Current Mood: Ecstatic

What a build-up of emotions, expectations and suspense over months… and suddenly it’s all over! Unfortunately, the wireless internet at the hotel we were staying wasn’t working for me. That was the one single hair in the soup. However, on reflection I came to the conclusion that it was a good thing: it protected you from numerous posts telling you how excited I was. And it prevented me from spending the nights surfing the net instead of sleeping!

I wrote the following in our hotel room on Saturday night when – you guessed it – I should have been sleeping. But I was still too hyper for that; never mind that we had to get up at 5.30 am for our return journey.

So, this was my amazing weekend in Nuremberg, Germany:

The most amazing weekend trip of my life is coming to an end. After leaving Gozo on Thursday with the ferry at 6:00 am, we arrived at our hotel precisely at 4:00 pm. Although ten hours travel sounds like a long time, all the connections (flight – S-Bahn – ICE from Munich to Nuremberg) worked out extremely smoothly without any stress or anxiety. In fact it was a rather pleasant journey! The hotel (Aria Hotel, definitely recommendable budget accommodation, especially if they get their wifi up to scratch!!) was a pleasant surprise.

Friday at 1 pm the whole gang met up for the very first time: lunch at Sausalitos. We are pretty sure that this was a unique fan meeting because of all the nationalities involved: Mick from Ireland, Anina from the Faroe Islands, Claudia & Ali, Gregor & family and Miriam & Olaf from Germany, Christine & Christian from Austria, Sylvia and her friend from Switzerland (though sadly they missed the lunch), George and I from Malta.

Some of us had never met any of the others in person, yet we all recognised each other instantly. Lots of hugs made the rounds, and the smiles and laughs hardly ever stopped from then onwards. Sausalitos, by the way, is highly recommended too; great eatery, tasty food and rather generous portions!

A couple of hours later, and excitement slowly overtook the relaxed atmosphere: Linda Tyler, one of Roger’s managers and a marvellous lady, had invited us to attend the soundcheck at 4.30 pm! I owe Linda big time… she was the one who’d made this happen for me!

Arriving at the concert hall, the porter seemed to doubt our claims that we’d been invited, but he directed us straight to the office where Linda was in a meeting. Amazingly, she too recocgnised me immediately (I suppose that’s what happens if you’re a blogger LOL!) and told me it was so great that I had managed to come! Linda led the whole gang to a place in the hall from where we could follow the soundcheck, turning around once on the way, saying with a big smile, “Oh, this is great!”

Roger hadn’t arrived yet, so we took the opportunity to spread out Christine’s birthday banner for Roger on the floor, so that we could all sign it. :)

First to arrive for the sound check was Aaron MacDonald, who proceeded to start with the soundcheck alone, until finally Roger appeared too, walking straight out of his car onto the stage! We were treated to some nice banter between Roger and Aaron, and – among other snippets – to The Awakening, which had been requested by Claudia and Anina, and Roger’s new song, “Teach me to love again”, which is wonderful and will be for ever – for reasons explained a little further down – indelibly stamped in my mind. (Hope you’ll pardon the pun!)

All too soon the soundcheck was over, Roger & Aaron were gone, but an instant afterwards, Linda appeared and told us we were going to meet Roger together – and a few minutes later Roger appeared. Totally predictably I was dreadfully stuck for words; hopefully he didn’t notice what an idiot I really am! Equally predictably lots of photos where taken…

Arndt, the webmaster of Roger’s official German website, took photos of the whole group – we’re all looking forward to seeing those!! (Arndt, dies ist ein Wink mit’m Zaunspfahl!!) Claudia handed over our birthday card; starting out from Claudia’s home, it had travelled the world and was signed by fans from as far as USA and even New Foundland, and got back into Claudia’s hands just the week before the gig. Phew!!

