Diverse Ramblings

Maltese Weather

The weather has been quite changeable lately (although hey, Maltese weather often is).

On Thursday, I was waiting on a bus stop at lunch time and the sun was beating down, when suddenly I felt a blast of cool air, like when you open a fridge. I looked around, and no fridges were in evidence, so it was a natural cool breeze. Aaaah!

Random people have been complaining to me of the heat, but I'm sitting here at my PC at 8am drinking coffee, and guess what? It's THUNDERING. The forecast is light showers, so here's hoping the country gets to cool down a bit.

Summer is definitely on the way, and as usual I am wondering what it will be like. Last summer wasn't so bad in terms of heatwaves (thank goodness, because we had lots of wedding-related running around to do) but you never can tell what the next one will be like.

This will be my very first summer of living in a place with airconditioning (the previous owners of this flat installed a unit in the master bedroom) but giving the ever-rising cost of electricity, I don't intend running it on a regular basis. It will be nice for the really hot nights though - you know, the ones when you get in to bed and the sheets are hot.

That reminds me, we need to go buy a couple of fans for the kitchen and living room so we're ready when the hot weather hits. They will go on the shopping list along with a kitchen table, lol.

What's for supper? Frozen shoulder? (mike's latest joke)

One of the benefits of being married to a nurse is free healthcare, in the comfort of your own home.

The disadvantage is way too much information about whatever it is that might be ailing you.

I woke up yesterday morning with a sore shoulder. Well it doesn't hurt all the time, only if I reach out and try to grasp something. So Mike was going on about frozen shoulder (which sounds funny until you look it up) and nerve involvement (which sounds scary to begin with so I didn't look it up). Finally he decided that it wasn't frozen shoulder, probably just a bit stiff from being over-enthusiastic with an elastic exercise band that I bought a few days ago. Yeah, me doing physical exercise, hope you didn't just fall off your chair.

I wish I had a photo of me standing at the sink, washing a bowl using my left arm while Mike is giving me physio on my right. What can I say, I'm a woman, I multitask.

Today my shoulder feels a bit worse and I am annoyed because it hurts to reach out to the keyboard and the mouse. I guess this would be a good time to stop using an armchair and replace it with the build-it-yourself office chair that my parents gave me for my birthday last month. (my parents thought I would enjoy putting it together, and they were right, it's just like Meccano on a larger scale, but with really bad instructions).

Building that chair took a nurse, a laboratory analyst and a mechanical engineer way too much time to put together, mostly because people kept saying "let me see it, I'm sure I know how it fits together!". Well we finally figured it out, and it's a very nice chair, but I've never used it because I like watching DVDs on the PC, curled up in this armchair (yet another donated piece, honestly, we have yet to buy a stick of furniture for this house).

Hmmm, maybe I can fit both the armchair and the office chair near the desk, and switch between them...

Here's to a quiet weekend

Duluri - even if you don't observe the event yourself, it will still make you... dolorous... if you attempt to drive from anywhere in Malta to anywhere else in Malta that evening. We were invited to friends last night and twice we had to reverse and turn around because of the faithful clogging the streets.

Oh well we were only a little bit late and we had a great time. After an evening featuring much chatting, smothered pork (reference to the method of serving, not the method of slaughtering), and trading of funny youtube clips, we came away with two books (for me), four slightly-expired cans of beer (for Michael to cook with), and season two of the The Office on DVD (for both of us to veg out in front of). Oh, and a promise of another evening in the near future to be dedicated to playing Settlers of Catan.

And after night like this, you go home thinking to yourself, why don't I do this more often?

Mike and I will start being all grown-up and inviting friends over as soon as we buy some chairs, because currently we are still using the two that my father-in-law lent us. He very nicely has never commented on how our cat is gradually ripping all the foam padding off the seats. We bought her a really nice scratching post from PAVI, but no, it's the seats of the borrowed chairs that she strops her nails on.

We went to PAVI again today.

They had some catnip in stock.

This promises for an interesting evening.

Indiscriminate drinker

Why is it that, although I change the water in her bowl every day, our cat prefers to drink out of random glasses, the bath, and as of yesterday, the toilet?

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my twenty-seventh birthday, in just thirteen years, I'll be forty. *sob*. At least I don't have any wrinkles yet, haha.

Yesterday I received three brown envelopes in the mail, all marked "House of Representatives". After the initial shock (because brown envelopes rarely bear good news), they turned out to be "xewqat sbieħ" from various politicians in the the Malta Labour Party, wishing me a happy birthday. Awwww. Now, the envelopes all bore my maiden name but new address, which means the MLP got my updated info this summer, and voters' names and addresses are available in the electoral register, but I wonder how they got my birthday? Viva data protection.

My day didn't start out so well because I accompanied a friend to an outpatients appointment in Mater Dei, and it was a long morning, but things are looking up now. It was my first time insider Mater Dei and I admit I was impressed with what I saw (and it wasn't raining so I didn't have to dodge drips from the leaky ceiling, hah).

