What now?

Have been away for some time. *some* might be an ever so slight understatement, in view of the fact that it's been a number of years. But as you might recall, I am rather time-flexible... Like Einstein I believe that time is relative... After all, great minds think alike, and all that! Although I have a slight inkling that this is not what his theory of relativity was about, exactly. But why bother with the details, when I have so much to tell?

Voice of sanity: Because the devil is in the detail, perhaps?

Self: oh do shut up! You are sooo pedantic!

What was I on about, in lieu of an apology to my readers? Ah yes... A long absence it has been, indeed. You might ask what I've been up to. Well, here's a quick recap of the most salient points...

Let's start with romance, just to please some of the gossips... During my absence I have gotten over and gotten rid of (although not in the mob way) Mr Big. I got tangled with Mr Even Bigger, the geek (sigh, don't we all have one in our past), the Captain (of a ship which was only slightly better off than the Titanic) and the (wannabe) Alpha. They have been a handful. And fortunately my memory isn't my forte, so all has been forgiven or forgotten or whatever. It's been over five years guys, so before you start raising your eyebrows at me, yes, I did date. And have made some unsavory choices, admittedly. However, this has been a learning process and am not going to make the same mistakes again. And i don't mean that in the new year's resolution kind of way!!!

No, have not settled down with nice sensible man and gotten married. Erm, didn't you read the above or any of my previous posts, over the years? Still no Mr Darcy.

Have also not been kidnapped by aliens, wanting to return me to the mothership!

Managed to escape the men in white coats, together with the ravages of time (the latter thanks to a vigorous beauty regime, healthier lifestyle and some pretty expensive creams.)

Have not been hunted down by bank manager (who incidentally has now taken a not-so-legal-contract out on my head. The cheek of the man... After single-handedly creating the global recession, well practically.). However, I did have few close calls. Phew, can that fellow run despite his short stubbly legs and pot belly. I thought he would have dropped dead from shock when the bank approved the loan application for my flat!

Have spent the equivalent of eleven months stuck in traffic, three years working my butt off, and two years thinking (which, incidentally, I also do in my sleep!). Have taken up some new interests too... But must not give the game away so soon, as should save something for future posts!

More interestingly, I have also engaged the services of a butler. Yes... Keeping up with all the above and the housework, was simply too much. My job, social life and various interests take priority. And time is limited, too. Plus, Big was right about one thing... I am not made for the nitty gritty housework thingee. Enough excuses?

Voice of sanity: She needed a butler, she thought. This one is beyond help!

Self: Didn't you hear me when I said shut up, the first time round?

Yes, I now have a valet, who we shall call Jeeves. Needed some help with the chores around my flat so, voila...Jeeves. Although between you and me, am still at a loss as to exactly what I am paying him for. He is very smart and charming in an asexual sort of manner. Very stiff upper lip, all formalities, and all that. And he has these velvety white gloves.

Voice of sanity: a valet? For a flat? A VALET?? What will she do now, hire a zoologist to take care of her yellow rubber bath duck?

Self: SILENCE (said in echoing manner of Dumbledore during Hogwarts' assembly.)

Right, let's get it straight from the get go. Jeeves is not a significant other, nor is he a romantic or sexual partner. He is employed by self to take care of the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, household maintenance and what not. This is purely business, and clearly I am the boss!

However, for some reason I end up cleaning after him and mentally dueling him into letting me have MY way around MY house. Really. The things I have to put up with!

Must go as Jeeves is breathing down my neck, trying to discreetly (he thinks, but I will NOT be fooled) discover what I am up to!

Starting tonight....

... on a screen near you!

Comeback test post

....

Notte Virtuale

I went to the Notte Bianca event in Valletta, together with thousands of others. However I had to give the even more popular Notte Bianca a miss as I was at home very, very sick. Despite having taken the flu vaxine, earlier...

Hang on... need to take a few minutes to day dream. Michael Buble is singing in my ears as I type these words.... da da da da da da and I'm feeling gooooooooooooodddd. (Ok that was sooo out of tune, count yourselves as seriously lucky that I'm not putting that on mp3 for you to bust your eardrums on!) da da da-dum dum dum da da da....

Not only do I hear voices in my head (occasionall, though!) but now these are also in competition with Micahel Buble. Wanna bet who'll win? (Hint: the smart money ain't on sanity lol)

Alrighty now, let's revert to back sanity. (who the hell says alrighty anymore! poss one of my many personalities is an older man from the 1940s... lol) Nah! It's just Michael Buble putting me in a goood mood! I love swing, and his voice really takes to it!

I was going on about the flu vaxxine - which I only took because my dear cousin's a fantastic (and beautiful!) pharmacist, who gives you injections minus the nasty sting! Anyways, that's a whole other post (memo to self!)...

