Glad to let y’all know that I’ve recovered from last night’s champagne aftermath. I’m sure it was the fizzy stuff that made my head ache so badly today. After posting my photohunt entry (see last post further down), I went to nap on the sofa and was almost restored to normal by 4 pm… A whole day went to waste, but I’d say it was worth it.

It was the MHRA’s 50th anniversary gala dinner that hubby and I went to last night, invited by my general manager. The venue was the Barakka Gardens in Valletta on the fabulous backdrop of Grand Harbour - a breathtaking view! It was a great night out. We even had our picture taken; hubby might kill me for putting it into my blog for all to see - but boy, did he look smashing!!

Our hotel had a table of 10 - and there were no less than four countries gathered: Malta, Germany, Turkey and the Philippines. I often marvel at the internationality of my workplace, which comes naturally in an international hotel group. Last week our department (Sales & Marketing and Reservations) went out for dinner, and I’m tempted to think we must be holding some kind of record in the number of nations working in one office together: Malta, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, Lebanon and - if you count our GM’s office that’s next to ours - Turkey. Oh yes, and Melissa is half Australian - but sadly she just left us. (Gonna miss you heaps, girl!!)

Mazen from Lebanon is our reservations manager; he has a wonderful sense of humour - and can even laugh freely about the silly, politically rather incorrect jokes that surface from time to time because of his Arabic origin. Coming to think about it, it actually might have been him who started it!

Sometimes I imagine that wars could be prevented if everyone in this world was made to work in truly international environments. Well, at least those wars that are started because of differences in belief and culture. Working together is a great way of discovering that a lot of sentiments are the same for everyone, no matter where they were born. Hunger for power, on the other hand, is universal and will unfortunately continue to lead to battles…

Right now I feel… Sickly

Bright is this week’s photohunt theme. As I’m battling a whopper-sized hangover from a wonderful gala dinner we attended last night in Malta, bright sunshine is about the last thing I’d like to see right now! The photo was taken at Ramla Bay on the morning of my last birthday.

photohunt

The sad end of Fussy’s story overshadowed what should have become a really nice week - an almost celebratory one… I hesitated to put up this post but it’s only today that I have the time for it. And maybe it would take the mourning for a cat a bit too far?

One “news” bit I’ve been doing my best not to mention on my blog - lest I’d jinx it - is Deborah Bonham’s new album, Duchess. It was released in the USA yesterday, and unless things have changed in the last minute, the centrefold of its booklet should be a photo I took of her gig in Malta last year! Peter Bullick, guitarist of Deborah’s band, contacted me after seeing the pic on my blog. I’m very excited about this!

Another little success of my photographic endeavours is the audio information board that was inaugurated this morning at Independence Square in Victoria:

A few months ago Roderick Spiteri of i-squared was looking for photos of Victoria and found them - yep! through my blog. The board carries five photos of mine, and my name. Quite nice, eh?

I don’t think I should quit blogging any time soon…

Right now I feel… Sad

Preparing to go to work, I took the car out of the garage yesterday morning and was shocked to find Fussy lying in the shrubs by the wall of our drive-way. She was breathing but didn’t react to me at all - very unusual for her, she was one fussy little girl, all the time moving.

As I was already running late, I had to leave her but phoned the SPCA as soon as I got to the office and was promised they’d pick her up as soon as possible. Today I have a day off, and first thing in the morning I took two large bags of cat food and a tiny measure of hope to the SPCA. I thought, maybe it hadn’t been as bad as it looked. But she was already dead by the time they had come for her. Apparently hit by a car - which I find so hard to believe; I’ve never seen her venture outside onto the road. But then, there’s always a first time, isn’t there?

To make it all the worse, for me, is that lately Felix - the other stray who “adopted” us - had succeeded in declaring our garden her own territory and keeping Fussy away. Last Sunday, however, a very hungry Fussy paid us a visit. She had a hurt leg and looked awfully scruffy. I was still in my bed clothes, so I quickly gave her food and went to get dressed. By the time I returned to clean her up a few minutes later, she was gone and didn’t come back before I found her yesterday. Thinking that I could have done something to prevent this makes me feel so very sad. There really wasn’t that much I could have done, but still.