And once more… time flew. Roger was gone, our group went for a drink at the adjacent hotel bar, before returning for the show at 8 pm. I know that this has been mentioned by many fans countless times before, but it can’t be said often enough: Roger’s voice is really still as strong as it’s ever been, and at this particular concert it was absolutely flawless. There wasn’t even audible strain on the third “who I am” in The Logical Song… try to sing it yourself and you’ll know what I mean!!

The highlight… After rendition of “Teach me to love again” Roger changed from the Steinway to his keyboard. And here’s what he said to the 2,200 people in the hall: “I’m going to do something now that I’ve never done before in my life: I’m going to play it again. But this is actually a special birthday present for Sabine, who came all the way from Malta. Where are you Sabine?” I hesitatingly, blushingly, lift my hand and briefly wonder if this is the moment when I am waking up after all, finding out that the whole thing was just a great dream. “Sabine, Why don’t you stand up and everyone can applaud?” Later, some people in the audience even wished me a happy birthday. I had to ask Gregor for help to refresh my memory about this… My mind had quit working at the time; it was a very emotional moment, and I was simply overwhelmed!

I’ll post more photos of the concert later this week. It takes such a long time to edit them, and apart from that I’m thinking of the best way to post higher quality pics (the ones in this post are all in low resolution).

It’s 10 pm on Saturday evening; about an hour ago we returned to the hotel, pretty knackered. We spent the afternoon strolling through the old city of Nuremberg with Gregor and his family, Claudia, Mick and Anina. Claudia’s little daughter wasn’t feeling to well, so Ali stayed behind with the kids while we worked our way uphill to the castle.

Ever so slowly, we all went separate ways after that. Saying good-bye is not something I like to do – and especially not to these friends!

If you think that you can’t find real friends on the internet… well, you’re dead wrong, because I found them! ;-)

PS – and this is important: KATHY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THIS… IT WAS AN EVENT I WILL SURELY NEVER FORGET! AND: YOU WERE VERY MUCH MISSED BY ALL OF US!!

And thus ends my tale of meeting Roger Hodgson. I’d never had the desire to meet famous people in person as much as I wanted to meet Roger, and he did not disappoint me. (I disappointed myself because I wasn’t able to tell him so much that I’d wanted to say!!) As much as Roger is a star, he’s a great, very down-to-earth person. And he’s living proof that whatever you wish for – if you really believe in it – and in yourself – you will make it happen!

Thank you Kathy… thank you Linda… and thank you Roger!

Current Mood: Ecstatic

Where to start…? This post – like many before, I know that! – won’t be a literary masterpiece. I’m way too excited to go mincing my words. It’s sheer, raw joy at work here!

After my Disappointment post, I received a lovely e-mail. And then, lots of support from my friends. I won’t go into more detail, but that alone lifted my spirits considerably. Then my hope got rekindled last Sunday, the end of story being that hubby and I are travelling to Nuremberg next month! We booked flights and hotel, and I can’t wait to meet up with my cyberfriends Claudia, Christine, Anina, Mick and Gregor. What a wonderful international meetup that is going to be! (But sad that Kathy can’t be there, too. )

It was only this morning that I found out about the extent of a lovely conspiracy that took place while I wasn’t watching… Apparently hubby and son have been busy swapping e-mails with my dear friend Kathy (who I wouldn’t know if it wasn’t for Roger Hodgson’s music!)  behind my back all this time, to make it happen. We have tickets ready waiting for us – and we are going to meet Roger after the show!!! I truly feel like hugging the whole world…

Here are a few facts that might put the extent of my excitement into perspective for you:

• Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” was an album I received as a gift for my 16th birthday – almost exactly 34 years ago… and it got me hooked!
• Eight years later I attended Supertramp’s last concert in Berlin – and just a few days later – together with four girl friends – went on to have the vacation of my life. The hit of the season was It’s Raining Again. To be honest, that was a time when I thought it would never rain in Gozo (boy was I wrong!), but that didn’t stop us girls from whirling around the Rook’s open-air dance floor, wishing the summer would never end.
  
