More Malta

OK - here's the crew that I mentioned at Restorante Alphonso. Now be truthful; isn't that a group of guys that you'd like to hang out with, even if they didn't speak your language?

The last photo is a night shot from the Upper Barracca Gardens in Valletta looking back at the Prime Minister Offices. I'm going to post some pictures in several albums from the trip, one from the Wine Festival, one of my favorites is at the St. James Cavalier; originally St. James was built to act as a raised platform on which guns were placed to defend the city against attacks from the land (Floriana) side. As well as prohibiting entry, St. James could also threaten those who had already breached the city's defenses. It went through several transformations during the British rule but has now been converted into The Centre for Creativity-Malta's Millennium Project.

Centre for Creativity

It has integrated many of the original spaces into an exhibition space, music room, children's activity space and cafe. I hope you like the pictures of the spaces (especially you Ryan Booth). I only wish that I had Ryan's creativity and camera to do it justice. I learned that the City is transforming the entry gate into Valletta into a new space. I've seen pictures and it will be a spectacular, designed by Renzo Piano, who is also a designer of the Meniel Collection in Houston.

Oh, did I mention that I attended the Delicata Classic Wine Festival? They had a wonderful selection of Maltese wines which I was obliged to sample. The aforementioned gardens was a beautiful place to host the event, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with fountains, a sampling of local Maltese food and an Oriental booth for those who wanted more than fruit and cheese or Maltanese fare. The band was very entertaining and energetic. Now if I had just had my beautiful wife with me, I’d probably closed the place down before jumping on the bus back to St. Julian. However, since she was back home, I called it a night around 10 pm.

Delicata Wine Festival

The next time, I'm taking the woman of my dreams (yes Lynn, that's always you!!!)

Malta Adventure

I'm trying an experiment to link my Picasa Photo Album to my blog post.

Picasa Album

I hope this works. I put a 10 pictures of Malta, Beaches (for Anne, and a couple of Maltese CAt photos. Let me know if it works and I'll post a couple of albums from this weekend.

More stories to come.

Friday (my Saturday) morning in Malta

The breakfast buffet at the Hotel Juliani is a comfortable spread (especially since they comped it). The best thing is they have ham! I feel like the dog on the commercial, "I smell bacon. Bacon,bacon, bacon." Ham is close enough.

It's hot on the island, and why not, it is August. There appear to be a lot of tourists around but not like you might expect. The last time we were here, the cab dirver said that tourism is off 60%. A lot of shops have SALE signs in the window; something that is uncommon in Tripoli. I didn't buy anything more than a map of the Islands since we returned Ellen Johnson's to her.

I was plannig to just get something light for lunch but passed a Burger King. Now I have my rules about eating fast food most of the time and when I am in another country, it is just against my core beliefs to buy into the American fast food export. However; I got to thinking that when I am in Libya, and it's probably going to be until around the 20th of September before I leave the country again, I can't get a real hamburger, fast food or not. So I indulged - - - and I don't feel a bit guilty about it either.

Pictures when I get back to Tripoli (but not of the hamburger).

The barber shop opens again at 2:30 pm, after their noon break, so I'm heading over there to get a "trim".

Weekend in Malta

Yea! It's the weekend (Thursday night - Saturday) and I caught the 5:00 pm flight to Malta. I called ahead to the Hotel Juliani where we stayed previously because they had told us to not use Expedia but just give them a call and they woud give us a good rate. When I called the other day, they quoted me a 130 euro/night rate, which seemed high. They didn't request a credit card so I just let it go and figured that I would discuss it with them when I arrived but since it's the high season, I could get stuck. When I checked in, I inquired about the rate and reminded them of what they had told us last time. The girl quickly said, I'll change the rate to 88 Euros/night and confirm with the manager since you called in. Not bad for soft negotiations.

The last time that Lynn and I were here, we asked the front desk for a restaurant recommendation and they sent us to the Barracuda. It was a good quality place but way too stuffy for us after working all week. We should have had on suit and tie to fit in with the "in crown" there. It turned out that the Barracuda is where the glitteratzi go when they are in town. This time, it was my objective to find a hole in th wall Italian restaurant that wasn't on the tourist map. I struck out from the hotel and satrted wandering the streets away form the St. Julian's inlet and back into residential neighborhoods. I followed a group of people but ended up at a dead end that looked like a youth hostel or student hotel. I turned around and headed back doen the street and on the otherside noticed a little place, no one inside, but a fixed price menue on the door; three courses for 15 Euro. I figured that at that price, I couldn't go wrong. It\s kind of hard to burn the spagetti. I went in and was greeted by a young kid, who looded like he was 15-17. He spoke English but had an Italian accent.

I asked him where he would like for me to sit, he looked around, no one elst there and motioned me to a table near the dooor and asked if that would be ok. I assured him that it would be fine. About then, in waltzed, Max, the proprietor. He started talking rapidly in Italian the waiter explained to me that he spoke no English. Max brought me a copy of the fixed price menu for the day and left. I ordered a glass of their house red ( a wonderful Maltese Falcon; blend of cabs, merlot and syarah grapes) as I purused the menu. I decided that when in Rome,do what the Romans do and ordered the mozzerella chesse and tomato salad for the first course and told the waiter to have the chef pick something for the second and third course.

