It’s impossible to keep a diet going in this place. The moment you step into a private home, especially that of relatives, the larder and the fridge are immediately thrown open and goodies are served with coffee or a drink, no matter how much you protest that you’d rather not.

A foreign visitor told me: “But you must lose weight during the summer months. Surely you are never hungary with soaring temperatures.” That heat means a loss of appetite is a delusion we like to harbour. I simply change from drinking too many Chobars to hovering platefuls of delicious hobs-biz-zejt. I go past Frans, my baker, who makes a proper Maltese loaf, almost with my eyes closed, pledging to myself from kilometres away that I am not going to stop. Most of the time I can resist. The problem begins when my will power deserts me and I purchase a loaf of crusty Maltese bread. Then I cannot wait to get to my kitchen and turn half of it to hobs-biz-zejt…and once that is eaten I look at the other half from the corner of my eye and pretend it isn’t there…for a short while… but my will power evaporates once again, at the sight of that wonderful crust…and the olive oil, capers, tuna, olives, basil and I say to myself that I may as well finish it off and turn it into a meal.

Then there is the ice-cream which summer brings with it. The Sicilian caponata which our Sicilian friend’s aunt, Zia Maria, taught us how to make so many moons ago. I can still hear her voice telling me that it must be cooked slowly, on a low fire and eaten cold. And how many jars of caponata has her niece, our dear friend Lianna, lugged from Palermo or Catania to Malta? Theirs is inevitably always so much better than ours, no matter how much we try.

And summer brings with it al fresco restaurants…and invitations to them. Dining with the press at the InterContinental’s Al fresco Garden Restaurant has become an annual ritual to which I look forward to. It is a pleasant evening with colleagues from other papers and magazines. This year, Max Grenard the executive chef, produced the most delicious Crème Brulée of Foie Gras and morel celery ice-cream. Who doesn’t enjoy foie gras, in any shape or form. As you must know this is goose or duckliver which is grossly enlarged by methodically fattening the bird. This force-feeding of geese was done as early as Roman times. It is a prized delicacy. In France you can purchase it in various forms but the only one I know is the preserved foie gras in jars. Alas I am not that well acquainted enough with it. I have no idea if it is sold in Malta. In Mauritius is was available especially at Christmastime when a consignment was especially brought it.

Anyway, Max’s foie gras was served in a little pot and with the savoir faire of a French chef.

I am not very keen on sugo nero so I will not write an enthusiastic short essay on the Tagliolini al Sugo Nero which we were served. Let me go straight to the delicious and grand dish of seafood which was the main course and a hit on our table. Lovely langoustines stuffed with tomato and basil, served with roasted baby lobster, salmon and scallop brochette with warm fennel and black olive oil salad. This was a feast and a generous one at that.

The sweet was thoroughly enjoyable and with the coffee we had petits fours prepared by Joseph Schembri. There was a great deal of food and even I could not help myself to more than one petit four. (See page 16 for more photos)

Well, like everyone else I am edging slowly but inexorably towards my second childhood, so a visit to Playmobil did not seem so far fetched after all. I have been invited time and again to go and see what is happening out there in Hal Far.

At last I managed to slot in my visit and was delighted to meet Anna Agius who is responsible for Marketing and Sales. We met in the café which is open to visitors and where you can sit and have a snack. Just outside is the play area for children which truly is delightful. When I have grandchildren I shall bring them here. The entrance is a mere 50cents and it is air-conditioned, essential in this heat. Anna had ordered a salmon salad for me which I thoroughly enjoyed. On the way out I noticed that there were some lovely-looking cakes and feel rather contrite that I had refused dessert.

Anyway, Anna told me that she had gone to Playmobil some 35 years ago when she was just 15 years old, with a friend, to look for a summer job. This was followed by a few months of work in the factory in Germany. In short, she grew up with the Malta factory, watching it change and expand and be the first class employer that it is today. There are 700 employees many of them working on a three day shift. The work never stops.

I visited the factory with Rita who has been working there for some 25 years. She told me that the assembling of the little figures which are so familiar to us used to be done in people’s homes. It was a cottage industry and every little figure had to be assembled in 1.5 seconds. Now there is a machine which assembles 2000 of these figures in one hour. I was impressed. To think all this is being made in Malta.

The toyshop and the Fun Park where children’s parties can be organised are really a dream. Buses run to Hal Far regularly and even a visit to the factory is instructive and interesting.

I must say discovering what goes on in Hal Far was a revelation in itself. Quite a few organisations have shifted there and of course there is ample parking space. What a relief in a country where parking anywhere has become impossible. Just before I stepped into the office, in a second childhood mood, I bought myself a Smarties chocolate.

I went to Madame Butterfly at Portomaso with my 1975 baby who came here for a long weekend. I enjoyed the singing and music thoroughly. In an autobiographical article David Belasco wrote that Puccini attended a performance of a one-act play Madame Butterfly which was produced and staged by Belasco in London, at the turn of the centruy. In this article Belasco tells how Puccini rushed into the green room after the performance, embraced him and begged for permission to use the play as the basis of his next opera. ‘I agreed at once,’ wrote Belasco, ‘and told him he could do anything he liked with the play, and make any sort of contract, because it was impossible to discuss arrangements with an impulsive Italian who had tears in his eyes and both his arms round your neck.’ Tears notwithstanding, on his way back to Italy from London Puccini stopped off in Paris where he consulted Emile Zola about the possibility of using Zola’s novel, La Faute de l’abbé Mouret, for his next opera. However, in the end he decided on Butterfly based on John Luther Long’s story.

Here are a couple of criticisms about this production at Portomaso. I found the members of the choir too heavy, stomping about in their kimonos. They should have been put on a diet for this particular production. How many fat Japanese women does one see especially on the stage? And they should have been made to wear wigs. I understand that they were ordered but did not arrive on time. Then they should have gelled their hair down. Frazzled curly hair was out of place in this production.