  

  

• During the same holiday I got to know my husband, not that I knew that at the time. But we quickly discovered that we had exactly the same tastes in music – even if he preferred not to express that with crazy dance moves LOL!
• A year later – 25 years ago – we pooled our assortments of vinyl albums, gawking at the many doubles we had of our music!!
• Ever since polyphonic ringtones were invented, the tune of It’s Raining Again announces George’s calls on my mobile – and mine on his. :-)
• In 2004 George and I were quick to get tickets for the Malta Classic Rock Festival… Roger’s performance kept me on cloud 9 for days afterwards. Do you know the feeling when you need to smile without an apparent reason? That was the effect the gig had on me!
  
  

  

And now I’m already smiling just at the thought of being there for Roger’s birthday, although I’m afraid I might wake up any minute now… Someone pinch me, please!

To have friends, is one of life’s greatest blessings. A big, big thank you from my heart to Linda, Kathy, Claudia and Christine – I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to re-pay you, but I really hope one day I can return some of your kindness!!

Free Hugs Campaign in Valletta (Malta)

This weekend our son didn’t come home. Instead he went to Valletta together with friends on Saturday morning, to distribute free hugs to the unsuspecting. I tell it straight: I loved the idea, and I was seriously miffed that I couldn’t be there… At least I can share the videao with you, which is in the process of being uploaded at the moment. I can’t wait to see it! Hopefully by the time I’m done with this post, I’ll have the youtube link.

Go to the official free hugs website or wikipedia, to find out how it all started. The world is in urgent need of free hugs, I think… Nevertheless, there was some anxiety on my part for a couple of hours; apparently Daniel had forgotten his mobile at home (which I didn’t know), and I was freaked because I couldn’t get in touch with him until late afternoon. I was actually wondering whether he’d been arrested LOL!! I guess that’s one of those silly reactions motherhood instills in you…

Et voilà!!

Malta Song for Europe…

…sucks too, methinks. I watched the event yesterday with half an eye (but heard it all!), and nothing struck me as outstanding. It sounded like the pressure to produce killed any creativity. The more widely known singers warmed up yesterday’s soup but – at least in my personal opinion – failed to reach the quality of their former songs, let alone surpass it. Chiara went on to win, chosen to present Malta for the third time. Maybe it’s just me, but this time round I’m missing the charisma which had accompanied her previous two winners. I do wish her luck, but I’m skeptical…

Looking at the ever expanding – and improving – music scene in Malta, I find it baffling that it should be so difficult to breathe some fresh air into this event…

Single-handed life…

…definitely sucks. That stupid bone in my wrist is clearly on the mend, allowing me to use my left hand a little more each day. On the other hand, this causes me to attempt movements at times which I obviously shouldn’t carry out just yet. Like lifting the heavy bag of cat litter a couple of days ago. I just didn’t think, until the pain shooting up the whole arm reminded me… It sucks, it really does!

Current Mood: Sad

For the last couple of months a bunch of friends have been trying to persuade me to meet up with them at Roger Hodgson‘s gig in Nuremberg. Why Nuremberg? Because it’s a special one, the day (20th March) being Roger’s birthday. I had hardly dared contemplating it, a weekend trip abroad so soon after our (extended!) vacation would constitute an utter luxury. In fact, I had written it off already. Then yesterday, maybe because of my 50th coming up in the same month, hubby suggested out of the blue that we ought to have a look at flights and concert tickets… I can’t describe the excitement that took hold of me!!

So I spent most of last night searching & re-searching. After an hour or so, having skimmed all airlines – low-cost and regular ones – as well as expedia.com, my good spirits deflated. Why, oh why, does it have to be Nuremberg?! Over a thousand euro for two persons for a couple of days does seem a little extravagant – and, indeed, out of the question. Add to that the cheapest price for concert tickets, EUR 119 a piece… (EUR 159 is the costliest one, I think).