Course One:

The first course was predictable. Roma tomatos, mozzerella cheese balls sprinkled with dried basil. I asked for some ground pepper and he brought a pepper mill to the table. As he ledt I started grinding and all I got was . . . nothing. I called him back, explained the situation and he brought me another with no further problems. Add a little balsalmic vinegar, ground pepper, maltese bread and we were off to a good start.

Course Two:

I should have pulled out my camera right there. A plate full of spagetti piled high with tomatoes, clams and mussels steamed to perfection. My mouth is watering just remembering them. I quickly dug in. As I was eating, I noticed a large table in the corner that was set for 8-10 people. My you waiter, being the only other person taht I could see in the room, kept flitting ove to the table checking to see that everything was in order. I noticed the door open and a couple Max's, the owner, frinds started coming in. They looked me over as the came in and drifted over to the table set in the corner. Max greeted them and they would come and go, go back to the kitchen, walk out fornt for a smoke or talk on the phone while I gobbled down my seafood and pasta.

Course Three:

It was about time to get a refill on my wine so Max just brought the bottle over to the table and set it down. The next course was tomatoes and greeens salad and a wonderfully prepared steak! We're talking 10 oz. of honest to goodness delight. Taking my time, I savored the wine, the steak, the beautiful Italian conversation at the other table as their food and wine was starting to be consumed. I asked my waiter if he qould inquire of Max if I could take a picture of him and his friends. Being Italian, I never doubted what the answer would be. They hammed and posed as I got a group shot.

Conclusion:

After a cappichino, which my young waiter sheepishly admitted that he had never made before (it was quite good) I paid mybill and asked the waiter if he would translate for Max and his friends. I told them thank you for allowing me to share t=dinner with them and for good food and good friends.

When in Malta, please visit Restorante Alfonso!!! I recommend it highly. Now to sleep off all this food.

Which door will you choose?

One of the fun things that I have observed since being here is all of the different types and colors of doors. Now I am giving you several examples and you have to guess whether they come from Valletta, Malta or Tripoli, Libya. If you can guess correctly, you may win a prize, or you may not -the choice is mine.

When I left to come overseas, a good friend of mine reminded me of an adage; "... to remember to celebrate the small victories along the way". Most of the time, those are easy; like remembering to laugh at things which appear absurb, to be happy that you get home at night no matter how lost or circuitous a route you took getting there, to enjoy the people that surround you on a daily basis. Today actually included a couple of items in "W" column at work. A contractor who showed up, listened and understood that I am trying to help rather than undermine him and a CM/CS who actually called and said that he intended to attend a meeting tomorrow after being AWOL for 6 weeks. As the saying goes, Showing up is the half the battle.

And the winner is . . . wait, I must delay until I see your votes and comments.

Catching up with Friends

I decided that since this is the 40th anniversary of my gradation from high school (I was quite young when I finished - or so it seems) that I would take the occasion to peruse the reunion website and try and catch up with some fiends (notice I did not say "Old" friends). Now there are a few that I run into on the rare occasion but most I have lost track of.

Now lets see, I've contacted my closest choir buddy out in the pacific northwest who's in the Ukraine this summer, a friend who has returned home to care for parents in their last years, an attorney who is now a para-legal away from the fray of conflict but who's husband is now a successful restaurateur, my long lost copy editor from Fort Worth who works in Dallas but has his PhD from Denton and wants to be a used car salesman when he grows up and a few others who haven't taken the time to return my emails.

It's is good to see what time has wrought and what adventures we have all traversed. When I look back I am amazed at the time in which we have lived, the things that we have seen and experienced and hopefully learned along the way.

So now let's all have a little fun.

The News at 4:00 pm

Sundays are always interesting as you get to work, log on to your laptop and hope that the server is up and you can get a connection, print your reports for staff meeting, etc. Well we got to work and as the saying goes, things didn't work the way we would have liked. Only a minor inconvenience. It was the first time since I've been here that we have had a full contingent at staff meeting (well, almost - we are still one Brit shy of a full load).

Our director of communications is a good friend with whom I share coffee and breakfast most mornings on the deck. That makes it sound a lot more cosmopolitan than reality but who cares. She told me this morning that we were expecting a film crew from our client this afternoon to do an infomercial for the September 1 Celebration. If you don't know what that is, Google Libya and September 1. The producer/interviewer came in and set up his camera next to my desk. After sitting there feeling awkward for about 5 minutes, I reached in my computer bag and grabbed the camera I alway carry for project photos. I asked him if I could take some pictures and like the star that he is, he exclaimed that he would be happy to allow me to take pictures as he posed. See, there are some things that are no different anywhere in the world. They kept filming as we neared the witching hour of 4:30. Luckily, they finished at 4:25 as we all rushed to log out, unplug, pack up and make for the vans home.

Not a bad Sunday at all.