The halls were wide, the waiting areas had nice chairs, and the corridors had up-lighting which reduced the glare. The public toilets were CLEAN, and WELL-LIT, and even VENTILATED. And there was TOILET PAPER. (although it was pointed out to me that probably the toilet paper hadn't been stolen yet because it was only 8am). Admittedly the toilet paper and paper towel dispensers were all empty, but there was a loose roll of toilet paper in each stall, and a roll of kitchen towel by the sinks. But most of all, it was CLEAN. Yay! (isn't it sad that I am so excited about something that should be considered normal? but if you've ever used the public toilets at St. Lukes then you will realise why I am so impressed)

Some problems remain the same as they were in St. Lukes - understaffing leading to long waiting times, and not enough chairs in corridors that become makeshift waiting areas. In the department we went to, there is a large waiting area by the department's reception desk, and then people's names are called out a few at a time and they are directed to the appropriate treatment rooms. But in most cases the treatment has at least two steps, e.g. first a checkup in one room, and then treatment in another, or treatment in one room, and then a follow-up in another. So in between steps, people have to wait in the corridors and are not sent back to the main waiting area, so the corridors become difficult to navigate (especially once you throw in a pushchair and a couple of wheelchairs) and there isn't enough seating either.

As usual, the service from nurses and doctors was great :-) The management may be deficient but I've never had any complaints about doctors or nurses, I think they're a fantastic bunch of people who do a difficult job very well. Consultants are a different matter (often they are hard to find, and keep odd hours) but hooray for the troops.

I did of course visit Agenda while I was there, the highlight of my visit. Besides the usual books and magazines, they've extended their sweets section to cater for the staff, with tunafish cans and pot noodle tubs. I didn't actually buy a book (out of character, what was I thinking?) but I enjoyed poking around.

Right now I'm home with Mike and Jenny our kitten, enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon for once. Mike and Jenny gave me a great present - jazz sneakers to wear during Stagecoach classes because my jazz shoes slip on the floor of the hall where we do our dancing. I've wanted the sneakers for ages and now I shall feel very cool when I wear them. Unfortunately they won't improve my dancing, but at least I shall have cool footwear while I try to keep up, heheheh.

I'm celebrating with my family tomorrow, because we were all busy today, but my Mum sent me a present this morning so it's already been a good birthday (I love getting presents!).

Now I'm excited because Mike is going to take me to the movies tonight to watch the long-anticipated Sweeney Todd. I feel in love with the musical last year and listened to it on repeat for ages, so I was thrilled when I found out that a film was being made. The musical is by my favourite musical writer, Stephen Sondheim, and the film is directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman (one of my favourite actors) among others, so all in all it promises to be good.

Enjoy your weekend even if you're not going to be as spoiled as me ;-)

The North(East) Wind Doth Blow

The Majjistral blows strong, with a polite yet firm solidity. The Tramuntana sneaks in through your jacket zip and trickles through to your skin, no matter how many layers you're wearing. The Grigal kicks in your front door, helps itself to whiskey from the sideboard and biscuits from the pantry, makes snide comments about the decor, and then blasts its way out through the balcony door, leaving behind a dozen icy zephyrs that tease the cat and hide your socks.

Doppelgänger

Fairy Fluff

Christmas was great, Santa was very generous and we spent time with both Mike's extended family and mine.

Remembering the consequences of previous years, I didn't overeat this year and so didn't spend the evening groaning "Oh, my stomach!", heheh. Of course, I was helped by having had breakfast courtesy of Santa and the chocolate Euro starter kits that he left us. We don't have any stockings yet so he had to borrow our pillowcases, but that was OK because some of the presents he left us were quite big, such as my big hardback book on the history of musical theatre *grin*

Yesterday Mike was at work but I wasn't (yay holidays!), so I cleaned the bathroom.

What I would like to know is, how does the bathroom get so grotty so fast?

I have a theory that there is a Fluff Fairy living in the third compartment of the washing machine, and at night she comes out and blows fluff bubbles all over the bathroom.

Santa's on his way!

It's Christmas Eve and I'm here at home listening to Christmas songs, catching up on my blog-posting, and keeping tabs on Santa's journey.

I have a pile of Christmas presents to wrap - Michael convinced me this afternoon, as I staggered through Clamus, that I couldn't possibly need twelve rolls of wrapping paper and surely I could get by on just nine. Well, we'll see. I have a whole box of ribbons and stick-on stars and I'm looking forward to using it all.

Mike is an inordinately curious man, and I am quite pleased with myself (also very smug) because I bought his Christmas present three whole weeks ago and didn't tell him because I knew he'd rip the house apart looking for it. Can I keep a secret or what? However now he knows where two of my various hiding places are (under the bed, and in the laundry spinner in the bathroom) so next year I may have to buy a safe.

OK, off to start wrapping presents. I can't find my Love Actually DVD but maybe I'll find something suitably Christmassy on the telly.

Making this Christmas a tal-Lira Christmas

Because if you can't be tacky at Christmas-time, then when can you?

Tramuntana

The weather in the last week or two has been swelteringly unbearable due to the humidity of the dreaded Riħ Isfel (South Wind).

Yesterday the island heaved a sigh of relief as the wind changed.

In the evening, Mike and I were at the Buġibba McDonalds trying the new Cornetto McFlurry for the first time, and we ate our icecream with our chairs pulled up to the railings by the sea, facing directly into a wind that was about Force Five or Six, and which had me shivering by the time I finished eating.

Aaaaaaah.

Incidentally, I heartily recommend the Cornetto McFlurry - Cornetto Classico is my favourite icecream, and the McFlurry contains nice crisp bits of wafer that taste exactly like the Cornetto cone. However you can't really taste the chocolate bits, and I figured out what the McFlurry needed - just ask for a shot of chocolate syrup to be added, which is an extra ten cents.

Squiggle

Rumour mongers

Received by email:

Thought I would inform you all that we just heard that last Friday a girl was nearly abducted from PAVI by a russian lady...