What I was getting at, prior to all the flying off at tangents, bit(s).. was about to tell y'all that am just getting over a nasty chest cold, which the vaxxine doesn't ward off. (Question: what is entire point of taking vaxxine when self still ends up sick?)

Yes...

In fact spending all that time indoors, not feeling up to doing much... well there's only *that* much TV you can watch in a day (or is there?) But i found myself online chatting with friends... and others, catching up with people who I haven't seen in ages. So much so that in fact, yesterday instead of going out, I had my own little notte virtuale, with a number of friends around the four corners of the earth! It was v cool.

Tonight am going out for a coffee, a real coffee, with Lars. Then will go for a drink. But am thinking of organising a cool cast on Skype, or something. If I manage to get my head round to doing that, I'll let you know so we can all have a Notte Blog.

Good weekend guys and gals!

Contact

The past couple of weeks have seen me spend lots of time on my computer... and not only work! I've been online for most of my free-waking time.

Am feeling as though am stuck in the tentacles of the web. But at the same time am not exactly an unwilling prisoner. Perhaps some great pschologist will one day come up with a theory for the web along the lines of the Stockholm Syndrome. Meanwhile, I am just going along with the insanity.

This week I have chatted and voice-chatted with friends who are living abroad, I have been tracked down by an ex-boyfriend (or something like that) and made some new virtual 'friends.'

And then I decided to look up some people who I haven't seen in ages. And guess what? I have managed to get in touch with practically all of them! Which means that all the Rebus novels that I've been reading are paying off and am carefully honing in my detective skills! Or it could also mean that am paranoid and the web is just really easy to use!

What I can say with some degree of certainty, is that it's very wiered having a virtual conversation with someone who you used to know very well in reality, but haven't met in ages. Some graves should be undisturbed... whereas other avenues are intiatlly explored on the web... it's all very confusing!

Will go check who's online now... then will check my mail!

Catch you later

New Year and Big Bangs

After a very hectic year (2006) dashing all over Europe on work, various personal tribulations, all that and a bag of chips, I took some well-deserved time off over the festive season.

Plus P was in town.

As was Ed.

Which made for a very full social calendar - which was great. Apart from the fact that between social calendar hysteria, candle making and aromatherapy experiments, i didn't find the time to blog. And no apologies there.

Can you blame me?

And there were Christmas parties, gettogethers, luxurious coffees, endless lie-ins (which I was in desparate need of), and then there was New Year's Eve... Sigh! The year started with a bang... and then music started playing in my ears!

Also managed to do some leisure travelling... to Gozo on the second day of the New Year. (Double sigh, but in a good way!)

However, just to put things into perspective, this was a new year that nearly didn't happen for me!

Seriously....

Sad but true. P and myself (frozen P - due to panic, I should say) had a near death experience. I was driving with P as my passenger, on the Birkirkara bypass on the way to watch Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette when the cars travelling on the lane next to mine collided and one of them ended up overturning and skidding towards me! You can imagine the shock of seeing a car travelling towards me at high speed - with no possibility of breaking (since do not imagine that car had breaking facility also on roof, just in case!) Well, fortunately the big bang (with my car) was prevented when the car stopped nigh six inches from the mirror on the driver's side - aka from me!

By the time I pulled my car over to saftey and got back to the scene of the accident, all three passengers of the overturned car were out and unscathed!

Now that was a lucky escape... and something (else!) to celebrate!

All the best for 2007 to all!

Police Psychology?

She nodded slowly. 'And during the day. I can't seem to
erase it.'

'So don't try. Just file it away, that's all you
can do. Admit it to yourself, it happened, you were there, then file it
away. You won't forget it, but you won't harp on it
either.'

'Police psychology?'

'Common sense, hard learnt...'

Taken from Ian Rankin's bestseller 'Mortal Causes'

Let's just say i've done a stint in the funny farm... of the metaphorical sort, of course. They'd never have let me out of the real one, would they, now?

Well, I have returned enlightened and obsessed. Explanation follows hereafter.

Enlightenment: See above quote. It's about zen. About keeping the baggage and letting go at once. Living the experience and savouring it but not letting it carry you away. Basically, either Ian Rankin's a genius with insight, or else I'm seeing things... again (sic!) Reading too much into things and all.

Obsession: Not of the Calvin Klein variety. But with the reading too much business. Really, am beginning to believe that I've really been going overboard with the books. Have devoured eight of Ian Rankin's seventeen Rebus novels in just over a month. Basically, have turned into a heremit. When am not slaving at work, typing frantically over a keyboard and mooning over files and piles of paper, am reading like mad. Like mad! It's exhilarating. His plot is fantastic, his characters are real and flawed, and his humour bites! Plus, am in lurve with Rebus. (Sorry, have traded in Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility with this bittersweet Scottish detective.) Sigh!