Strange: I blogged about her for the first time exactly two years before she died…

(For the photohunt please scroll down to the next post)

FAULTY MEMORY

Shit. I just knew I wanted to go to Victoria this morning. Only, from the time I woke up until right now, I couldn’t put my finger on the reason. So I puzzled at my photohunt post and got a little lost in some of the other participants’ posts, before it suddenly hit me with full force: at 11 am Chasing Pandora had a gig at Arkadia, and you probably won’t believe me if I told you that I could hardly wait for today to arrive, since I received their e-mail last Thursday. I’m shattered, (a) because I missed it and (b) because my brain seems to be packing in, slowly but surely. My forgetfulness is reaching worrisome proportions; I just can’t believe it!!

I’m hopeful that my memory-trouble is only down to all the stuff my head is filled with at work. More often than not I come home in the evening and can’t for the life of me remember everything I’ve done during the day. My duties are rather wide-spread (that’s a workplace in Gozo for you!) and I’m multitasking most of the time, because everything is urgent. So yes, I’m hoping that my mind is simply filled to capacity, and that it’s perfectly normal to forget things that I’m looking forward to…

LUGGAGE RANT

This rant was a long time coming. Nearly every time I travel, one of my suitcases bites the dust. To-date I was inclined to put it “merely” down to careless luggage handlers, although I’ve heard plenty of stories where valuable items had disappeared from locked cases. This time I had a small case - hand-luggage size - with me that was filled with ca. 15 kg of brochures and magazines. The zips were secured with one of those little locks, not so much because I feared the material would be stolen, but rather to prevent the zips from opening and the contents spilling out. Maybe the guy who forced open the zipper (because the lock was too sturdy) expected to find bars of gold, I don’t know. But I’m mightily pissed off!

And on the subject of careless handlers: one of the artists exhibiting at the opera house in Frankfurt found two of his sculptures (which had been carefully packed) damaged. Another had one of his cases missing altogether.

Which, of course, is another topic you usually hit sooner or later during a conversation revolving around flying: “lost” luggage! I put “lost” in inverted commas because of my latest experience upon my return to Malta. Moments after finally spotting the above mentioned battered piece across from me on the other side of the carousel, I was kind of dumbfounded to see a Maltese man lugging it onto his trolley. Just like that, without even the slightest hesitation and totally ignoring my shouts of protest (he was standing merely 4 or 5 metres away). After I managed to elbow my way through to him, he handed it to me without further ado but with a big grin on his face. His behaviour rendered me speechless, words just wouldn’t come to me!

I appreciate that a lot of bags and cases look alike - that’s why you’d normally do a double-take or even two before laying claim to your baggage. Or mark it with a bright green ribbon as I did. I’m still shaking my head when I think of that situation. Are there people making a living like that? And considering how easy it is to walk away with what’s not yours: how much luggage is really lost??

SPCA GOZO - 2009 CALENDAR

I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago: the 2009 calendar published by the SPCA Gozo is available for sale now! It only costs € 4, and if you buy one, you don’t only get a lot of beautiful photos of adorable pets, but also one of Simba but also give a helping hand to the volunteers that run the SPCA with funds that are always on the short side! Oh well, and of course a cute pic of yours truly’s tom cat Simba is definitely an added bonus!!

21st June - SUMMER’S HERE!

29°C (84.2°F) - nothing to write home about when you happen to write from Gozo. It just occurred to me, as I’m sitting in the sweltering heat of my home office, that after two unemployed summers I’m now back in the rat-race of the office-working population. Which is why I shall now do what office workers tend to do on weekends: get away from the desk and enjoy my out-door “living room”!

Happy summer solstice!

Now this week’s photohunt theme is very much to my liking: My star sign is pisces, which just seems logical: I love Water so much that I get fidgety when I’m away from it for too long. One of the reasons why I ever considered living on this little rock called Gozo is that there is so much more sea than land.

If you go through my photoblog, you’ll find it’s full to the brim with all kinds of water images - but you should see my unpublished archives!! It was rather tough to narrow down my choice for the photohunt, but I did decide in the end, voilà:

The last pic is an edited version of a photo I had already posted on the photoblog a while back, a fact I hadn’t noticed before uploading it. What can I do, it’s one of my favourites because it looks so vivacious!

Photohunt hostess TNChick asked the participants this week to state for how long they’ve been participating in the meme. Well, I’m just a few weeks shy of my first photohunt anniversary: my first photohunt post appeared on 31st July 2007. Time flies when you’re having fun eh?

I hope I’ll find some time today or tomorrow for a “real” blog post. In the meantime: wish y’all a fabulous weekend!

photohunt

Yesterday was my long awaited day off. Armed with my camera, I took a taxi into the city and shot a thousand pics, just as you would expect! Mostly I was drawn to the contrasts between very old (Frankfurt is one of the oldest German cities) and the ultra-new (its famous skyline of skyscrapers is nicknamed “Mainhattan” (Main being the river which leads through the city). The results can be admired in my photoblog, of course.

