Tag: Travel

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Travel

Il-Vapur ghal Betlehem

Qbadna il-kju mill-Ghadira. Il-Hadd imqaddes. Kju karozzi Maltin ta’ Malta li ghogobhom jghaddu l-ahhar Hadd tas-sena f’Ghawdex. Allajbierek. “Ghawdxi tajjeb aharqu” jghidu. Ma’ l-ewwel cans li jkollhom imaqdru ‘l Ghawdex u lill-Ghawdxin. Imma min imaqdar irid jixtri jghidu u f’dan il-kaz ix-xewqa tax-xerrej tigi ikkargata ghira.

Kju jibda mill-Ghadira. Min jipprova jaqbez, min jirnexxilu b’komplicità ta’ pulizija nofs kedda u min jitwaqqaf. Ihirsa tal-passat fis ifeggu meta tinduna li l-karozza li thalliet tghaddi u taqbez kellha it-Torca fuq display god-dashboard. Allajbierek.

Manjieri xejn u tinhass tensjoni generali li titkebbes go qalb il-Malti meta jara kju. “Kif se naghmel biex nasal qabel haddiehor?” Il-kuncett ta’ stennija ordinata thawwad il-boxxla tal-parti l-kbira tal-vjaggaturi. L-istennija tikxef il-verita maghrufa. Il-Malti pampalun li tghidx kemm ihalli ewri Ghawdex f’ikel u xorb (u souvenirs?) jiftah il-boot tal-karozza u wiehed malajr jilmah il-picnic cooler, it-thermos, u l-kaxxa pastini. Ihalli zobb mhux ewro.

Igri jitla’ fuq il-vapur halli imbaghad iserrep lejn ir-Rabat, jipparkja fejn irid u jhossu komdu u wara erhilu jilmenta dwar it-tickets li jaghtu “l-Ghawdxin”. Dan l-ahhar sid ta’ flat go Ghawdex qalli wahda gdida. Kera flat lil xi Malti u x’hin mar jara kid sejrin isib li kienu gabu seba’ heaters tal-elettriku magghom. Genji. Ghax il-kont tad-dawl ma jhallsuhx huma.

Konversazzjoni ghaddejja barra karozzti.

“Kif int?”
“Heqq. Nipprova nirkeb” (N.Dr. – ghax fih talent toqghod fil-kju)
“U jien ma ridtx ninzel ta… Imma t-tfal…”
“Anki jien ta… Darba f’sena ninzel”
“Xtaqt hallejt il-karozza c-Cirkewwa u naqbad tal-linja imma ma riedux”

Ma komplejtx insegwi ghax f’daqqa il-kju mexa. Shuttle service. Filfatt tkun stennejt inqas milli tahseb u hafna mill-infern ikun ikkawzat mit-tensjoni u nervi. Nissuspetta li dan gara ukoll sa certu punt lill-Arriva. Appuntu l-Arriva. Kull min kellimt Ghawdex jahlef bis-sistema taghhom gewwa Ghawdex. Hasra.

Tlaqna. Jien ghal dari u l-familja u c-corma Maltin ghal Bethlehem f’Ghajnsielem.

Awguri lil huti l-Maltin kollha.
U bilhaq… Tiskrux bil-Fanta
Go Betlehem.

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Categories
Travel

Nizza

Trid tkun vaganza kulltant biex troddlok lura il-perspettiva li tkun tlift mat-triq tar-rutina u l-ħajja ta’ kuljum. Minkejja li għoddni għaddejt ġimagħtejn sew Malta dawk ma servewnix għal dan l-iskop. Dal-weekend morna Nizza. Jumejn kollox. Tlaqna il-ġimgħa u lura l-Ħadd tard filgħaxija. Sabiħa wisq Nizza. Mhux sabiħa fis-sens turistiku imma fis-sens storiku u ċiviku. Hija stampa ċara ta’ belt (metropoli? il-ħames l-ikbar belt Franċiza) Mediterranja miftuħa u konxja tal-wirt storiku u mħallat tagħha. Iva għandha l-monumenti u toroq imsemmija għal dawk li fi zmien ieħor issieltu mat-Torok (Catherine Segurane) imma mill-ewwel jinħass li din hi kollox barra Belt magħluqa fl-isterjotipi.

