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A full list of swimming pools and lidos in Malta offering day entry. Check prices, opening hours and what food credit you get for your entry fee here. Updated 2025.
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I know that a new year is just another day and doesn’t really mean anything. But I need signposts and milestones and a new year is a great time for me to reflect on the year past and see how I can try to make the most out of the year coming.
Here are some small changes I’ve implemented in my life that all had a BIG, POSITIVE impact. On the face of it, I think many of these seem quite superficial but the impact they have had on the way I feel, the way I feel about myself and the genuine improvements I feel because of them are very real and each one makes life that little bit better.
A lick of salt? Ugh! A mouthful of cheap, petrol-like alcohol? YUCK. Sucking on a LEMON? NO THANK YOU! When I talk about tequila, I am talking about a smooth but punchy little drink, to be sipped, not slammed. It’s aromatic, it can be sweet and caramelly, it can be spicy and peppery. It can be delicious.
These tips for improving your air quality at home will be applicable and useful wherever in the world you live, but they are especially important in Malta, where we frequently suffer from the worst air quality in Europe. There has been a definite improvement since the restrictions imposed during the pandemic but this is unlikely to last. For the most part, Malta usually registers as “very poor”, the second to worst rating.
Whilst the pandemic has us all stuck at home for the majority of the time, I thought it’d be a great time to do some good and foster a cat in need. I unknowingly ended up with a very traumatised baby, with a lot of special needs so whilst this is going to be a very real, very raw account, I don’t want you to feel that every foster experience will be like mine. But, if you’re prepared for the worst, things can only be better!
So you moved to a new country with the love of your life. You thought it would last forever. You built a life, from scratch, together. You've never experienced this country as a single person. Your lives are intertwined in a way that people who live at home could never understand. But now, it's over. Whether you were the dumper or the dumpee, being single for the first time in a country that's not your homeland is an understandably daunting situation to be in.
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There are some things I like about the property purchase process in Malta, like the promise of sale period, where the property is taken off the market and cannot be sold to someone else, whilst you arrange everything from architects reports to getting the loan. What I do not like is that NO ONE that you deal with will be transparent or knowledgeable. No one will be able to tell you what the process looks like or entails or costs from start to finish. No one will be proactive and once each step is complete you’ll need to continually chase your loan manager to find out what’s next.
I recently bought a apartment and my biggest frustration along the way was not know WTF was going on. No one could really spell out to me, before I started, what the exact steps are and what this shit is going to cost me. All I knew was what deposit amount I needed to save for and the monthly repayments I’d be signing up to. So I decided to collect everything I experienced during the process and list it here to help the next poor sod trying to plan for this massive investment.
This blog has been very property heavy recently but that’s because I have just signed and received the keys to my first ever property! This is an insanely exciting time but it’s also been a long process, made stressful by the fact that no one really tells you what to expect. People who have been through it tend to want to forget it as soon as possible and anyone who’s job it is to know tends to be unable to explain the process start to finish. So that’s what I’m trying to do.
Buying a property in Malta has been a real whirlwind but we are nearing the end of the first part of the journey. I have the date to sign the final contract and get the damn keys!
This is a bit of a hard one for me to write as it means divulging a bit more personal information than I'm usually comfortable sharing and it's also actually quite embarrassing. But here goes... I got rejected for a home loan from almost every bank in Malta.
So far in our quest to buy a property in Malta, we have had the initial meetings with banks to see if we're eligible and get quotes on repayments. We have searched the market, found a property we liked and signed the promise of sale. So now, the property is off the market whilst you apply for a bank loan and the bank, the notary and your architect do their work to ensure this sale can go through.
The process of buying a property in Malta is a little different from other countries, like Sweden or the UK and from the sounds of it, I much prefer how it's done on this little island. A Promise of Sale is something you don't have in the UK, but here it protects the buyer (they won't sell it to someone else for a higher price) and the seller (they can't back out at the last minute for no good reason).
After 8 years in Malta I felt like it was time to stop wasting money on rent and finally buy my own place. I’m only just taking the first steps on buying my own property in Malta but thought it’d be helpful to bring you all along on the journey.
I don’t drive, so when buying things like cat toys and cat food for my princess, Kinnie, I’ve always relied on local pet shops delivering to my apartment. Cat trees, new litter boxes, or even wet food tins can be heavy and there isn’t a really well stocked pet shop anywhere in easy walking distance, so it’s so much easier to order my pet supplies online and have them delivered to my door in Malta.
Whilst not on complete lockdown here in Malta, we are advised to stay home as much as possible. I have a horrible immune system and we both want this all over with as soon as possible so Arvid and I are limiting our time in the outside world so we had to find a way to get food and groceries delivered to our home.
A full list of swimming pools and lidos in Malta offering day entry. Check prices, opening hours and what food credit you get for your entry fee here. Updated 2025.
Birgu flea market is a Sunday must. Get there early and enjoy vintage and antique furniture and trinkets. Grab a coffee and spend a few hours enjoying the Birgu flea market in Malta.