The ticket price hints at why Roger seems to avoid coming to Malta again. When he was here in 2004 – in the context of the Malta Classic Rock Festival – he stood just at the beginning of re-inventing his second career. Since then, he’s come a long way, touring the world with great success, without even needing to put out a new album… I doubt that there are enough fans in Malta to fill a hall for him, and especially not at the going rate for a ticket.

So I guess I’ll have to make my peace with not seeing him playing live again – leave alone getting to meet him. I consider myself lucky to have been there, in 2004. But still, my disappointment is huge. This particular gig is so special, and much of my excitement last night was over the fact that I’d have enjoyed the concert together with many of my friends, who I haven’t met outside cyberspace yet…

This might be my last post this week (if not this year!); there aren’t enough hours in a day to cope with everything that needs to be done (a) before Christmas and (b) before going on holiday next Sunday (and that our flight is at 03:50 hrs in the morning, doesn’t help either!). A couple of days ago it suddenly occurred to me that this is the first time in many, many years that I’ll be working on Christmas Eve. We always had a “big” dinner at home on the 24th, which I don’t see how I can possibly handle this time. I was already panicking when an idea hit me – this year we’re going to have fondue, so everyone simply cooks his/her own food LOL! Still, there are preparations to be made. But I’ve already started feeling better since I had this idea!

Last weekend was quite a hectic one. I did get the most important shopping done. I even did my grocery shopping at the Duke – but I’m not sure when I’ll do that again. You see, they have underground parking – fabulous, eh? It wasn’t even busy, and I’m still thanking my lucky stars for that. Because to get two storeys down below, you drive on a single lane, which would be fine if it wasn’t the same lane you have to take to get back to daylight. In any other country on this globe the traffic light system would probably even work: if one has a red light, one stops and waits. But in this blessed country it’s different (like so many things…); since when do people here stop at a red light if they don’t see a reason why they should wait? And sure enough, I had almost reached the end of my way out when I met a Maltese vehicle head-on. Oh the joy! It wasn’t that bad, but I shudder to think how the system will cope with a really busy shopping morning…

Late afternoon I finally got to see Chasing Pandora live again, who had a gig at Arkadia. It was nice, but too short, and the atmosphere on the whole was a little too “cool” – not the music’s fault, but the crowd’s! But hey, it’s a shopping mall (albeit a small one!)… I uploaded three photos to my photoblog, but more can be seen in my facebook photo album. It just takes too long to do them one by one on the photoblog. One of these days I’ll have to see how I can improve on that site… (yeah, right!)

After the gig we went off to admire Bethlehem in Għajnsielem, at long last (again, photos are on facebook )! The “village” is very pretty, and the idea a great one, too. Silly me wished for a stand with mulled wine though LOL! But I reckon they didn’t have that two thousand years ago… :D Baby Jesus probably wished for something warm, too. I don’t think it’s great fun to stay in one place for hours as the “actors” did. So a big prosit to all involved – you’re putting up a truly wonderful show!

After Għajnsielem it was pizza at Smugglers’ again (they ought to give us some kind of frequent visitors’ discount!!). They had this little Father Christmas that from a distance looked like a real person sitting at a table (as a matter of fact, it was only half life-size and standing behind the table). Although hubby gets annoyed when I do that, I couldn’t resist snatching a shot…

That’s all for today, I think. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope you get to enjoy it in peace, with your loved ones – and without too much stress!

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Knowing that I have a couple of readers from the London area, here’s a real goodie for you: Chasing Pandora is performing live just around your corner this week – and there’s not just one gig, but THREE, so there are no excuses for not showing up! Wish I could go…

Details:

12th August 2008: ElectroAcoustic Club @ the Slaughtered Lamb

Showtime: 8.40 pm
Entrance fee – GBP 5
Venue: Clerkenwell ElectroAcoustic Club @ The Slaughtered Lamb
34-35 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V0DX
Tickets can be purchased from We Got Tickets Box office tel: 0870 600 100 or from their website.