Her mother let go of her for a while and she was gone.. Luckily when the mother ran to ask security they locked all the doors and searched the place.. they found the girl in the bathroom with a Russian lady, who had already shaved off all her hair and was dressing her in boys clothes.. ready to take her..

Pls be careful coz this means there is probably a gang of ppl doing this!

So I did what I always do in such situations, and went to snopes.com, where, sure enough, I found the following:

Wanted to share something that happened today while shopping at Sam's club. A mother was leaning over looking for meat and turned around to find her 4 yr. old daughter was missing ...[snip]... They found the little girl 5 min later crunched in a bathroom stall, her head was half shaved, and she was dressed in her underwear with a bag of clothes, a razor, and wig sitting on the floor besides her. Whoever this person was, took the little girl, brought her into the bathroom, shaved half her head, undressed her in a matter of less than 10 min. Makes me shake to no end.

Read more about this urban legend here.

In the meantime, DO keep a very close eye on your children, DO make sure that you know where they are every second that you're out with them, and DON'T spread nasty rumours that cause a man to be interviewed by the police.

This is at least the third time in three months that I have come across an old urban legend dressed up in Maltese clothes, and these things really spread fast around here. (see also ether-wielding would-be car-jackers)

Fine Fragrance Infused

This heat... never have I been so glad that my job requires me to stay inside an air-conditioned building all day! I'm also glad that it's DRY heat. 41 degrees plus 100% humidity is an equation I don't want to solve. (When it's dry, your sweat can evaporate, which cools you at least a bit. When the air is already full of water, there is nowhere for your sweat to evaporate to, so you feel hot and sticky instead of hot and dry. Thermodynamics lesson now over.)

In the meantime, I am getting by on a couple of hours' sleep a night, because every hour or so the heat wakes me up again. But hey, could be worse.

Today Michael was driving along (so he tells me) and he began to feel something very hot on his ankle, burning him. Eventually he pulled over and found that the candle a friend gave me last night (and which HE, that is, MICHAEL, left on the dashboard), had meeeeelted - the pool of molten wax overflowed the compartment on the dashboard, dribbled down the side of the radio, trickled along the wires under the dash, and formed a mound on the floor of the driver's side (and on Michael's foot).

Here's a stalactite I pulled off one of the wires under the dashboard when he picked me up after work this evening:

I'm sorry about the candle, because it was a very nice one and a housewarming present, and I was looking forward to lighting it in the flat and feeling all sophisticated. But at least the van will for quite some time be "fine fragrance infused - refreshing and revitalising".

As yet unlicensed.

Last week I failed my driving test for the second time. Sigh.

I did worse than the first time, even - more little faults, more big faults.

Oh well, we'll see what the third try (in 3 weeks' time) brings.

*tries to avoid re-reading articles about people who, even this year, bribed their way to a license*

Domestic bliss

Michael and I have taken possession of the property in which we will be starting our married life - a flat in a quiet area of a sprawling town in the south.

The rooms are big, and we have started to fill them up with old furniture donated or lent by kindly friends and family (we'll get to the begging a little later), and it's exciting to walk through and just picture all the different things we could do.

Right now our priority is to get to the point of the flat being habitable - everything else is a luxury that can wait for later! (we're still debating whether a DVD player is a "need" or a "want", haha)

We spent yesterday morning strolling through JB Stores and pushing a big trolley through Smart supermarket, buying equipment for the most important room - the kitchen. We found some great bargains, and it wasn't as expensive as you'd think. Now we have everything we need to cook a meal, eat it, and clean up afterwards.

Michael cooked spaghetti carbonara while I unpacked stuff and did some cleaning, and then he did the dishes (isn't he wonderful?).

We ate our first meal off a bedside table, sitting on the floor because we didn't have any chairs yet...

We did forget to buy a kettle, and mugs, so Mike had his tea in a beer stein from the Farsons 2006 Beer Festival, with hot water boiled in our only pot (a Christmas present from his parents), and ladled out using one of our brand-new kitchen utensils.

This morning we had a stroke of luck - after church, we went to the flat to eat our second meal there (stir-fried chicken, again courtesy of Michael, I think I'll hang on to this man), and Mike took a wrong turn just before our street. He drove around the block to get back out... right past a bakery. Yes, folks, a bakery, open on Sundays, just two blocks away from our flat. A bakery that sells ħobża maltija, panini, bziezen, onion bread, garlic bread, various pasti, apple pies, Doni's doughnuts, plus a fridge-full of packaged ham and cheese, bigilla and ġbejniet, and three kinds of milk.

Part of starting a new family is starting new traditions, and one of mine is going to be doughnuts for Sunday breakfast, oh yeah baby!

I've already broken in one of our new floorcloths (rain came in through a vent), I jury-rigged the broken flushing mechanism, re-attached the handle on the balcony door, assembled the borrowed table, and I got the hang of lighting the gas stove... domestic bliss, here we come...

Let there be flounce! And sparkly bits!

I have never considered myself to be particularly attractive.

I mean, I'm not exactly ugly - children don't run screaming from me in the street - but I'm not exactly the epitome of beauty either. Yes, Michael often tells me I'm beautiful but, well, he's somewhat biased, seeing as how he's madly in love with me *grin*

So I have been putting off going to try on wedding dresses. I kept saying "I'll lose some weight, and then I'll go try some," but now that we're at minus seven months and a couple of days, it's about time!

So I bit the bullet, rounded up my entourage, and off we went to do the rounds of bridal shops.

The first couple of dresses I tried on, I was thinking to myself, what in the world am I doing, standing here trying on these dresses?

