Yeps, it has been a long time since I last blogged, but please bear with me! It’s been a very busy time!

So first up was a family visit to my brother and Michele (his girlfriend) in Switzerland. My sister and mum flew to London from Malta, and I met up with them at the airport where we took another flight to Friedrischafen in Germany. From the airport we went to Konstanz. With my brother living close by in St Gallen this was one of the places I really wanted to go back to after having done a six week internship there 4 summers ago. Luckily one of the guys from the lab was in town and we could meet up. Great to be back!

That was Saturday (two Saturdays ago). On Sunday we then went to Santis…SNOOOWWWWW! …we didn’t climb but took the gondola up to gorgeous views. After that we travelled on to Apenzell, followed by a visit to the Rheinfall in Schaffhausen. Last I was in the region I never got round to it, so this was high on my list of things I wanted to do. Monday then was a day in Zurich with my mum and sister as brother and his gf had to work/study. Unfortunately all the museums were closed, but we still got a bit of the atmosphere in. Tuesday then we travelled back, from Switzerland going to Austria and then on to Germany around lake Constance, followed by flying to London (yeps…there go your four countries ).

In London then it was my turn to host my sister and mum…AAA…hectic time! We got a number of shopping trips in (yippee!) and a good deal of sight seeing. Mostly I sent them on their own while I went to university to get some work done anyways (though I was on reduced time ). With them on Wednesday night we went to watch Blood Brothers, with Mel C – great show! Was not particularly impressed at first, but as time went I got more and more impressed! WOW!. On Thursday I had tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London, which is the ceremony where they shut down the tower each night. It is apparently the shortest such ceremony in the world, but hey! I enjoyed it, and you get to get into the Tower for free (though you cannot wander round). Friday night was an evening of rest in preparation for the weekend.

Saturday was a day of markets! When Michael’s parents were here we went to Camden Market and I definitely wanted to take them there. So we got the bus to St John’s Wood and walked from there along the canal to the market. I really like the market, and it was good to be there now – seeing as Christmas is near I could start getting ideas for gifts – yipeee! (never a very easy thing for me ). From there we then went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde park to show them the closest they could get to a German market (more ideas for gifts ) and then on to TK Maxx in Kensington (shopping ).

Sunday was our ‘day out of London’ – Oxford! I had visited Oxford some months ago for a workshop but only got around an hour to look around. Now we had a day! Unfortunately it wasn’t the best weather (though better than when we went to Canterbury). Fortunately the museums were open so we could duck in there and enjoy them. We got to go to the University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, then to the Ashmolean Museum (it is newly reopened in November, so it is still not totally complete – but I really liked it, particularly the -1 level), and finally the Museum of the History of Science. In the evening we then went to Christ Church College Cathedral for Evensong (I didn’t find it as impressive as the ones we attended in Cambridge and Canterbury), and then on to home.

Monday was their last day here, so we went for a walk in Gladstone park, before making our way to Oxford street for some more shopping (hehe!) and then saw them off.

In the evening Michael and I had tickets for a Jack the Ripper Tour by Celebrity Planet. It was an OK tour. We got our tickets for free, but I am not sure I would have been happy if I had paid £10 for the tour! Also – the tour guide had such a smug look on his face! It just made me want to punch him! grrr!

This doesn’t often happen, but this time it has. Can ANYONE explain to me why:

my SISTER’S photo is on MY NEW driving licence!!!!

I know we are twins, but we REALLY do not need to have matching photos on our driving licences! This is after I don’t know how many months of not being able to pay for my new licence (first time they sent me the money back!!!…nice people, but they didn’t get my licence issued, and after that I couldn’t get through the system and my payment kept on failing). FINALLY when I managed, I get this!

When my mum told me this morning, I thought she forgot what I look like (not having seen me since June!…btw…we are twins for anyone who doesn’t know ). But now that my sister has confirmed, and they compared my licence and my sister’s and they see it is the same photo, I cannot doubt them! I guess I’ll confirm when I see it tomorrow

Check out my new post on a course I attended on Science Policy on my research blog.

