For me, visiting Malta always just takes place as part of a day trip.  When I visit the islands I stay on the smaller sister Island of Gozo, my first love of the Mediterranean islands.  I still love Malta and always come away thinking I should spend more than just one day a year there!

This summer we decided to give our favourite locations of Sliema, St Julian's and Mdina a miss for the chance to visit some new places (for us) on the main island of Malta.  After getting off the ferry at Cirkewwa we drove to the 5,500 year old temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, taking just a quick detour to the stunning Dingli Cliffs to catch a glimpse of the uninhabited island of Filfla.  My beloved Gozo is actually home to some of the most intact of Malta's Megalthic Temples, which are all older the Pyramids in Egypt and Britains Stonehenge, however the stunning coastal location and visitor centre attached to the temples in Malta makes these well worth a visit!

Ready for lunch we left the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples desperate to get out of the hot sun.  We have always photographed the three cities of Vittoriosa (Birgu), Senglea and Cospicua from the Valletta side of the Grand Harbour (at the beautiful Upper Barrakka Gardens - a must to visit).  There has been a lot of regeneration in these ancient Maritime cities, so instead of our usual pitstop at the Valletta Waterfront we decided to give the Birgu Waterfront a go for lunch.  I'd really recommend the waterfront's Tate restaurant.  Putting the wonderful yacht views aside, it has a large and varied menu, the food was great with generous portions - but the surprise for me was that the whole menu was vegetarian!  Malta does cater well for vegetarians in general, but  it's quite rare to stumble across a purely vegetarian restaurant!  Yep, I was beyond pleased with this find.

Before leaving Birgu we made a quick stop off at the Inquisitor's Palace, one of the few worldwide to survive both the passing of time and revolts against the Catholic church in the centuries past.  The history on Malta is incredible and with everything from decorative original features, a prison complex and torture chamber, the Inquisitor's Palace certainly has plenty of the history the island is renowned for!

You can't spend time on Malta without visiting the famous and beautiful fortified capital city of Valletta.  We called inside the city walls for a spot of shopping, for a wonder wound to catch up on all the restorations that have taken place in the last year or so, but also just to grab a coffee or two!  I love that Valletta is compact enough to walk round leisurely in an afternoon - if that's all the time you have.  I'm simply happy aimlessly wondering the grid system of streets, enjoying the amazing architecture of the palazzos, churches, palaces, and even the backstreets are quite wonderful - filled with a myriad of my favourite colourful balconies.  However if you happen to be visiting for the first time, be sure to visit the St John's Cathedral and it's Caravaggio paintings, the Grand Master's Palace, Upper Barrakka Gardens and the bustling Waterfront.

If you've ever visited Malta, let me know your favourite things to do and visit.  If you have any questions about the islands of Malta and Gozo please do get in touch!!

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I've completed one full week back in the UK after my holiday to Malta, it's been a busy week in my 9-5 office job (boo) and just as busy a weekend (yay).  Once this post is up I think it'll be an early night for me!

The post holiday blues.  If you check out my Malta Tag you'll see that I regularly visit the Mediterranean islands of Gozo and Malta, to see family and have some quality time away from it all.  We had the best time, chilling out, relaxing on the beach, eating and drinking lots - just generally taking it easy in the sun!  I'm planning a series of blog posts to share with you guys, however if you want to check out what we got up to, or see a bit of these beautiful islands, check out my instagram page for lots of lovely pictures!  Despite it being an incredibly relaxing holiday, the cold British weather and a busy few days at work soon brought on the post holiday blues!  A crappy week was topped off with a disappointing meal out at a local pizzeria, which we visited to celebrate the start of the weekend.  We've been there a few times and always really enjoyed it, but the service was appalling - just not what we needed when suffering with post holiday blues!

Catching up with old friends.  Well not to dwell on the negatives, the weather picked up in the UK at the weekend, and so did things for me!  On Saturday morning I had the most lovely catch up with a friend and her little boy - it was crazy as we hadn't seen each other in about a year!  We had a fab time enjoying the sunshine at the park... The good thing about catching up with good friends after such a long time is that it never feels like you've been parted that long once you get chatting!

Family time.  Saturday afternoon played host to a a lovely family party.  We had a mini celebration for the wedding of my cousin and his new wife, who had a gorgeous intimate wedding away from it all in the Lake District.  Needless to say, the bubbly was flowing and a few of us were a little tired this morning to say the least!  Today was definitely slower paced, with more family time enjoying what might be the last of the summer sun.  We vegged out in the beer garden of a local pub, but that chill time was broken up for me to film the dreaded Ice Bucket Challenge!!  My donation went to the MND Association - the UK equivalent of the ASL charity in the US.

End of the week chill out.  I love having fun packed weekends, they're definitely what keep me smiling, but I did managed to squeeze in some serious relaxation time.  Having recently bought a new home one of my favourite things to do is leaf through a home decor magazine,with a nice hot drink by my side.  Living etc. is my current favourite magazine, I feel it's one of the most modern and fashionable in the UK market, and I'm obsessed with hot water and lemon at the moment - tasty and good for you!  On the topic of what is good for you, I NEED to get back into healthy eating and exercise after my holiday!  I decided Sunday was the day to start (who says you have to wait until Monday?!), to me nothing is better than yummy Greek salad when the sun is shining!

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A few weeks ago I popped over to Manchester with my friend Louise.  British Gas, along with Lastminute.com, had challenged me to use their new Remote Heating Control* to see how I get on with the device after a day out.  The day out I found myself attending was a scrumptious day of chocolate making* with the My Chocolate team.  I'm a massive chocolate fan, and so is Louise, so this was very exciting!

We spent the day getting very messy (despite the sexy plastic apron!) tasting a wide range of chocolate and making lots and lots of chocolate treats.  It was a lot of fun decorating giant chocolate buttons - it's harder than it looks to make a round chocolate button!  My favourite part of the day was making the truffles, I actually feel like I've gained a skill!  I was amazed with how professional they looked once they'd been decorated with a bit of coconut and pink chocolate sprinkles!

At the end of the workshop we had a wonder round the shops in Manchester and also stopped at Tampopo for some lunch.  Now if you know Manchester you'll know it can rain A LOT.  It rained a lot when we were there.  It was absolutely freezing and by the time we made it back to the train station to head home we were pretty much soaked!  With  an hours train journey from Manchester to Leeds it was the perfect time to set my heating to 'on' via the Remote Heating Control App.  I was very grateful to return to lovely toasty house!

To say I've come to rely on this nifty little app is an understatement.  Unfortunately with the weather in the UK being like it has been during these so called 'spring' months, we've had to have the heating on a little more than we'd like.  Not only has it been great to be able to set the heating on just before you get home, or turn it off if you decide stay out and away from home a little bit later than planned, if you're like me this app is perfect if you're too lazy to get out from under a blanket to turn up the heating.  It can all me done from your phone!

Check out the British Gas website if you're interested in trying out the Remote Heating Control yourself!