L-ilsien dejjem jgħin u dak in-Nicois ftit Taljan, ftit Franċiz u ftit Katalan huwa bieb miftuħ beraħ għal infuzjoni ta’ ħsibijiet. Ma tistax ma taħsibx fl-iSqalli ta’ Camilleri jew fl-inkwadri imsawra fil-kitba ta’ Naghouib Mahfouz. It-toroq tal-Vielle Ville iserrpu u jsaħħru filwaqt li l-ħwienet ibiegħu l-aqwa pjetanzi u prodotti tal-baħar f’qalb id-dinja. Għalhekk tiekolx socca (magħmula miċ-ċiċri) jew pan bagnat kull ma trid tagħmel hu li tagħlaq għajnejk u timmaġinak f’Nizza rumana bi prodotti Feniċi u spezji ta’ Lvant Nofsani qed jitwasslu fuq il-ġifen li x’iktarx mess ma gzira ftit il-bogħod.

Qishom aħna, jiġik tgħid, tarahom fil-kju tal-ferry għal Sardinja u Korsika. Seta’ kien l-iMġarr. Qishom aħna, tistħajjel tgħid bl-imħabba tagħħom għaż-żejt taż-żebbuġa, it-tadam imqadded u l-ħut. Qishom aħna bil-bajjiet iperpru bnadar ta’ kull ġens (ir-russi moda hemm ukoll). Qishom aħna idawru sold fuq storja u kultura u xemx u baħar hux. Qishom aħna bil-bajjiet iperpru l-bnadar qawsalla simbolu ta’ ftuħ li kull ma jmur isir ovvju. Qishom aħna bin-nisa jgħumu kif iridu – l-forom kollha tara fuq il-bajja : 50 shapes of human – mingħajr pulizija jarrestawk għax kxift xi żejża żejda.

U insomma. Forsi ma qishomx aħna sa’ l-aħħar. Forsi tmur Nizza u tinduna x’għandna aħjar minnhom u x’jonqosna biex inkunu bħalhom. Imma fuq kollox tinduna kif hemm timbru ta’ stil ta’ ħajja, ta’ filosofija mondana, li huwa deċiżament Mediterran. Dak l-ispirtu li tagħlaq għajnejk int u tigdem Orżata u jiġik dritt f’moħħok / intix l-Exiles jew il-Cote d-Azur. F’dawk in-naħat ta’ Nizza u Marsilja qatt ma tilfu il-Mediterraneita tagħhom. Kien passaport miftuħ li jwasslek min Aleppo u Beirut sa Ġibilta u Lixandra sa Genoa u Venezja. Passaport li jiżboq it-Tuneżin, l-iSpanjol, it-Taljan jew il-Malti. Fi żmien l-imperu kont tgħid Cives Romanus Sum u tgħidha bi kburija.

Illum. Forsi hemm bżonn niskopru l-għana u r-rikkezzi ta’ xi tfisser li tkun Iben-il Mediterran.

Nizza. It’s nice.

Categories
Travel

Cambridge – a slideshow

J’accuse lends itself to some experimentation for the greater glory of révù. A slide show using flickr that demonstrates both the beauty of hipstamatic shots and the maravilliouos setting of Cambridge (and a bit of toilets (don’t ask), London and food).

Categories
Travel

Feel Good Inc.

Part 1 – food

A holiday planned around a wedding in Cambridge was a great opportunity to really relax and switch off. While I could not really resist the temptation to hook onto WiFi and catch up on the news outside, I found the pull of the great town (its history, its food and its shops) to be  a soothing palliative to the stress of recent months. Yep, J’accuse went on a sort of mental shut down while walking from college to college in the old University town.

Holiday also meant that the Dukan Diet got a deserved break that kicked off with pork scratching entrées at The Chophouse outside King’s College. They’re fabulous, especially dipped in an apple cider purée and washed down well with a Pinot Gris (we had to add a touch of Greater Luxembourg to the first meal). If you do get down to the Chophouse there is one desert that cannot be missed – the (gluten free) fruit crumble. Divinity on a plate.

I still get impressed at the sanitised manner in which food – packed food and food that screams “I’m both retro and healthy” – is approached in the UK. Places like PRET, EAT and the like line up salad after salad and take-away wraps confounding both stomach and mind as to the choice for the quick solution to accompany your adjective ridden coffee.

Even the Crowne Plaza breakfast coffee is “proudly brewed by Starbucks” which means that your adventure to get the right cappuccino or espresso has to start from outside the haven of the otherwise magnificent breakfast table at the hotel. No worries – Cambridge does not even need to offer you a faux italian establishment for a good brew of the grain (vide Don Pasquale’s in the market square). Just pop over to Fitzbillie’s where your excellent espresso/capuccino/macchiato can be downed with a bite of the Chelsea buns that form the foundations of Fitzbillie’s growing reputation.

For good local food there are two solutions: a pub lunch is always a pleasant option – try the Anchor for example where you can sit back and enjoy the punters if like us you’ve found some clement weather. If you want to have the wankellectual solution then try the Eagle Pub (round the corner from the Chophouse) where Watson and Crick allegedly cracked the DNA idea. Better still nothing beats the marketplace for good food. I am told on a very good authority that the mouthwatering whiff of Ostrich Burgers that pervade the senses upon reaching market square do not lie. The burgers are phantasmagorically scrumptious.

