A Reminder Of All Of Malta’s Biggest Stories From This Summer
With summer coming to an end today, we thought we’d take this opportunity to look back at the eventful season it’s been here in Malta. Over the last 100 days, we’ve had everything from emotional tearjerkers to infuriating controversies, with a healthy side-helping of some very hot temperatures.
17. Domino’s first Maltese outlet confirms its location
Maltese people love their food, so this story was bound to gain lots of traction. Shortly after announcing that they’d be showing up somewhere in Birkirkara, Domino’s exact location was exclusively pointed out by Lovin Malta… and the views quickly flooded in. Domino’s went on to set a couple of international records in its opening week.
16. A Google translate tattoo fail without any permanent damage
Two English students decide to celebrate their friendship by getting the Maltese translation of sisters tattooed on their elbows. It’s a good thing they went for henna tattoos though, cause Google Translated gave them sorijiet.
15. A Maltese supermodel dating a Foo Fighters member? Rad!
The story of how Christine Pillow went from a sales assistant from San Ġwann to a supermodel dating Foo Fighters keyboardist Rami Jaffee got everyone’s celebrity gossip senses tingling. It also had a lot of fans of the rock band hoping Pillow would manage to get Grohl & co to our islands. Here’s hoping!
14. 24 Things That Make You A Maltese Ħamallu/a
With a title like that, what did you expect? A post popular Facebook forum The Salott with a simple question quickly went viral, and soon enough, hundreds of people were posting their opinions on what really someone a ħamallu/a. For the record, it’s anything from gold chokers on men to “driving down a road with the music full on and all you can hear is doom doom doom.”
Of course, as one person pointed out, it could also simply be “someone who doesn’t fit in with your sense of what’s acceptable or not regarding fashion and attitude.”
13. A summer holiday which quickly turned into an extended nightmare stay
Marc and Amy Young came to Malta from Rishton, UK, on a holiday with their 10-month-old daughter Eliza Jane on Wednesday 24th May. On the day they arrived in Malta, Eliza was rushed to hospital with Streptococcus Pneumococcal Meningitis. The holiday quickly turned into a nightmare seven weeks of ventilators, seizures, septicaemia, transfusions, antibiotics, blood tests, five MRI scans, three CT scans and three operations. The family ended up staying for over seven weeks in Malta, with Eliza spending her first birthday, 11th July, in hospital.
Thankfully, though, the story has a happy ending, with a Go Fund Me page for the Youngs aiming to raise £5,000 to help them ending up raising well over £15,000.
12. So is Ben Camille Malta’s Kim Kardashian now?
Love him, hate him or be absolutely indifferent to him, Ben Camille getting a reality show had everyone talking.
Memes and parodies of Benjamin have already started cropping up, and the TV show hasn’t even started yet!
11. Painfully-hilarious Maltese celebrity-name-puns? Yes please.
We laughed so hard at these killer Maltese celebrity-name puns sent to us by the wonderful V Squared, it took us longer than usual to write this story up. We just kept laughing at classics like Corazon / Corazoff, Montesin / Montesout and of course the amazing Clare Agius / Clare Without Agius
10. A Maltese maid scams dozens of people out of their rent money
Towards the end of summer, a Maltese maid was arrested for scamming several tenants into placing deposits and paying the first month of rent on her client’s apartment in San Ġwann.
A couple of days later, the magistrate presiding on the case rubbed salt in the wounds of the 33-year-old woman, telling her, “What is more worrying to me is that you had already been given a warning and chose to ignore it. Now you are going to miss your children growing up.”
9. #FabulousSummerWeddingGoals
A fashionable wedding extravaganza took Gozo by storm earlier this summer. No doubt getting some help by their good friend Luke Azzopardi, currently one of Malta’s top fashion designers, the young couple had everything from a perfectly-tailored and hand-embroided suit for the groom, to a dress made from “36 metres of soft translucent layers in pure silk organza and veiling weight tulle” for the bride. Oh, and don’t forget the crown and earrings by Dolce&Gabbana. Maximum slayage.
8. The heartwarming story of Jacob’s Brew
Jacob Cachia stole the hearts of thousands when his parents embarked on a mission of making his dream of owning a coffee shop a reality. Months later, Jacob, the survivor of rare condition known as Meningoencephalitis and numerous complications later which left him with a 50/50 chance of survival, the coffee shop – Jacob’s Brew – finally became a reality. The establishment also employs a beautiful Pay-It-Forward system for added fuzziness of the heart.
7. Maltese women killing it on Instagram
Talented artists, popular singers, influential fashionistas, and adored models. Malta’s got it all, and these 12 Maltese women are definitely winning the Instagram game.
6. A big storm is coming… ish
After four intense heatwaves (one of which was aptly-named Lucifer), many Maltese people had just about had enough of the summer heat. At one point in August, the hottest weekend of the year with apparent temperatures reaching 43°C. The week after that didn’t let up, but right after that, national forecasts saw a “big storm” brewing on the horizon.
And while it did eventually come just before Victory Day, many people were probably waiting for something… bigger.
5. The controversial Paceville rubbish truck case
Around Santa Marija weekend, shocking video footage had emerged of a naked woman jumping into the back of a rubbish truck in Paceville. The woman was filmed tugging at the door of a rubbish truck parked in front of the Havana nightclub and trying to pull it off its hinges, before jumping into the back of the truck. The woman proceeded to cling to the rubbish van, kicking out at police officers as they tried to pull her out. She then ell into a fetal position inside the truck and two men wrapped a cloth around her and pulled her out.
Days later, the 36-year-old was charged with offending public morals and claimed she was drunk. For many Maltese people, however, this was one of the telling signs that the dangerous synthetic drug flakka had reached our shores.
4. A 15-year-old girl photographed a man who took out his penis on a public bus and started masturbating while staring at her
Yes; sadly, that was something that happened within the first week of September. The incident happened on the afternoon of 6th September on a bus en route to Buġibba.
The story outraged thousands of people, and the (unedited) photo was sent to the police for an investigation to be opened.
3. The emotional rollercoaster of two childhood friends who went missing for three nights
Nick Johnson and Mark Petric gained overnight fame after they found themselves trapped inside a cave by cliffs in Rabat for three nights during a spot of unusually bad weather. The nationwide search that dominated Santa Marija weekend ended with the two being spotted by a Tony Zammit, a fisherman, and later rescued by an Army Search and Rescue Operation.
In an exclusive interview with Lovin Malta, Nick and Mark lifted the lid on their whole ordeal… from having to stay bare naked for four days, to drinking their own urine.
2. Drug expert confirms the dangerous ‘zombie drug’ Flakka has made its way into Malta
The infamously dangerous street drug which send people into a mad frenzy (and has even been linked to cannabilism) was confirmed as having made its way to Malta by drug expert and forensic chemist Mario Mifsud. “I cannot say whether any people have overdosed on it or whether police have made any arrests, but it is definitely here,” Mifsud had told Lovin Malta.
Two weeks later, the Malta Police Force confirmed they found a synthetic drug resembling Flakka back in 2015, but couldn’t do much about it due to it not being listed as an illegal substance in Maltese law.
1. “Goodbye Paradise Bay, you will be missed”
From man-made terraces and concrete structures to rugged pebbles and small boulders replacing the ample beach and golden sand, Paradise Bay lost much of its late 90s charm. But not everyone seemed to agree.
Our opinion piece about Paradise Bay back in July sure had a lot of people riled up, gradually gathering nearly 50,000 views and reaching over 100,000 people.