The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will be coming to Malta in November accompanied by their son the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

In a press statement released on Monday at 1am, the government and Buckingham Palace announced that the British monarch would be back on the island after eight years.

Several people took to social media and the timesofmalta.com comments board to voice their joy at the news. However, the elation was more directed at the fact that now “the island will smell of fresh paint from end to end” and the roads “will be done up properly”.

“Start the tarmac machines,” said another.

An expat hoped that the terrible roads would be fixed on time as “I wouldn’t even invite my mother-in-law to the islands”.

Others commented on the dilapidated state of Gwardamangia Villa where the Queen lived with Prince Philip in the early 1950s.

The Queen and Prince Philip were last here in 2007, for what was dubbed their ‘second honeymoon’

The Queen and Prince Philip were last here in 2007, for what was dubbed their “second honeymoon” as they stopped over for a day to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

There had been fears that the Queen, who will be 89 by November, and Prince Philip, 93, would miss the Malta meeting: age has forced them to scale back their engagements, particularly overseas.

In fact, Queen Elizabeth had missed the last CHOGM meeting in Sri Lanka in 2013 – in 40 years she had never missed a Commonwealth summit.

Prince Charles and Camilla.

Prince Charles stepped in to represent his mother in Sri Lanka and the success of the trip led to expectations that Charles, who is the longest serving heir apparent in British history, would represent the Queen more regularly at such large-scale events.

However aides have apparently convinced the Queen that the three-hour journey by air to Malta is “just like an internal flight”, according to The Telegraph. CHOGM will be held between November 27 and 29.

It is rare for the Queen to travel overseas with her heir. Charles, however, lived in Malta with his mother as a boy and has happy memories of the time he spent here. This will be his first visit to Malta in decades, and his first with his wife.

Last September his son William, 33, received a warm welcome in Malta as main guest for the celebrations of Malta’s 50th Independence anniversary.

He stepped in for his wife, Kate, who had to cancel her visit due to morning sickness while pregnant with her second child. On Sunday the Queen issued her annual Commonwealth Day message, and spoke of the need for continued dialogue between nations in an “uncertain world”.

She urged citizens of the 53-nation club, of which she is head, never to lose “trust” in one another and always to “keep talking”. President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday attended Commonwealth Day celebrations including a reception hosted by the Queen in Marlborough House, London.

The Queen’s ‘deep affection for Malta’

The Queen has spoken publicly in the past of her “deep affection” for Malta, where she lived for several extended periods between 1949 and 1951 as a naval officer’s wife, while the Duke was posted here with the Mediterranean Fleet.

They often danced the night away in the ballroom of the Hotel Phoenicia in Floriana. They were precious times because it was their only experience of life approaching something like an ordinary couple.

In 2005, when Malta hosted CHOGM for the first time, she praised the “outgoing, generous Maltese people who have always offered us the hand of friendship”.

Road rage and paparazzi

During her time on Malta the Princess Elizabeth had perhaps her only brush with road rage. Driving to the shops in her MG, she found a narrow village lane blocked by a man on a donkey cart coming the other way.

Both stood their ground, until the man told the future monarch that he and his donkey were never going to budge. She was forced to back up. Prince Philip had his first taste of life ahead when, irritated after posing briefly with his wife for a picture, he snapped at the photographer: “Haven’t you had enough?”

His wife, according to popular legend, told him: “Philip, they’re only doing their job. Now you’ve married me, you’ll have to lump it.”