A Place in the Sun

It always amazes me how life changes from one year to the next.  Only a couple of years ago, I could not imagine myself without my boat.  Last September, I returned from Monaco Yacht Show only to find that she had sunk - possibly after receiving a hit during the night. This year, the summer kicked off with a trip to Istanbul with my friend and colleague, Geraldine Noel of Acumum Services Limited, where we spent time shopping for beautiful things as well as chatting about career developments. Her practice is doing really well - and I am sometimes unsure of whether I should continue to enjoy a rather laid back pace or go back into the rat race of life.  I know I could make more money, but this really isn't half bad.  I get plenty of time to play, since I leave work to go home at a decent hour most days.  I still have my office at Saga Juris , the law firm in Valletta, with whom I started off my career more than 15 years ago. I also visited THW, a German res...

Yesterday and today morning I woke up to see less of the sun shining than usual. August is almost over, and as we are heading into September, a kind of melancholy hits me. I am enjoying summer greatly, and a hard winter awaits me - plenty of work (thankfully) which will keep me busy through the colder months. I've been working on my new website, The Ballet Shop , which is entirely new in concept, as well as The Ballet Shop Blog , which runs alongside it, and which I use to market the site. These have taken up quite some time during the summer, as I want them to look great and be user-friendly. I have also taken plenty of time to swim, which is my favourite form of exercise. I love being in the water, preferably the sea, though the jellyfish have not allowed me to be as comfortable as I used to be in the water beforehand. Nowadays I always have a pair of goggles at hand, to keep an eye on the water around me. I still managed to get nabbed twice by the nasty things, but this did not...

Today I received an invite to go sailing since the weather was so lovely and there was some wind. We did set off sailing but the wind dropped drastically, and so we went into St George's bay to have a coffee, and the skipper, Ray, wanted to have a swim. Much to my disappointment - though it was not suprise at all - there were swarms of jellyfish. The awful thing about it was that they were mating, and on the heads of some of them I could see the little white eggs, ready to be released. There were a variety of the common purple jellyfish and some brown ones, and some seemed to be a combination of both. The worst thing about it was that these had tentacles at least 1 metre long, and very very invisible if you're swimming close by. I'm sincerely hoping that this summer is not going to be ruined by these pests. They say that jellyfish are food for turtles, which are close to being extinct. Let's hope they feast on this excessive supply of these noisome creatures ... They ...

Recently I was browsing through some photos and came across pics of the Easter Camp spent in Oliveri, Northern Sicily - not far from Messina - by 'we' I mean St Michael School Scouts Group. The scenery is simply stunning and much can be found to explore on this lovely island full of historic places, a combination of hills and beaches. Oliveri is a camping / touristic zone not far from Messina. During the summer it tends to be busy, but during Easter - which is when we went - it is rather quiet, which I tend to prefer. Not far from Oliveri is the ancient village of Tindari, which lies on a hill top. Legend has it that a ship was wrecked close to this high village, and the Madonna aboard the vessel was a black Madonna (no political incorrectness intended). Until then there had been disputes as to the Madonna's skin colour, and the Madonna in this church is supposed to be the same one that was found on the wrecked ship. To explain, this hilltop village is no more than half an ...