13th August 2008: Regal Room in Hammersmith, London

Show starts at: 8.30 pm
Free entrance
Doors open at 7.30 pm
Venue:
The Regal Room
The Distillers
64 Fulham Palace Road
Hammersmith
London W6 9PH

15th August 2008: The Borderline, London

Chasing Pandora will be playing support to LIOR
Showtime: 8.15 pm
Entrance Fee: GBP 10 – at the door GBP 12
Capacity 275
Venue:
THe Borderline
Orange Yard
Off Manette Street
London

Good luck Mel & Keith – I’m excited for you!

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…

If anyone abroad wants to know how serious the Maltese population takes the Eurovision Song Contest, go to the website of the Times of Malta and enter “Morena” into the Quick Search box. Then, proceed to any of the articles (or all of them if you get hooked LOL!), and read the comments… There’s a lot of boiling blood out there, I tell ya!

So Morena, sadly, didn’t make it to the final. I was one who was rooting for her, even though I cannot really stand the Eurovision show; in fact I didn’t watch it last night, as that kind of music simply has no appeal for me.

In the early Eurovision years, the whole contest was conducted in a totally different way from today. There was no recorded playback but a live orchestra. And If my memory serves me well (though it sometimes doesn’t!), nobody would have heard the songs before the night. The members of the jury (who were musical professionals) would be locked away and NOT hear or see the songs performed. Voting was done on the strength of compositions and lyrics. I reckon that made sense, because it’s a SONG contest, not a SHOW contest.

I’m also the first one to admit that Vodka wouldn’t have stood a chance in those days – the lyrics are a bit, um… well, not exactly meaningful, and the composition is hardly a genial work.

But in the competition of today’s style, Morena did deserve to make it to the final. Most of the songs I heard in the qualifying session made me dug for cover. Or reach for earplugs. Oh well… I’m biting my tongue and won’t join the club of disgruntled Maltese who indulge in criticism of neighbours’ voting for neighbours, and anti-Eastern propaganda. Incidentally, I’m just a tad curious: who do those people think were the neighbours that voted for Portugal, which placed second in that qualifying round??

Back to Morena, the first time I heard her singing was when she was still called Margaret and just starting out as Spectrum‘s vocalist, a few years ago. My reaction was, “Wow!” Although Spectrum was always a good band, for me they also were always “just” a hotel entertainment band (that’s how I got to know them when I worked at the Cornucopia ages ago). When Margaret joined them, she did an awesome job of giving some clout to the group that had been missing before. That’s my humble opinion anyway.

I sincerely hope her participation in the Eurovision spectacle will help her getting a career off the ground. She has got such a great voice and stage presence, it would simply be a shame if she vanished into oblivion. This country is way too small for Maltese artists to hit it off big time without international exposure. Most, if not all of them, are forced to work in an ordinary daytime job and rely on their spare time to develop their art, whether it be singing, dancing, acting, painting… Creativity rarely pays bills!

OMG. Did I really just write a whole bloody post about the Eurovision?! :eek:

A couple of days ago I received this much awaited package from Chasing Pandora’s management in the post – TWO is all mine now!! I listened to it a few times and it gets better every time I hear it. Memories is going to be the single that will be released on 2nd June – so I was mistaken when I guessed it was going to be Only Yesterday, but then, all songs are really beautiful so it doesn’t really matter!

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:) Big thank-you to Mel & Keith (and Sam Brown!) for letting me have the CD – and for allowing me to share the song with my blog readers. It means a lot to me!

Memories…

When (if!) you go to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, chances are you’ll be asked to recount your earliest memory from childhood. It used to be one of my tasks to transcribe the medical history of psychiatric outpatients, and I always marvelled at these earliest memory testimonials. Although it would have been the obvious thing to do, I never bothered myself to find out how far back I could remember things, but I was sure I could never recall stuff that happened so impossibly early in my childhood, and I often wondered whether people used to make up their tales on the fly.