I felt rather embarrassed at having three people (Mum, Little Sis and Friend) give up an entire morning just to come look at ME, not to mention the salesgirls in the shop - talk about being the centre of attention!

But then...

Then I tried on The Dress...

And I have to say that in flouncy, sparkly wedding dresses, I look STUNNING!

And just like that, I was hooked.

The rest of the morning was fun, fun, fun, full of ruffles and crystals and trains and veils and shawls. Who'd have thought that I could be so girly?

Then I spent the rest of the day bouncing around because I felt so good about myself and so excited about The Dress, and have been informing all around me about how good I look in flounce and sparkle.

After the wedding I'll post a photo so that YOU can see how good I look too ;-)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bridesmaid dress to design. I think I feel a Bridezilla phase coming on, muahahahaha...

So it's true what they say about getting older...

I never could understand why grown-ups didn't make a big deal out of their birthdays... now I'm beginning to though... especially since those white hairs keep cropping up.

After the age of, um, 25 or so, birthdays start to become an unpleasant reminder of the march of time, BUT I think I can put up with that in return for the presents, heheh.

From when I was about five years old, every Christmas and birthday wishlist always included a penknife. Finally, when I turned fourteen, I was thrilled when my parents - having decided that I was now mature enough to be trusted with a sharp implement - gave me a Swiss Army knife with an Offical Scout Blade (self locking!), two screwdrivers, a can opener, a fingernail cleaner, tweezers, a toothpick, and that thingy to get stones out of horses' hooves. The knife joined my official Girl Guides whistle on my lanyard during every camp, and I still use it for the occasional odd job like attaching really old monitor cables to my computer tower or prising old taps off my tapshoes.

Since then, the recurring but never-appearing object on my wishlists has been a violin.

A few years ago, my mother protested vigorously that after all the aural torture I put her through as, over the years, I learnt how to play the piano, tambourine, classical guitar, acoustic guitar, pennywhistles in six different keys, harmonica, recorder and kazoo, over her dead body will I be taking up the violin... so I amended the wishlist to read "electric violin" so that I can practice with headphones.

After several hours' googling last birthday (or was it the birthday before?) I even chose the one I wanted and found a company in England that will ship to Malta. Unfortunately it costs about fifteen times more than your average birthday present, lol.

So, for this year, my wishlist is for an electric violin, jazz sneakers (thanks, Mike!), and, um... anything in my sphere of interests (geeky science/tech and musical theatre, currently).

I told Mum she could use my time-honoured strategy and walk in to Sapienzas, say "I have a geeky daughter" and let the nice lady there pick out some appropriate books for her. However Mum is currently cataloguing some of the hundreds of books that her three daughters (all avid readers) have amassed between them, and she says that she doesn't think she'll be giving me another book, lol.

In the meantime, Little Sis has resurrected the traditional family joke, and this evening reminded me that "In just fourteen years and two days, you'll be forty!".

Fourteen? Only?

Urgh...

How an engineer plans her wedding

More than one person has commented to me "The Weddings Fair was so big this year, it was too big, I got confused and didn't do as much as I had hoped to do."

Watch and learn, dear friends, watch and learn.

Fed up of hearing about my wedding yet?

Mike and I didn't go to the weddings fair tonight, because I had a bad headache. Instead, he came over and Middle Sis went through some recommendations for us. Let me just say that planning a wedding while hopped up on pain medication is... interesting. It certainly makes me easier to deal with cos I'm more relaxed, heheheh. (this is NOT a recommendation to use/abuse drugs, medical or recreational, ok?)

A while ago, when we were discussing who should be in the bridal party, I asked Michael whom he wanted as his Best Man. His answer was, "I can only think of one person who I could trust to do all the things that a Best Man is supposed to do, and that's your middle sister!".

So we have a Best Woman *grin*

And she was in full Best Woman flow tonight as she talked us through some of the quotes that she, Mum and Little Sis picked up last night at the Fair. They saved us a lot of legwork!

So far, we have definitely decided on the band (the best we heard), the cars (cheapest quote by a long shot), and most likely the invitations (get our own designed and printed). We have an idea of who to go for for the flowers and souvenirs (highly recommended by Middle Sis), and the really big thing is the photographer.

The photos are the most expensive of all of this, but when you get down to it, the photo album is what I'll be pulling out of the cabinet to show people for the next sixty years or so!

We're undecided as to who to go for. We HAVE decided that we won't be getting the latest craze, the Digital Book. That's a photo album where the photos are laminated onto the page instead of being stuck on, and looks really nice, but costs a bomb. We could always have a digital book made up for us in a few years' time (when we don't have a wedding to pay for), or then again, a new concept might have emerged by then.

The style of photography that we're after is "candid" as opposed to "posed". Yes there will be some posed photos of the bridal party and of me with Michael, but the rest will be shot as the wedding progresses, as the photographers see good opportunities and take them, hopefully of people having fun! There is one photographer in particular whose work we loved, it's EXACTLY what we want, but he's rather more expensive than most... issa we'll see.

Tomorrow we book... (and I write lost lots of cheques for deposits, *sob*)

I am Bridezilla, hear me roar

First of all, a little announcement - Michael and I are to be married on the 29th of September, 2007 :-)

We booked the venue and the caterer a few weeks ago, but I just didn't get around to officially making it public here. But yes, ten and a half months to go, whoo hoo!

Yesterday evening Michael and I made a last-minute decision that we would go to the Weddings Fair after all. Although we're scheduled to spend this evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon there, I wasn't sure we'd manage to cover everything. So after choir practice we went off and got there at just after eight.