If standing up to chew on a burger is not your style then do not miss out on Bill’s Cafe restaurant and Store. Tasty food homely decor and great service combine to give you an unforgettable dining experience (and moment of relaxation) amidst colourful surroundings. The hummous and halloumi sandwich is particularly exquisite – and you can walk out with a bill’s recipe book as well as some of their wonderful produce.

You can also walk out with a recipe book if you visit Jamie’s Italian. The design and decor is magnificent. The menu is brazenly simple and to the point. The food. Well. Nothing great there to be honest. Our waitress turned out to have worked at Sliema Pitch restaurant for two years before moving to Jamie’s in Cambridge. If I had to be perfectly honest the Angus Steak served at Sliema pitch is a hundred times better than the fare we got on the plate amidst the usual fuss of quaint presentations and “genuine” Italian at Jamie’s.

Cambrigde. Much more than a University town.

 

Categories
Articles

J'accuse : Memor et Fidelis

Last Thursday I flew to Malta from Brussels on an Air Malta flight. Having braved the trials and tribulations of the Brussels ring and having risked being stuck in the suburb of Zaventem (GPS alternative routes are not always fortunate), I enjoyed the comfort of a flight and meal on our oft wrongfully maligned airline. There’s nothing like an Air Malta pampering at economy class level to soothe the nerves after a tumultuous drive.

This last minute visit was planned earlier the week in order to surprise my mum during the farewell celebrations that her colleagues at Stella Maris College had planned for her retirement. So there I was, armed with a newspaper and in flight magazine, trying to catch up with the news while in transit and in between warm cooked meals and sips of Kinnie. It’s impressive what a good and cheap form of in flight entertainment the paper and the magazine turned out to be.

Pornographic

Divorce and mafia-like shootings aside, it seems that the next best thing to read about in the Maltese media are two − not too unrelated − court cases. The first deals with the owner of City Lights Cinema who has been charged (again) with the screening of hard porn (is it like water? does hard mean more calcium?) in his establishment in Valletta. Now correct me if I am wrong but this cinema (and the movies it shows − referred to in common parlance only in Malta and India as “blue”) was not opened yesterday. I recall the illicit chats during break in secondary school in which some maverick senior might recount of his escapade into this den of Beelzebub sited in the midst of our capital.

And if kids knew about it then you can bet your last greasy lira that most adults did as well. So how come the police are only now suing the guy for running a cinema without a permit? Without a permit? What did they think the two signs saying “CINEMA” on the front of the City Lights Arcade represented? A prank? So yes, why pick on this milder form of release for the desperate at this point in time?

Theatrical

Which leads us straight to the case of the Romanian girl caught stripping in one of the Paceville joints. Sod the sub judice myth, I cannot hold back from commenting on this. In a very theatrical effort (that won over the court reporters), defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi asked for a recess in order to be able to accompany the police inspector to a newsstand whence he would procure a copy of Hugh Hefner’s best (that would be Playboy). I could imagine Atticus flinch (sic). Through some logic that is only useful to the defence lawyer (and his client), we are supposed to think: if you can see nude pics on a magazine then there is nothing wrong with seeing them live.

Sure. It’s the legal equivalent of defying the laws of gravity. Imagine the same argument in a murder case in which the victim was stabbed to death in the shower. “Can I ask for a recess m’lud? I’ll just pop down to a video outlet and get a copy of Psycho. If people can see that on film then why not in the flesh?” Q.E.D. Irrespectively of whether you agree or not with the availability/legality of topless dancers, you’ve got to admit that this legality by proxy argument is really tops. So I shut the newspaper court reports for a while and switched to the in flight magazine.

Where I found not one, not two, but three adverts for “Gentlemen’s Clubs”. They do not leave much to your imagination do they these ads? One of them advertised “various services within our venue for an exciting night of entertainment”. Hmm let me see. Do they mean sanitised bathrooms? Sofas maybe? A dance floor? For heaven’s sake how naive can we pretend to be by leaving this Gentlemen’s Club and porn business in a legal vacuum? Can you blame defence lawyers for the logistical gymnastics they go through? If this society is unable to discuss the truth of broken families and couples, how much less ready is it to discuss the positives of regulating (and making available) such venues of “release” as adult cinemas and gentlemen’s clubs?