And no! I am not the only one to say so! The British Library agrees. In fact it organised a whole day of activities around the theme  to coincide with their exhibition ‘Points of View‘ (though it focusses on the 19th century rather than the 20th century period I am looking into)! Of course, having these events on my doorstep I couldn’t just let them go by, so I booked tickets for a number of events, and off I went.

First up was a talk on ‘Photographic History without Photographs’ by Michael Pritchard. It was really interesting to hear how he is looking at the history of photography by looking through patents, trade books, corporate documents etc. Hearing him talk inspired me to get back on a previous mini-focus of my research to find the patents related to photographic dyes and to organise them into a database (yes, I am also doing the ECDL exam at uni [they offered it for free, so why not] so this could be a way of getting back to grips with MS Access). We’ll see how that mini-project will go :).

After this there was a Magic Lantern Show by Professor Heard. I have never seen a magic lantern show…but it was so entertaining! The ‘Professor’ really had a way with the show, and he definitely knew how to bring it to life, both by his act, and definitely by the moving slides . It was good!

The last event I went to was a lecture on ‘New light through an old hole’ about pinhole cameras – another  entertaining lecture to say the least. The presenter was a character…but I think he omitted one major thing: what is a pin hole camera, and how does it work? He said he didn’t want to bore us, but it would have helped if we knew a bit about these cameras (yes, I KNOW we did it in physics classes in secondary school…but a bit of a refresher would not have harmed anyone ). I think this would have allowed us to appreciate even more what has been achieved by these cameras.

By now I was quite exhausted, so it was off home for me.

One other thing…I posted a blog post on my research blog today on the progress of my work. Check it out here.

Last year I spent the 5th of November watching Teitur (just looked up what I had posted around then now). That was a good show! That was a great show. However, what I hadn’t realised was that the 5th of November was Bonfire Night!

This year however there was no way I would forget it! Michael and I had put it down in our calendar a good time ago, and luckily the local council put up a fireworks show around 30minute walk from our place in Roundwood Park. Great! So after a busy day at university I met up with Michael at the library to make our way there. After having a treat of a hotdog, and looking around the place (i.e. Michael taking photos, but they are not up yet, so you won’t get to see them …go to his flickr page if you want to see them and check it out every few days till he puts them up!), we got in place to see the fireworks.

The lights went out…

The fireworks started! A lot of ooohsss and aaahhs from the people, but what did I think?

I must say I wasn’t too impressed. Michael (who was rightly impressed) told me I am spoilt . But maybe he’s right? I guess growing up with the feasts in Malta has meant that it takes a bit more to impress me than normal people require. However, I must admit that there were two types of fireworks that impressed me, namely one which was like a wheel which was shot up in the sky, the started falling back down to earth while rotating, after which it shot back up and started falling back again…I never saw anything like that! The other type was one which when the firework ball exploded, the flickers that resulted rotated round in circles, giving off golden sparks. Wonderful!

However, to be honest, I think that the main reason why they weren’t as impressive is possibly as here they probably stuck with the law on noise and size, while in Malta I am not so sure on that aspect . Also, they were let off from much closer to people, thus probably restricting on size.

Nevertheless, I will say it again: Maltese fireworks are better

It has been a week now since this has happened. However, I have been so busy this past week that I haven’t had time to blog!

Lara had been ‘complaining’ that I haven’t been down to visit her, and she’s the one coming up to London. So last Sunday she was off of work, and Michael and I had no plans, so we decided to all meet up in Canterbury.

We left London in a drizzling rain…and arrived in Canterbury in the pouring rain! Oh well…not the best start to a day of sightseeing!

First up was finding something which was INSIDE. This meant we went off to ‘The Canterbury Tales‘ (also as we had two-for-one vouchers ). This was a show made up of tableaux, interest to which was drawn by music, lights, and moving parts. We have a couple of these kinds of show in Malta which we used to be taken to see when we were at school…it looked quite an old school show to me…but oh well…we were inside, and we had 2-for-1 tickets . It was interesting to see anyways.