I reckon it was CP’s song title (not the lyrics, mind you) that brought back this particular memory of the earliest memory thing the other morning, causing me to scramble through my mind to see how far back it could take me. I was amazed to find myself arriving at the age of 2 to 3 years: My great-grandfather used to live with us until he died (what I really can’t remember is how we all fit into that tiny flat!) I do recall the refreshing sips of cold black coffee, which he happily shared with me on my insistence. The strange thing is that I clearly remember its refreshing taste – but ever since I started drinking coffee regularly in my teenage years, I’ve always taken it with milk and sugar. I hate black coffee, although I seem to have loved it back then…

Something I’d like to know now is, what do such recollections signify? It didn’t occur to me to ask our docs at the time, even though our working environment was a great one. Questions from me, the only non-medical person on the staff, were never brushed off. (Can you tell how much I miss that job, even today?) I really don’t know why I wasn’t curious enough to ask…

So… Have you ever given thought to your earliest memory? How far can you travel back in time? And what the hell does it all mean??

I’m not sure if this is a hang-over that I’m suffering, or just an ordinary headache. It does feel bad, either way. The thing is I always get headaches on Saturdays and Sundays, but it makes no difference whether I had alcohol the previous night or not. This sucks!

Last night we returned to the Hunky-dory, taking its owner’s advice (Tami had left a message on my blog) and arriving a little late-ish (after 9 pm, not 11, because we were starved!) and we had a great meal in a great atmosphere – and stayed till after midnight. The music this time round was classic to prog rock – and the place was buzzing with a very mixed clientèle. I’m taking a real liking to that place!

Speaking of Music… the release of Chasing Pandora’s new EP, aptly titled TWO, is just around the corner! Only four songs… but Mel was busy bringing her precious baby daughter Asia into the world, so I guess we ought to cut her some slack!!

I’ve been listening to all four songs as I’m writing this, trying to make up my mind which one is my favourite, but I’m afraid that’s impossible.

The one going right into the ear from the start is Only Yesterday (see lyrics at the end of this post), so I suppose that’s going to be what we’ll hear most frequently on local radio stations. I love Memories – finally Keith is allowed to sing too, yay!! It’s beautiful.

No-One Else is a very special love song. Mel says in its introduction on their official website: “When you have that someone special in your life – You feel like that person is your whole world. – This song is for my baby girl Asia.”

Seeing that I left Me and You for last (well it is last on the EP!), it might be my least favourite – but then again I can’t say I don’t like it. Throwing in the kids’ voices was an awesome idea!

Go to CP’s website, where you’ll find brief stories behind all songs, and their lyrics. There are also audio snippets** – but at the moment you can enjoy the full-length versions on CP’s MySpace page: do hurry over before they fix that!!

**Update: instead of fixing the MySpace uploads, I just received an e-mail that the full versions are now on their official website, too! Good move!!

Now get that CD onto the shelves!!

Only Yesterday

We walk towards the golden sun
Under blue moons is where we run
The world today has so many tales to tell.

Heros come and heros go
Rocks with spirit and trees with soul
In a withering world we call our home

The wind it blows in our many faces
The sand it buries forbidden secrets
and we fight it till the end

We think it will go away tomorrow
If we close our eyes and forget the sorrow
Then we wake up and its still there.

Chorus:
We’re losing count of all the things
we feel sorry about
and our words seemed so precious yesterday
But that was only yesterday

We paint the sky like we’re picasso
In their vision, we believe the mission
They know that we will follow.

The sun it rises and then it sets
Forgets today and it’s regrets
and it still lightens up the world tomorrow

Human race is not like the sun
It goes back to where the fights begun
Just to win nothing in the end.

Chorus:
We’re losing count of all the things
we feel sorry about
But our words seemed so precious yesterday
But that was only yesterday.

What about tomorrow
Or do we still miss yesterday
Why do we miss yesterday
in it’s own little messed up way

Chorus:
We’re losing count of all the things
we feel sorry about
And our words seemed so precious yesterday
But that was only yesterday.