Sabine in Gozo

A flower!

A flower in the hotel garden. And this real classic is what it reminded me of… my mind works in strange ways, most of the time!

Seeing the light

If the title led you to expect some marvellous insight into the problems of the world, you’ll be disappointed. This is literally about seeing the light – the strong sunlight that’s beating down on us these days. Three different views – all involving the sun – made me scramble for my camera today… Hope you’ll like them!

And then they say you shouldn’t take photos in bright sunlight LOL!

I had a dream

A muddled post

Thoughts have been racing through my mind this week. Every time I sit still and try to relax, the merry-go-round in my mind starts up again. It’s been so annoying that I finally decided to write them down, before they drive me crazy.

When you get to this age, i. e. my age, you’re bound to think back to other (and yes, better) times, but also of what may or may not lay ahead of you. At 50, you do a stock-taking exercise of sorts. What have I achieved? Where did I go wrong? Would I do this or that differently today? Why did I do what I did, in the first place?

I think about how people perceive Sabine. That’s a challenge!

I’m trying to be totally unbiased and if I’m honest, I wouldn’t like Sabine very much if I met her. Probably, after getting to know her better, I’d change my mind, but it would take a while. One skill she is seriously lacking, is diplomacy. If she thinks your outfit, which you’re so proud of, sucks, she’ll have an awfully hard time to tell you that you’re looking great. If she doesn’t like you for whatever reason, she’ll not be able to smile in your face. She can’t even give a positive reply to the banal and, let’s face it, rhetorical question, “How are you?” if she’s not fine. It’s not that she’s expecting you to then ask her what was wrong. She just can’t lie or pretend, that’s all.

Sabine often sits and wonders why she was cursed with the ability to think. But diplomacy requires thought before talk – a task Sabine hasn’t learnt in 50 years… The terrible thing about all this is that she is intelligent enough to realise when she’s pissing off others. She actually could give you a complete (and long!) list of people that she severely annoyed since her teenager years. But her only regret about that is that most times she wasn’t able to explain why she felt she had to say what she said.

You think this post is rather weird and muddled – and above all, seriously lacking entertainment value. Well, you see, that’s been my point all along. However, the other side to the Sabine coin is, I’m genuinely able to put myself in someone’s shoes when they say or do something that annoys me. And so the merry-go-round starts all over again…

Oh man… perhaps it’s better you just ignore me. I guess it’s just one of those days. Perhaps I’d better stick to my photos…

“Swine flu” getting closer…

…and too close to home, too: Three cases have been confirmed in Gharb (see Times report here)! It seems they are the first cases in Malta that were not “souvenirs” from a holiday abroad – or due to contact with family/friends who returned infected – but transmitted locally. If I think of the crowds at the festa over the past weekend, I think it’s reasonable to assume that within days a much larger number of infections will materialise!

No, I’m not exactly panicked, I do realise that the mortality is extemely low. But the thought of having to fight a fever in this kind of weather (33-34°C / 92°F) is making me sort of queezy!

The moon says hello tonight

I took this shot a couple of hours ago and love it. And here’s a little goody for the Roger Hodgson fans among you (which I love too).

Gharb Festa 2009: Sunday morning march

Abandoned dogs

This isn’t really a laughing matter, because roaming dogs really are a bit of a problem here (only a few days ago hubby forgot to close the side door to the garage, and one of those creatures entered and left a smelly mess behind…). Still, this note in the last local council flyer tickled me. Do they really think people who’ve abandoned their dogs will be moved in their hearts by reading this and actually take them back in? I doubt it.

Now I’m off to the “Marc ta’ fil-ghodu” – that translates into a rather inconspicuous “morning march”. If you’re not familiar with Maltese festas, just wait till you see the pics!

Il-festa t-tajba – and happy 4th July!

A big thank you to the pyromaniacs who have this idiotic urge to shake people out of their sleep with atomic clock precision, at 8 am sharp. I ask this question every year but nobody, ever, has been able to answer it: what exactly is the reason for petards being let off at 8 in the morning? Well, at any time, really?  There’s nothing beautiful about them (quite the contrary actually). They are nothing but a nuisance, powerful enough to kick car alarms into action and send pets scrambling for cover. Oh yeah, and to shake people out of their sleep…

Yesterday we stayed out in the garden until just after midnight, despite the fact that hubby had to go to work this morning. It would have been impossible to sleep though, with the festa hullabaloo taking place right underneath the bedroom window – and those bangs going off at random all through the evening.

Oh well. In trying times such as these, I usually try to distract myself and look around for lens fodder. And last night a beautiful moon obliged – see above. I’m quite pleased with it – but before you say, “wow”, take a look at the original photo, which is rather less spectacular…

The next photo, of the church all dressed up for the feast, could be of last night, too, but I actually took it a couple of nights ago. I might arm myself tonight with my nifty fifty and venture out there for some better shots. Then again, I might pass on dolling up just to get a few pics. I’ll just wait and see where my mood takes me…

Last but not least, here’s a pic of our staple food on such nights. 

Il-festa t-tajba… And to my American friends: Happy Independence Day!