The car park was full but the parkers directed us into an adjoining area that turned out to be a field.

A field that had been ploughed.

And rained on.

Sigh.

As I walked across it, sinking down an inch or so with every step, I did spare a thought for all the brides-to-be who were wearing stilettos, heheheh.

Anyway, we were there for just over two hours, until the Fair closed down at 10:30pm.

In that time, we covered Hall A, Tents H, I and J, and part of Hall B.

That's about 45 vendors, which leaves us with another 180 or so to cover during the rest of this week... *meep*

Today we saw one band that we REALLY like, and a photographer with a fantastic offer, but the invitations, flowers, cars and souvenirs are still in aria.

And I am NOT looking at wedding dresses. I've been avoiding starting the whole going-and-trying-on-dresses-in-various-shops-with-my-entourage thing because, ahem, I kind of need to lose some weight. Actually, forget the 'kind of' - I definitely need to lose some weight, I'm sure my tummy isn't meant to look like that. So I don't really want five of my nearest and dearest (plus shop assistants) peering intently at my body. Know what I mean?

Well, after we'd been at the Fair for about 15 minutes, we walked past a stand for a shop that sells wedding dresses. I stopped to have a look (pretty dresses!) and one of the assistants spoke to me.

Now when we had gone to the disasterous Wedding Fair in September, I'd had a run-in with a woman who kept patronising me because I was getting married in less than a year and didn't have a dress yet. So it's become a touchy subject for me, but even so I found the assistant tonight to be rude...

Her: So, when are you getting married?
Me: 29th September
Her: Of 2007?
Me: Yes.
Her: And you haven't got a dress yet?
Her: *rolls her eyes*
Her: tut tut
Me: Don't speak to me like that
Her: Fine, fine.
Her: On this side the dresses are between Lm200 and Lm500 *etc* *etc*
Me: Thanks
Her: And don't leave it too long to choose your dress!
Me: *stalks off in a huff*
Mike: Are you OK?
Me: *rants about rude assistants*
Mike: *is somewhat bewildered*
Me: I don't have to tolerate behaviour like that! If she's going to treat me like that, fine, I'll just take my chequebook elsewhere. Hah!
Me: Honestly, if ANYONE at ANY wedding dress stand says that to me ONE more time, that's it, I'm walking away from them. Hah.
Mike: Honey!
Mike: *grabs me by the shoulders*
Mike: You need to calm down!
Me: *grin*
Me: Yeah, I know, I'm being Bridezilla. Sorry!
Mike: Just do me a favour and don't go near any more dress stands, ok?
Me: Ok!

And I didn't, heheh.

My Mum and sisters also went last night, but earlier than we did, and in two and a half hours they covered THE WHOLE THING! Yes admittedly they didn't have to stop and talk details with vendors like we did, but still, that's quite a feat. AND they stopped for a snack.

Middle Sis took notes for me to read, and Little Sis organised all the leaflets that they'd gathered into stacks by category.

That's going to make updating my spreadsheet much easier...

Remembering

Anthem For Doomed Youth
by Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
    - Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
    Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
    Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
    And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
    Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
    The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

One hopes the company didn't charge too much...

Post-Psychosis

My poor neglected blog... even Michael has been complaining that I've not updated recently, lol.

Now that the One-Act-Play Festival is over, and we are no longer rehearsing five nights a week, I suddenly found myself home before supper time for the first time in about a month... and thought to myself, what is this strange feeling? Oh yes, it's this thing called FREE TIME. hahahahaha.

I am enjoying quiet evenings, and catching up with things like piano-playing and book-reading, and might even break out the Meccano if things get really quiet :-)

The fun part of post-psychosis is that although the play's over, the cast lives on, and we are still meeting up for this and that (e.g. the MADC AGM last week, and that fantastic cast party).

Doing a play together is quite a bonding experience, if nothing else then for the in-jokes that pepper all conversations (and MSN nics) for the following three months (the chicken's still dancing, the chicken won't stop...) and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other.

Anyway, this theatrical phase over, my next Big Event is the Weddings Fair next weekend... this is your advance warning for more wedding-centric blog posts... Bridezilla is coming out to play...

Where are the marching bands?

I'm in Valletta with a couple of hours to kill before a dinner, and it's the night of Notte Bianca.

The idea is that shops stay open and there's activities... until 5am!

But after wandering around a bit, I got bored... so instead I'm in an Internet Cafe watching clips of Wicked! in London on YouTube *grin*

After watching pretty much all the clips on YouTube of Wicked! in the USA, it's funny to hear Helen Dallimore as Glinda with a British accent... and in "Dancing Through Life", the glancing/dancing is pronounced with closed British vowels instead of open American vowels...

No matter the accent, it's brilliant to just see Idina Menzel perform, what a woman.

*is taking notes*

A Short Course in Feeling Really Stupid...

Schedule a driving lessons for 7:15am-8:00am... and get up at eight...

An evening in the life...

5:00pm - ?:??pm, Meeting (Żebbug)
5:00pm - 8:00pm, One-Act Play Rehearsal (Valletta)
6:45pm - 7:15 pm, Choir Rehearsal (Floriana)
7:30pm - 9:00pm, Church (Floriana)

*sigh*

On Wedding Venues

Having visited various venues in the last few days, I am able to report that "tacky" and "ostentatious" are both alive and well on the island.

So is "truly stunning", but unfortunately at triple the price of "tacky"...

Six weird habits

Via Hsejjes...