My exhilaration still lingered on as I found myself totally free of any time restraints and could do whatever I felt like doing. I happened to stroll by a ticket booth selling river tours with just a few minutes to spare before the next departure. A heaven-sent gift because my tortured feet were still pretty sore from the day before. So I spent the next hundred minutes sailing along the shoreline of the city, and enjoyed every moment of it, and obviously there is no better way to capture the essence of “Mainhattan”.

The weather could not have been more accommodating, considering the grim forecast. Somehow I can’t help wondering whether my good mood influenced the universe in such way that it felt compelled to push the clouds away from me. Who knows! Fact is, most of the time the sun was finding ways to peek through the thick clouds, and it only started raining when I was already on my way back to the taxi stand. Fabulous!

Five hours left until departure from the hotel. I’m not exactly looking forward to battling my way through the airport, but maybe my good fortune will last a while longer and send me into the correct directions the first time round today!

Mamma mia what a day! I’ve definitely reached the sensible shoe age. When I came back to the hotel about an hour ago, I wasn’t sure I’d make it to my room… (Who decided ladies should have a minimum of 3 inches under their heels anyway?!) There’s around a hundred metres carpeted walk from the escalator to my room, half of that I walked barefoot. I just couldn’t take it any more.

But I’m still not in a mood to rant. Look what a great photo I walked (well, rather crawled) away with:

True to my obsession I played paparazzi (should that be paparazza?) most of the evening, but unfortunately it was not allowed to take photos during the concert. And what a concert it was - just beautiful! Joseph Calleja’s voice puts a smile on your face, even as you’re trying to wriggle painful cramps out of your feet. The duets with his wife, Tatiana Lisnic, were fantastic too. And with his last encore, O Sole Mio, he had the entire audience in his hands.

I do think Calleja’s congenial personality must be mentioned too: so many people asking him to have their photo taken with him during the reception after the concert, and he never stopped beaming once - and even struck up a meaningful conversation with each and every one of them. Including me. I owe a big thank-you to artist Joe Genovese - if he hadn’t asked me whether I’d take his photo with Joseph Calleja, I’d have been too embarrassed (call it shy if you want) to ask for one myself…

I wanted to write more about today - but tomorrow is another day; my head is blank, not to mention my eyes, which are at half-mast… But before leaving I want to send congratulations over to Arnold Cassola, AD’s new chairman. Good luck with the new job Arnold!

Over and out - crashing out, more like it…

Right now I feel… content

I decided to put up the actual post for the Photohunt into my blog again, but the full-sized photos will go into my photoblog (which you can see if you click on the photos in this post). Some people had problems commenting on the photoblog, and it’s also a pain to write a post over there, as it has to be written in HTML and that’s a drag if you need to put in links.

Hmmm… Somehow I forgot to mention in here that I was going to travel again. How did that happen? That’s actually easy to explain: I was working gas down for the last couple of weeks, culminating in a twelve-hour day on Thursday when I had to finish of a whole assortment of tasks at any cost, before catching a plane to Frankfurt on Friday.

Yep, I’m in Frankfurt again. As part of my new job I am going to represent the Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz in an event titled “Festa Opera Malta” in the “Alte Oper”, which is going to take place tonight. Maltese band Etnika is going to play outside the opera house, and the biggest attraction of the whole do will be a concert by Joseph Calleja and his wife, soprano Tatiana Lisnic. Before the concert and during intermission there is an exhibition of sorts, where I will try to explain to as many people as possible that there is this charming little island called Gozo - and where to find it. Well, that’s the idea, anyway.

So where does the PhotoHunt fit in? Well, this week’s theme is Emotions. And although I had different kinds of photos in mind, I liked the idea for my entries that came to me only last night. Rather than depicting emotions directly, I took shots of a couple of things that made me feel really - and I mean really! - good.

When the plane took off yesterday afternoon, I had Pink Floyd’s “Time” playing on my MP3 player (and I can’t tell you just how perfectly that fit in!) it struck me that I could not remember when I’d last felt this relaxed and content - I think I was actually smiling. Then, over Italy, there were these fabulous clouds… well you know how much I love those, don’t you? This display of nature was overwhelmingly beautiful, fitting right in with my general state of mind. What I felt was utter exhilaration! If that isn’t an emotion I don’t know what is.