Sometimes embarrassed by the rather pathetic nature of the blog, which in low season seems easily to deteriorate into non events; as in went for a walk, bought some food, came home, cooked it. And what may well appear to be an obsessive concern with prices. Some of which is necessary as personal concern, in that the per diem cost of a two week holiday may not matter enormously to someone who is at home for the other fifty weeks, whereas the per diem cost of a six month sojourn has more budgetary impact. So no five star hotels.
But this blog also serves as my personal journal, and it’s sometimes interesting for J and me to look back at our daily life in a particular country five or ten or more years ago. Food quality and cost varies significantly around the globe. Fresh produce as well as meat significantly more expensive, less varied, and simply harder to find in Malta than in Cyprus, for example. The climate is similar, but Malta is a much smaller island and heavily built over - simply much less space to devote to gardens or raising animals. There’s a reason that rabbit is the national dish. Although EU membership did improve things.
So back to the memories. People in most countries seem to believe that prices are rising but objectivity not always easy. And often easy to mistake one particularly annoying increase for the whole picture, or to forget prices for similar items elsewhere. So when I see on FB memories a photo from February 1, 2014 showing an enormous and luxuriant head of celery (more accurately a stalk, but that gets easily confused with a rib, which it really isn’t) and recording the price as €0.45 (£0.37, $0.68 CAD) I have a good standard of comparison. At the same greengrocer only luck and a sale would get you the same bunch for twice the price - admittedly still a bargain in many countries - today.
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