1. I hate cutting my nails with clippers, so I bite them - but leave my index nail slightly longer for guitar.

2. When I'm eating something like meat and two veg, I'll try to finish the one I don't like first, and save more of the one I like the most (e.g. chips) for the end.

3. I talk to myself. A lot.

4. I only ever make hot chocolate in one particular way that I learnt at Girl Guides camp - first mix 4 teaspoons of Cadbury's drinking chocolate with about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of evaporated milk in the mug, mix REALLY well to a semi-liquid paste, then add boiling water - this way you get froth on the top. If you're feeling really decadent, a teaspoon of sugar. And if it's a cold night, a capful of brandy *grin*

5. As soon as the floor stops being deadly cold (say around March) I go barefoot every chance I get. When the floor IS very cold, slipper socks or very big, very fluffy slippers. Not a big fan of shoes.

6. With the exception of SMS's and notes to myself,I type in complete sentences, with capital letters and proper punctuation, at all times, including when instant messaging. This is apparently a weird habit, you wouldn't believe how many emails I get from friends that are written w/hrdly NE vwls & lotz of weird splng, ud tink dey wr bing chrgd by d lttr.

   
   OK, your turn :-)

It would have to happen at the start of a weekend...

Having a nurse as your better half can be a pain because he always knows when you're malingering. But on the positive side, when you're actually ill you get a free diagnosis and TLC all in the same package *grin*

*reaches for the tissues and Panadol*

*offers self as test case*

Much better, thanks!

How funny, after spending most of yesterday with a fever, I woke up today without one and I'm fine except for a lingering headache. Constitution of an ox, that's me.

In other news, the run for An Evening With Gary Lineker has been extended, so if you didn't get to watch it last week, you can do so this Saturday :-) Highly recommended for people who need a laugh, and you can book online here (using IE) and for 50c they'll even mail you your tickets, it's hassle-free!

*clutches head*

I left the house with a temperature of 100.7, and was popping Panadol through the exam, and exited with a temperature of 98.5 *grin*

As my sister told me when she dropped me off, referring to an episode in summer when I was running 103, "You're more lucid when you have a fever anyway!"

As planned I got the Linguistics essay out of the way first. I wrote an essay on how English is generally adopted as the auxiliary language for organisations - very conveniently, I had memorised statistics on this subject, yay.

The comprehension was an article on racism and black children in the USA. I was a bit bemused - racism is such a hot topic over here, and they had to go and take an article about the USA? Oh well. That went OK. I was impressed because there was a word in the article that I didn't know, and this is something that rarely happens these days. Inculcated. Of course, it was one of the five words that we had to give a definition for - so I made an educated guess and it turned out all right.

And finally, my favourite, the essay!

None of the titles lent themselves well to puns, so I turned to my old standby, science fiction. I spent my teen years (well, from the age of 11) on a steady diet of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein (thanks, Dad!) and it shows...

I copied out my introduction for you, and I dedicated it to Sharon, see if you can spot why... the title of the essay is "Relationships":

I am a great believer in relationships, and I believe that these days they are highly under-rated. Ever since the hollowing-out of the moon in the year 2410 solved humanity's living-space problems, the need for face-to-face interaction has been all but eliminated, and I think that this has had a deleterious effect on our interpersonal relationships.

*snicker*

In the rest of the essay I talked about how the relationship that each person has with the simulated-personality interface on their personal computer can't possibly replace human interaction, and how most relationships now take place in virtual reality but this lacks touch. Here's my nod to World of Warcraft... "We have come a long way from the crude multi-player games of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially when it comes to fooling the human body into thinking that it is inside the virtual world. But I think that the massive amounts of time and money that are poured into touch-sensors merely prove my point - human beings yearn for connection on so many levels, and one of these is touch".

And then I wrote how I was in favour of the "F2F" or "face-to-face" movement, that was trying to get people to meet face to face, but it "faces many obstacles, such as society's reactions, which range from horrified outrage to mild distaste".

And finally, my conclusion, and I'm particularly proud of the final sentence:

Sometimes I look back on our ancestors and I don't envy them their lifestyle - rampant crime, virulent diseases, a dying planet. Their lives were short and characterised by violence. But sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have their social lives - to be part of a nuclear family to whom one is related by blood, to see friends every week, to share hugs and kisses. Truly, relationships are our most precious possessions, and we are the poorer for having digitized ours.

It's a bit of a gamble, hopefully my examiner will have a sense of humour...

After the exam, my joints weren't aching, and I wasn't shaking like I had the ague, I just had a splitting headache... so I went to Stagecoach because we need to practice our special song with our singing teacher. Unfortunately, our time slot wound up being at around 9:30pm, and I couldn't have any more Panadol because I had already taken slightly too much, so I was not a happy camper.

Our drama teacher packed us off home, lol, so I stumbled in the door at 10pm with a temperature of 100.7

No wonder I felt so bad, lol.

And now... beeeeeeed...

Thanks for all the support, you guys rock! *grin*

Of all days...

I've only been sick a couple of times this year.

So it had to be today, the day of my last exam paper for the English A-Level, that I woke up with a fever of 100.3 degrees.

Aaggrrrhhhh.

It feels like the flu - all my joints ache and my skin is super-sensitive - but it's going to take more than that to keep me away from that exam, I'm not throwing away all the work I put into Paper I and Paper II.

