‘No Place Like Home, Except Casa Ellul’ ~ An Australian-Maltese Guest

My parents moved to Australia in the 1960’s and we were painted a pretty poor picture of it when we were children. We did come over en masse in the early 1970’s and my childhood memories are fond of the very simple life we had here.

Camping at the beach with an entourage of cousins, the tuna sandwiches dripping in olive oil, music blaring from Ford Capri’s and the family home which was more like a shrine to Royal Doultan with seats covered in plastic and heavily carved mahogany furniture.

So coming back as an adult I was a little apprehensive as to what would have changed in the 40 years since I visited last. I wanted to stay centrally so I could use the buses to get around – the memory of crazy traffic still ingrained in my memory….

Casa Ellul is even more beautiful in real life than the photos depict. The furnishings are reminiscent of my grandmother’s house but with deep shades on the walls, contemporary art and all the mod cons I want in my own home, it was the cushion of comfort, the lap of luxury boutique hotel living I needed after such a long awaited and long trip.

I was a bit like a child again asking if I could still get Twistees and Kinnie; the concierge making sure I had some in my room by the time I had breakfast. The level of service matches the level of comfort and though I missed my family, I could see me staying here for longer than planned!

Malta has moved on in leaps and bounds, lots of foreign workers, supermarkets, and more technology that I thought it could cope with, but the families still camp overnight by the beaches, the tuna sandwiches are still as wonderful and I’m glad places like Casa Ellul have taken the plastic off the furniture so I could slouch in the chair and reminisce with my digitally scanned images, eating Twistees and sipping a Vodka and Kinnie. Well, some things are better when you are older.