Masquerade

Can we really wonder when the platform of discussion is polluted by modern day pragmatism and relativism? Why does Austin’s Bluff even merit discussion for example? Don’t get me wrong. I applaud the politician for stating outright that he would not be comfortable in a party that actively commits in favour of divorce. I would not expect him to do otherwise. It’s the way the message was conveyed (are the press to blame again?) in a manner as to suggest that Austin is blackmailing the country with a resignation that he had already decided would happen anyway.

Even in our discussion about marriage we are still equivocal. Both the pro- and anti- movements have argued that they are in favour of marriage. Beyond that though it’s all about statistics. Have we really asked ourselves what the modern day family unit is all about? In France the discussion goes back to the 60s and the sexual revolution, the emancipation of women and the gradual loss of any semblance of childhood. We dare not expose our ugly warts and ask questions of ourselves and prefer to wave the idealistic banners of conservative utopia vs. liberal intransigence.

Our ugly warts meanwhile are free to run abroad. Malta was twice in the news in Italy this week. First the man who claims to speak to Mary caused a ruckus in the Vatican. Never did the word “fedele maltese” sound any closer to “Arabic jihadist” than it did that day. There was also the bright spark who, worried that his friends might miss the boat, called in a bomb scare for the Pozzallo ferry.

Lasallian

Forgive me an extra run on the self-imposed word limit but I must congratulate a wonderful head, teacher and mum upon her retirement after 30 years of teaching at Stella Maris College. I am happy to have flown over to share the joy of all your colleagues, students past and present, and friends in celebrating your work over three decades. I’ve only confirmed what I’ve always suspected… that I’m not the only lucky one after all and that many, many others have had the honour to have had you as a guiding light in their life.

I am proud of your achievements and on Friday I remembered what it meant to be part of a larger family that goes beyond the boundaries of the nuclear family unit. The Lasallian frères are aptly known as brothers and though they seem to be getting scarcer and scarcer, I am glad that you chose to follow your vocational calling among them and with the principles of their founder. Back in 1981 I was just a young soon to be seven-year-old when we both walked into that College for the first time − you as a teacher and me as a student − and we lived through the dark years of the “Jew b’xejn jew xejn” period with classes in garages and basements.

The thousands of students whom you have overseen might have moved on but they still retain the ties to the Lasallian spirit that created a very strong foundation for their future. Your time to rest and enjoy the fruits of your labour has come; don’t underestimate the value of this moment. Carpe diem. Meanwhile, on behalf of all of us who have crossed paths with you in your vocation, it’s definitely time to say… thank you very much Mrs Zammit.

www.akkuza.com has gone all emotional this weekend. You’ll find we are our usual cynical self on the blog.

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Categories
Politics

Budgetary Woes

I’d almost apologise for not commenting on the budget but then again there is not much to comment about nowadays. Reactions to the budget could have been predicted much before Tonio Fenech opened his mouth and in any case J’accuse has never professed to be an expert in matters economical. Reactions to the budget on social networks served to prove that the critical mass of our voting population have been overfed clichés so many times that they are quite capable of spouting them back when requested “budget responsabbli” must have clinched the winning vote for the ayes. On Labour’s side, the realbudget.com gimmick turned out to be simply the yawn inducing assessment of what was not there. How else can you explain Labour’s obstinate refusal to factor, ever so slightly, the EU economic scenario into the context?

One of the most intriguing part of the budget is the increase in VAT on tourism to 7%. While the private sector began its whinge fest about how this would destroy the tourism industry nobody seemed to be aware of the fact that the European tourist industry is folding upon itself. Thomas Cook, one of the largest tour operators has recently communicated to its partners that it will be unilaterally deciding not to pay 5% of what it had promised. It was an offer they could not refuse for in the industry, the bulk provided by Cook is enough of an incentive for the receivers to hang on to Cook notwithstanding its bullying ways.

For a country that claims to be heavily dependent on tourism we seem to be surprisingly slow on adapting to the European mood and insist on depending on what we deem to be the veritable gold mine of mass supply from the likes of Birmingham, Manchester and Luton. Air Malta’s reaction to the budget was to downsize the number of flights to and from the UK – with the impact that 38,000 beds will not be filled come next summer.

Malta’s absence from hot deal sites that cater for DIY tourists from all over the world and the reluctance to explore new routes to the more stable parts of Europe really have me flummoxed.

Another point that has me even more confused is our inability to cater for the pension bomb more directly. Luxembourg has just calculated that the current rate of 14% of the population will change to 1 in every four persons being a pensioner over the next 50 years. I am sure Malta is not far behind on that ratio. While our current crop of politicians have proven diligent enough to steer the cake clear from the poorlands of the economic crisis, both government and opposition seem too tied to short-term gains (in the opposition case it is short-term fantasies coupled with irresponsible planning) to have an eye on the big picture.

Still. You reap what you sow don’t you. Remember that next time you vote PLPN.

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