It's at 4pm and I am carefully planning my Panadol intake to try to have maximum pain relief at that time. I'll do the Linguistics question first, as it's the one requiring the most thought, then the Comprehension & Summary (easy) and finally my essay. I've already planned that I will write a narrative essay, preferably humourous (puns on title, heheheh) but now I just hope that I'm still lucid by that time *grin*

Panadol, anyone?

He is risen!

Happy Easter :-)

Calling all Bloggejja/Bloggisti

A couple of people have mentioned or asked about the next Maltese Bloggers Meetup...

I was thinking that sometime around Easter might be good, any suggestions regarding date/time/place?

Comment below or drop me a line on maltagirl at gmail dot com

Capitulation

The pesky cough has continued to settle in, unpacked its luggage and seems to be organising a houseparty for all its friends, including Horribly Sore Throat, Spending A Fortune At The Pharmacy, My Head Hurts When I Cough, and it has also invited its friend over from Reesa's, name of I Can't Sleep Because I Cough All The Time.

This evening I officially withdrew from Sunday's canoe marathon... I'm rubbish at it to begin with, let alone when I have to stop every ninety seconds to have another go at hacking up my lungs. Urgh.

I'll go to the race site anyway though, to boss everyone around help out, deal with registrations and so on. Always a pleasure to take money off people, heheheh. If anyone's interested, the start/finish is on the Sliema strand, in the vicinity of the Captain Morgan boats. Just look for the brightly-coloured kayaks :-)

*update*: Looks like I will be doing the Fun Race (3km) with Coach, in his canadian canoe (that's like what Pocahontas would use, as opposed to a kayak, which is what Eskimos use). And the REALLY good news is that my cough is much better - I'm still coughing, but much less frequently. Hooray!!!! Off to pack my gear for tomorrow!

Jazz, liquor and number puzzles

Thanks in part to Athena, I started playing Sudoku a few months ago - I often play online and bought a book that I keep in my desk drawer for during my lunch break.

Today I tried Kakuro (the latest craze) for the first time.

Boys and girls, for your own sakes, stay away...

*UPDATE*:

MaltaGirl's really short guide to Kakuro:

The numbers written around the edge of the puzzle? Are the clues.

If your clue is "3" and there are two spaces, then you have to write a number in each space, that when you add them up you get "3". (In this case, the only possibility is a "1" and a "2", but you have to figure out which goes in which box). No doubles allowed, so if your clue is "4" then you can't use "2" and "2".

Your final hint is that clues that appear under the diagonal line are downward clues (i.e. refer to the spaces vertically below), and clues above the diagonal line are across clues.

If it makes anyone feel better, I am firmly at the beginner stage *grin* I have learnt to stay away from anything bigger than 6x6...

A quarter of a century

Last night was a fun start to my birthday - the kiddies at church gave and made me presents, and kicked me out of my own classroom in order to choreograph a special birthday dance for me... awwwww!

Other people gave me reeeeeally cool presents too, more on them later, for now I just wanted to upload the new banner, featuring the badge on the card which my parents gave me (and no I'll not be wearing it at work).

Ode to the Maltese Weather at 6:45am

I wrote this song (and this post) early this morning, but Typepad has been misbehaving and moblogging from the office didn't work. But, seeing how the rest of the the day turned out, I figured it was worth typing out again for you, although Dad has told me "Don't quit the day job", heheheh...

*update* Now available as an mp3, dedicated to Coemgen, who clearly was paying attention during the psychology lectures. kesha.mp3 (888K). PS it was sung with feeling because I crawled out of my nice warm bed to do it.

Tune: Clementine.

O x'kesħa, o x'kesħa
O x'kesħa, o x'bard
O x'kesħa, o x'kesħa
Biżżejjed biex jaqbdek il-mard

English translation:

O how cold, o how cold,
O how cold, o how another-word-for-cold
O how cold, o how cold,
Enough to make you sick.

Two numbers, 16 digits, how hard can it be?

Question: what's worse than sending an sms intended for your Significant Other to someone else by mistake?

Answer: realising that the someone else is your pastor.

Then comes the panicky stage when you frantically review the message to see exactly what you actually put in it... and, if you're lucky, a feeling of incredible relief when you realise that it wasn't, you know, that embarrassing. *whew*

I only know two mobile numbers by heart (three if you count my own) and I still managed to mix them up.

Oh well.

At least his wife was in the room with me at the time, so I didn't have that much 'splaining to do. She thought it was rather funny, actually.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Sad, but funny.

Courtesy of Ogħdos.

Amongst other facilities, all wards will be equipped with a pneumatic quick station, a device which can transport medics from one ward to another in a blink of an eye.

Pneumatic Tube System - a network of pipes through which capsules are moved from one location to another using air pressure and vacuum; designed for quick transport of small objects like blood samples.

Medic - a member of a military medical corps; a physician or surgeon; a medical student or intern.

Hilarious!

Toni beat me to the punch by mentioning the greatest dumb blonde joke ever :-)

I ATE'NT DEAD

I am just too busy to blog, it's terrible.

*pats blog*

Between work, part-time job, church, house-hunting, my social life, other activities, and being sick, I haven't had time to post in what seems like forever.

I blog during my lunch break (and have a few posts written, awaiting publication!) but I can't access the typepad site from work - I supposed the next step is to try blogging via email... hmmm...

Must dash, watch this space.

Wishing you a Bloggy Christmas

Yesterday Little Sis spent ages putting together a CD of Christmas songs for me, and I have been enjoying them while wrapping presents, wheee!

Speaking of presents, I have one for you, the bloggers - in your name, I bought two sets of school library books from the Alternative Gift Catalogue. Enjoy ;-)

Thanks to Jacques for letting me know about this by blogging about the site, what better way to celebrate Christmas?

