus i jätteformat. Några av de tidigare husen har stått på museet och några i restaurangmiljö. Denna gång är huset större än någonsin – ett mäktigt pepparkaksslott! Med stjärnprydda torn och tinnar, stämningsbelysning och 145 (!) spröjsade fönster står det i länsmuseets entré och sprider pepparkaksdoft och julkänsla.
My tower is crumbling in Malta’s humid air
Dec 4th
Only a few days has gone by since I made the tower and it is already falling apart. The gingerbread is soft and spongy, and the sugar-glue dissolves slowly. I’m surprised if it stills stands on Monday.
What should I do? Any suggestions?
Moonshine over Malta
Dec 3rd
View from Mdina
I went to Mdina tonight, for coffee and chat with a friend. It’s almost full moon and as usual I tried to capture it with my camera, but as usual, the view is much better in reality.
I love to watch all the glittering lights and the string of boats at the horizon…
Interesting article about life in a wheelchair
Dec 3rd
This is something I’ve been thinking about – how does people in wheelchair get around on this island? I’ve seen the parking spaces for people with disabled badge, but it must be a nightmare to shop. My little every-day-shop around corner has a narrow door where I don’t think a wheelchair could get in unless they open both doors (as they actually do in the summer). Just inside the door they have ice-cream, milk, water and vegetables. If you want to pay for your items or buy anything else you have to take 4 or 5 steps down to the rest of the shop.
This is something I’ve seen in a lot of places here in Malta and I hope they’ll do something about it.
Facing life in a wheelchair
On any given day, I can hop into my car, drive to work, find a parking space, alight and rush up the stairs to the street and then onto the office.
I had never noticed the scheme of events in detail; it’s usually just one rushed blur, which I loosely called a “commute”, until I tried to spend a workday in the life of a wheelchair-bound person – specifically, wheelchair-bound me.