Moblogging test

Since have become addicted to surfing the web and checking my email
via my mobile am now attempting to moblog from paradise! Only thing is
that have messed up my t 9 setting and this is taking forever!!! Let
me know if this works by dropping me an email .

Pics of the latest business trip

Too tired to do much of anything.

Too restless to go to bed at 11 pm on the eve of a public holiday.

Plus keep dreaming about being stuck in prison, while my 'negoitator' (whose side is he on???) tries to convince my would-be captors that I'm worth a heck of a lot less than 30 goats, one milking cow and a camel (the latter thrown in, just for shits and giggles, as it were...) Weird, I know!

Welcome to the world of jetlag. I am your host here!

Decided to post some pics here about my most recent trip to the Med.

Several flight delays, crossed connections and turbulence and I arrived at destination 1. Work took me to a lush gala night atop a pontoon - see pic. (No need for jokes, here... I didn't trip over in my heels and go splash into the water... well, only because a good-looking fellow business-tripper was there to catch me in time... French guys are such gentlemen!) I could soooo live this life!











Work appointments at destination 2 were busy and hectic, (but thankfully very fruitful... as opposed to fruity) so decided to haunt a very VERY Zen bar (pic above), which was totally fabulous and served my very favourite Mojitos!!! The haunt was so zen that just the thought of it... makes my eyes turn misty blue? Nah, but it does make me want to read Siddharta all over again, and Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenace...

Finally, I managed to find the time to relax a little by the pool; which was a v good idea! And yes... those are my pedicured toes at the bottom of the pic, he he he! Just in case you were wondering...

And still not willing to go to sleep, I now realise that am just in time for SATC (Sex and the City for the unitiated few who must've been located somewhere on planet Zonk without satellite TV for the past few years!)

Then will go get ready for the next business trip... I take off in a few days again!

Where Am I Now?

Those of you who have been regular readers of MaltaToday since it's inception, might recall a very entertaining column entitled 'Where are they now?' Tongue lodged firmly in cheek, I am posting what is possibly the first auto-biographical sarcastic interview... EVER. (Drum rolls please!) This post is dedicated to said column and its author. By the way, does anyone know why they stopped running the column???

Name: Nina78
No, we meant actual name: You wish! Prefer to hide under safe womb-like protection duvet of nome de plume. Also, cannot possibly handle chance of some people taking a contract out on my head.

Gender: Female, duh! (just take a look at the staggering amount of shoes, accessories, bags and clothes in subject's possession.)

Age: It's NOT appropriate to ask a lady that!
Age: Ask nicely.
Age, pretty please: 27. I know I don't look it (or act like it!) but it's true.

Last time you checked the meaning of modesty in the dictionary: Oh shut up! I.AM.NOT.TALKING.TO.YOU.

Most remarkable features: Wit, sense of humour and hearing voices of my head.

Were you paying attention to the previous question?

Favourite action hero: Batman.

Mission in life: World domination.

Appearance: Stylish and high-maintenance. Slightly hungover, but ONLY this morning!

Will never: Eat at fast-food chains.

Who's coming over for supper tonight: Supper, do I look like I have time for supper? Or the will to eat?

Where am I now?
Temporal-spatial dimension of self, currently unknown. Have been globe-trotting in manner of jet setting mogul (only NOT in first class!) for work-related purposes. Am jet-lagged and pathetically trying to catch up with humungous list of things-to-do. (Listing obsession reaching dramatic proportions now.) Too busy to bother with mess-state of self's life (which perhaps is a very good thing.) Also due to all this travelling have felt incontrollable urge to spend at airports and have also managed to squeeze in some frantic shopping under the buy-all-you-can-due-to-little-time-for-shopping-while-on-business-trip syndrome. As a result, ams now scared of checking bank balance as self's MasterCard is still hot from usage at various EPOS machines across Europe. Financial doom imminent. Possibly self is also still too drunk from last night to know / care about location! Gaah!

(Sound of head throbbing. Padumph. Padumph. Pa-da-dum. DUM.)

Where are you going?
Do I look like I know? Seriously! Do you mean where are you going, as in what are you planning to do with your life? That's a good question. One which requires serious reflection - perhaps I can jot down some ideas while I'm travelling on a plane (unless I have to catch up on work or something!)

No. What location will you be visiting next?
Oh, that!

(Sigh of total and utter boredom escapes self's lips.)

So?
Oh right. You're expecting a sensible answer.

(Sound of torch-light going on and rummaging of self searching for sense and its defunct cousin: sensible answer, in bottomless pit of new tote.)

Am attending a conference somewhere in the Med.

Sigh. (In resignation.)