Thursday 31 July 2014

Malta with Attitude

Life is good, no really life is good; if only we can find or better still look for the good. The truth is it's always hiding somewhere.
Take for example our recent break in Malta. In a short 8 days we 'clocked up':

  • 2 Emergency Dental visits (my daughters tooth broke on the way there).
  • 2 Emergency Hospital visits (my son fell and cut his knee badly and my daughters boyfriend was diagnosed with a severe case of vertigo).
  • 1 burglary (Sunglasses, Sat Nav all stolen from a car parked in a secure car park).
  • 1 case of Road rage (an irate scooter driving man who chased us down and shouted abuse through our open windows convinced we'd made an illegal turn - we hadn't).
  • 1 parking fine
  • 1 Returned rental car (The first one broke down)
  • 1 Holiday rental from hell
To top it all a disastrous Villa rental that forced us to pack up and move to a hotel after the first night. It wasn't a matter of 'not meeting expectations' but a matter of not meeting basic standard of hygiene or safety! I wont bore you with a list of all that was wrong but among the most notable: Dirty sheets, no running water, an ensuite that turned out to be a plumbed toilet next to the bed and the worst of all a baby cot with a broken leg that was taped onto a small pot! 

On reflection this could go down as the worst holiday ever but in reality its one we will remember most for the amount of laughs and smiles.
As a family we learnt a lot about our own individual and collective resilience and I am immensely proud that from the youngest to the oldest we all kept our sense of humor throughout.

I am also so grateful for the wonderful people that helped and supported us in adversity.
We found the good in life & people hidden just below the surface at every twist and turn. From the hotel staff who went out of their way to ease our plight to the Dentist and technician who broke all the rules to repair a tooth in one day as opposed to the 5 it would normally take. The Doctors who took time to explain about my sons wound and even educated us on the entire process of wound healing - amazing!

What I remain most proud of is the way my family could always see the funny side of each adversity - Two examples:

Our scooter driving road rage man could have been scary as he took chase & shouted abuse through our open windows, but we laughed at his contextually inappropriate choice of swear words. Maybe Maltese swear words don't translate well!

Our Villa disaster prompted us to spend a hilarious evening  re writing the 'real particulars' of the Villa description. It's now become a trip advisor review!

So call me a glass half full type of person (I don't think I am) but what I've learnt in those 8 days on Malta is that attitude is everything.

Maybe we worked extra hard not to allow these situations to spoil our holiday as we were conscious that this was precious time together.

Maybe we were forced to be more resourceful and consciously pulled on our inner resilience.

Whatever the reasons the lessons I've taken is that while we treated an 8 day holiday as special and to be protected at all costs we should and could apply the same principles to life back home.
We are trying our best now we have returned to maintain the 'Malta attitude'. Its not going to be easy but we are now more conscious about not letting stuff spoil life.