One week in Birzebbugia

Nice one!

Tomas & Malin,

what can i say, it was a privilege to meet you both and be of some assistance to you.

Your words have made me feel very humbled and I did not feel that we did anything out of the way to help, just offered advice and tried to see if we could help.

This does actually show that things in Malta are not as hard it is made out to be. I have in the last couple of days started to speak to an Agent here that will hopefully start to work well for the expat community and give some REAL deals here in Malta.  One of the things he has said is that he will not accept any Landlord that will not declare their earning, therefore this will also allow the landlord to help put any bills in the renters name.

I will see how it pans out as its in early stages.

Again Thank you Tomas for the Kind words and if anyone else needs assistance you know how to get hold of me

Julian

That's the way things are working in Malta - it took me some time to realize that
Not sitting behind a computer checking online offers or rely on over-worked agents ... just talk with the locals - and expats of course - and you can get (almost) everything: accommodation, garage, vehicles, boats, repairs, handymen services, jobs etc. etc.

I couldnt agree more - and am waiting for the new ethical estate agent too - thats going to be so so interesting - especially the impact on the rest. If it works out well i will certainly recommend them.

Any question we have, which we cannot answer for ourselves we always ask one of the two sisters who work at our local corner shop. The result usually depends upon how many other customers are there and sometimes the question causes quite a debate as they will always ask other customers who are there and their parents who own it. We love it!! Lynn says it reminds her of village life when she lived in remote Norfolk. Another source of good information for us is the manager at our local bar, she knows virtually everybody in the village. She is also a very nice person as are the two sisters. The genuine warmth of the people and their willingness to automatically involve us in their lives has been wonderful. Anyone new to Malta or Gozo I say, get to know your local people, always greet them whenever you see them and always, always, acknowledge those working in a shop as you enter or as soon as possible afterwards. There is no room for bashfulness here!