Merry Christmas!

Love,
MaltaGirl.

Might need a decoder for this one...

Michael pointed out to Me the other clay that ever SincE i started working full time, i don't seem to do any of the things that i enjoy doIhg.

Some thjngs i hadn't done in a while anyway, like tapdancing or kayiKing, but now i haven't touched mY meccano in ages, i don't teach nearly as much as i used to, the piAno hArDlY seeS me let alone my guItar, andeven my dear bLoG IS neglecTed. Truly a sad state oF affaIrS.

Part of the ljtoDLeM Is that I am ouer commitefL with othe thIaGS, soi have !ecided to make an effot todLo the thInGS I LovE TO DO. Sohere I aM O.A the BUs lomusiC pActICE, using mY swanku new palm compute lo write a pogt. Ihauen,t quite gottne hang of writiug usiag the stylus yet so tne pesult is... Interestincj... bvt i thougnt i'd leave it as it is for ygur amusement. Of course itdoesn't help that the. Bus ib bumdy and jerks tne palm apound. k lmost fhee so thats altfor u.w. Next entry will de typed!

Għamilt waħda minn tiegħi...

I start work at 7am, and I usually ride with a friend who lives nearby. Today he's on leave however, so I had to get up earlier than usual in order to get the bus to work.

I've done this a few times, and I know that there's a bus at 5:50am, so I set my alarm for 5:15am, plenty of time to get out there.

So, well, this morning I woke up, glared bleary-eyed at my mobile, tumbled out of bed and got on with my morning, determined that I wouldn't miss the bus today like I did last week when my friend was sick.

I was very proud of myself for getting to the bus-stop by 5:45am, yay!

I waited and waited and resisted the temptation to play sudoku on my Palm computer and waited and waited.

6am came and went, and still no bus. And no bus, and no bus, and no bus, and I am SO going to be late for work.

I was sitting there on the bus-stop, listening to my current favourite mp3 turned up full blast, muttering all kinds of uncomplimentary things about the driver of the 5:50am bus, and feeling rather annoyed.

Eventually I decided to check the time on my mobile in case my watch was wrong. And the time on the mobile was eight past five am.

Hang on a second.

Eight past five.

Eight past five?

What do you mean, eight past five? It's supposed to be eight past SIX.

Ah.

I see.

No wonder the 5:50am bus hasn't shown up yet...

Turns out that I woke up at 4:15am because of a mosquito bite rather than at 5:15am because of the alarm on my mobile (which was still set), but was too groggy to realise.

So here I am, blogging at such an unreasonable hour of the morning, and having breakfast at home for a change, rather than at my desk in the office.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a 5:50am bus to catch...

The Gathering... dum dum dum DUM

For dinner on December 23rd specifically, of those who will actually be in the country, lol, so far I have heard two "yes", one "maybe", and three "probably not".

So how about dinner on Thursday December 22nd? I have work the next day, but there is a coffee machine not too far from my desk ;-)

Or, go ahead and suggest another date...

On getting old(er)

I fondly remember the days when I would sleep till noon given half a chance, and would happily consume anything edible at any hour of the day. Trifle and cold pizza for breakfast? Fantastic!

But I have realised that those days are long gone.

Take today for instance - it's a Sunday morning and I have to be at church at 10:30, so getting up at 9am is fine. But my aging body clock has settled into the pattern of early-morning risings for work, and this morning I woke up at 6. SIX!!! That should be illegal. I tried valiantly to get back to sleep but kept rousing every twenty or thirty minutes, and at 8am I gave it up as a lost cause.

Also, in the mornings I find that my stomach rebels at the thought of anything greasy - toast or cereal is fine, but last night's leftovers is not. Now I understand why our parents were less than thrilled that Christmas several years ago when my sisters and I snuck the waffle machine into my bedroom and served my parents a breakfast in bed of waffles with all the trimmings.

Now I'm just waiting for wrinkles to appear...

Statues and weddings.

This afternoon I heard Athena give a lecture in Valletta. It was very interesting, archeology can indeed be fun :-)

I had to try very hard not to giggle at the bits about the more, um, explicit statues. I think our teacher must have skipped them during our History lessons at school. At least I wasn't the only one *snicker* (sorry, Athena!)

Afterwards I went to the Weddings Fair with Mum, both sisters, and Middle Sis's boyfriend (I'll be going with Michael another day, heheheh). For some of the time, we split up and Little Sis went around with me, as she is my Maid of Honour.

However at least four vendors thought that she was my intended...

In one particular case, it was written all over the guy's face, so he is giving us a spiel about how we should register on the website and I was trying SO hard not to laugh but I didn't quite manage, so as he's talking I start giggling, and he gives me a strange look, and Little Sis is trying to look as disinterested and we're-not-marrying-each-other as possible. Hilarious :-)

We wound up with brochures for everything; venues, caterers, flowers, photographers, vintage cars, all kinds of musicians (up to and including Scottish pipe band), dresses and suits, honeymoon trips, invitations, souvenirs... weddings in Malta are BIG business!

Looks like I might be needing a wedding planner...

Working Girl

Posting has been rather sparse here on Diverse Ramblings lately.

The reason is that someone did finally decide to employ me and I'm now working full-time as an engineer in a factory :-) and so when I get home things like laundry and other chores or errands have to take priority over blogging. And then weekends get chewed up with whatever couldn't get done during the week.

As a wise woman once said,

Now WHY would you want to work?