“Wasalna, Josette hi” (“Darling, we’ve arrived.”)

John Dalli made the money to buy a large and very expensive flat at Portomaso, where he has lived for the last few years, by carefully putting aside part of his cabinet minister’s salary every year between 1987 and 2010.

He was only allowed to do private work in the 22 months between 1996 and 1998, when he was out of the cabinet, so it was a bit of a struggle.

But he and his wife Josette are thrifty people. By driving a hard bargain on the Portomaso flat, they had enough left over to buy L-Ghorfa, a tract of land larger than the Floriana granaries with a couple of ramshackle rooms which, because of their legendary Maltese bzulija, they have been able to convert into a country mansion.