Road Trip - Gozo to London.

We have already done the London to Gozo trip last year, well we will be doing the journey again (in reverse) with a slightly different route this time and will get to sample the fine food, drink, scenery and hospitality that France and Italy offer us, I am looking forward to the trip very much.
The journey will take us around a week (last time we took 3 weeks), car prepared and cup holders at the ready.
I will try to post updates of my journey whilst on route but as I found last time around outside of the big towns and cities WiFi is often difficult to come by, so don't hold your breath.

We start our journey from Munxar, Gozo, ferry to Malta, on to Valletta in Malta and then the Grimaldi ferry to Genova in Italy, this will save 1000 miles of driving compared to the Sicily route, although we will also miss some of the most scenic parts of Italy.

I am looking forward to Mont Blanc again, still snow covered at this time of year, coincidentally this is the exact same week that we made the trip last time around. We leave on Thursday and the forcast is looking good.

"Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right." Arthur Schopenhauer.

The Big Bamboo.

Our original sun shade, on the sun terrace that gives us shade from the searing summer heat here in Gozo disintegrated at the end of last year. Time for a new shade I thought . In the valley just below below us here in Munxar grows a massive crop of bamboo cane, I drive past it almost every day.

Whilst passing a few days ago I saw a group of locals cutting it and loading it on to a truck, I asked how much I was told €2.00 a bundle, trying to guess how much will be needed to construct a new sun shade I said 'I will have 15 bundles' two hours later a lorry load of bamboo is delivered to the house, now each bundle of bamboo is 15 foot long. Next to the pool I now have a massive pile of uncleaned bamboo and what looks to be around 3 days work before I can even begin to start putting together the sunshade.

I had better get cleaning if this shade is to be in place before summer.


"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade". Rudyard Kipling.

Light Hearted Observations of the Maltese. (not to be taken seriously).

As a foreigner living in a country like Malta, you start to notice the unique mannerisms and traits that are well, unique or certainly different from the UK population and the reason you recognise them is because they are so different (does that make sense). A fellow blogger, funnily enough Maltese, living and studying in London published a piece, that she said made her laugh out loud.
Her blog is called 'Rantings From Afar' The list is titled 'Being Maltese Means' now some of the observations I do not recognise but many I do, the parts I recognise are in bold type.
I have her permission to replicate that list here.

Being Maltese…..means….

* You move abroad with 2 kgs of frozen pastizzi or Hobz Malti and a Timpana recipe in your luggage

* You move out from your parents house…….to move in with your spouse…within walking distance of your parents’ house

* You have been officially engaged longer than you have been dating…………while waiting for your house to be built

* You have been separated longer than you have been married……..while sleeping under the same roof

* Your best friend lives 2 blocks away, but you only drive there

* The difference between the before and after pictures of your Mum’s wedding, is about 5 stone

* The only way to decorate your escorts, capris and trucks is to stick banners across the windscreen such as ‘rambo sex’ or ‘baby think twice’, bumper sticker tend to be ‘Eat my Dust’

* Zebra crossings are a matter of opinion

* Give Way translates to Get out of my Way

* Stop sign is in fact Give Way

* No Waiting, Unloading Only, NO parking, actually mean Parking at your convenience

* You don’t even turn off your mobile phone in church (even if you are a priest)

* You think the north is entirely culturally different from the south….with the total geographical area being 18miles long, Gozo is considered another country

* You think the only places to visit abroad are ‘Oxford Street’, Lourdes and the Vatican

* Big Ben is in Birkirkara and not in London

* you go to church every Sunday even though you’re atheist

* you get married in church so that your in-laws would not know you’re an atheist

* you care more about what the neighbours think, then about your own opinion

* you are an independent adult, but your mum still buys your underpants and does your washing.

* Catholic shrines and posters of Elvis and Rambo jostle for space on public transport

* The cry ‘Aw sex!’ is seen as a legitimate chat-up line (Variation in Gozo tends to be ‘Aw Gobon’…no pun intended)

* Before marriage, sex is a taboo and parents expect their kids to have never engaged in sex. However if you’re not pregnant by the end of your honeymoon, your grandmother (and parents) starts saying special prayers.

* You strike bargains with the Almighty in order to achieve your ends.

* You call your children Denzel, Shania, Aaliyah and Rihanna… even though you have no connections with the film industry… (these names were amongst the most popular names in 2007 making it to the top 20)

* Your idea of eating out is going to the Diner in the Airport Viewing Gallery or to Serkin in Rabat for pastizzi and tea.

* You go to Catechism classes to pick up girls

* You disagree profoundly with your chosen political party’s policies, but vote for them anyway, cos that’s what your father did, and your grandfather, and his father…… anyway you still invite your local MP for your wedding as it will impress your guests

* You don’t believe in bribes but in gratitude

* At home you have ‘Teachers’, ‘Vermouth’ and perhaps ‘Shandy’

* Your parents used to dip the pacifier in Whisky so that you sleep during parties

* Your parents’ favourite brand used to be GM as anything from toilet paper to towels used to have this logo (Not ‘General Motors’ but ‘Gvern ta’ Malta’)

* You go to other people’s weddings in order to criticise the wedding souvenirs and the food.

* You send your children to private lessons even though they are the top of their class

* You are not a racist but open minded except if your kid turns up to be gay or decides to marry an African or Arab person.

Go on Smile, you know you want to.

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. Clifton Fadiman.

Twitter Twitter Tweet.

Anyone out there that is a regular computer or mobile phone user has heard of social networking, SMS phone messaging or email can be simple unorganised versions, then there are MySpace, Facebook and many others. The new kid on the block is Twitter, I say new kid it has been around a while, just has only recently hit the big time. So what is it and why use it?

Also known as Micro-blogging it is defined as a quick update containing a very limited number of characters, 140 in the case of Twitter.
Micro-blogging is for people or businesses, who want a blog but don't want to blog. A personal blog can keep people informed on what is going on in your life, but not everyone wants to spend an hour crafting a beautiful post about the vibrant colours you can see whilst looking at that sea view when on holiday. Sometimes, you just want to say "went shopping for a new shirt but didn't find anything".

That's where Twitter comes into the picture. It's a great place for keeping people informed on what you are up to without the need to spend a lot of time crafting an entire post on the subject. You just say what's going on and leave it at that.

You can follow the tweets (that's what the short messages are known as) of various well known figures if that's what you want. I follow President Obama, Gordan Brown, Jonathon Ross, known as Wossy and Stephen Fry among a few, you can link your tweets to Facebook so that as your tweet comments are automatically posted to your Facebook wall.

• Twitter can be used for social messaging.
• Receiving news messages. Many news services use it.
• Media marketing.
• Link sharing.
• Team up with others with the same interests.
• Event coordinating.
• It's a business tool.
  

Twitter is micro-blogging. It is social messaging. It is an event coordinator, a business tool, a news reporting service and a marketing utility. If you would like to follow my inane ramblings sign up. Check out the Twitter window on the right of this post.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. (Unknown)