From the show we then had to figure out what to do. Lara had already been to the cathedral, and needed to do some shopping, so we parted ways for a while with her going to look for a dress, and us to look around the Cathedral. To me the cathedral looked very much like the chapel one at King’s College: but built in the gothic style, with a similar arrangement and a similar feel. They give you this sense of grandeur and make you feel the power of God. I guess that was a part of the reason why they were built.

After the cathedral and the ground (which are a UNESCO world heritage site btw!), we went to the shop were Lara was to look at her findings…and guess what! She had found this gorgeous evening dress for her graduation ball. I’m jealous! It really fit her perfectly! But oh well! I also found a dress I liked, but the other two were not totally sure about it, so I left it there to discuss with my sister and mum when they come to visit (next week!).

By now we were all getting very hungry . So off we went to find somewhere to eat…and we found this cute little cafe on the main street: Boho. MMM…Lara and I got the roasted pumpkin and sage soup with crusty bread…it was delicious (Michael got a sandwich). Then it was on to dessert. I saw the ladies on the table next to us having this delicious looking one…but what was it? Well…I will have to ask! So that is what I did. It was treacle tart and it was GREAT! The other two got lemon cheesecake. It was all so delicious!

We soon had to be off though as we had planned to go to the Evensong service at the Cathedral. Michael and I had been to the one at King’s College Chapel in Canterbury, but Lara hadn’t been to any. Similar to last time however we were all well impressed with the singing and the atmosphere.

As we exited Lara realised that if she makes that train she could get home by bus for the last part rather than needing to catch a cab…so we ran to the train station…only to be told the train had been cancelled . So we walked around the city for an hour and dropped her off at the train station for her to be off home. However, our bus was in around 3hrs. What to do? We found a pub which had board games (woohooo ) and decided to stop for a drink (and a few games there ). We played battleship and a 3D Scrabble. I managed to win both games (woohooo), partly because of luck (battleship) and partly because of a wider vocabulary (I have been speaking English from a younger age than Michael).

After these two games however it was soon off to the bus station for our trip back home. Lara has said she might be located there on next year’s rotation…she would definitely get some visitors then again

I know I haven’t finished uploading the notes yet, but I thought I’d write a bit about my impression of the course.

So, a bit of background: In the middle of summer I was looking for courses on history of art, as, especially after my visit to Pisa when I got to visit Florence and the rest, I realised that I really needed to brush up on this subject, which I have not touched a lot though it always interested me. So in my search I found a set of courses at the National Gallery on styles in painting. I was interested in attending, but couldn’t find it in me to justify buying them for myself, so I put them on my wish list (yes…Michael’s family function with one, so I have started keeping one).

The part of the course I was mainly interested in originally was the first part, on Medieval and Renaissance art. Michael got me something else for my birthday (which I had been whining about for ages, so I am happy he followed my whining ) so the first part of the course came and went. However, when Michael’s parents came to visit in October they gave me a birthday gift: registration for part 2 of the course, on Northern Art, Mannerism and the Baroque.

I personally know nothing on Northern art or mannerism, so I wasn’t particularly drawn towards this part of the course. I was more drawn to the first part which I already knew quite a bit about and knew I liked and appreciated. However, oh well, it was the second part I was going to, so I might as well make the best of it! And I wasn’t disappointed! In a way I was wanting to remain in my ‘comfort zone’ of that which I knew. However, learning about Northern art and Mannerism allowed me to start appreciating a different style of art which I didn’t understand. And in hindsight I am so glad that it turned out like this! In fact, when we got to the Baroque, talking about Caravaggio and the like I started getting slightly disappointed that I already knew much of the stuff from art classes and some history of art I have done. The result was therefore good…a very much appreciated gift from my in-laws …thanks again!

Yeps…that was an event Michael and I went to last week . A friend of mine was in town and we should have met up with him for this, but unluckily he couldn’t make it in the end so Michael and I went on alone.

Jameson Whisky has been organising a number of Cult Film Club evenings, where they show a cult film at a venue for free for people with tickets, and with free whisky . Michael saw it on the (ever so useful) Ian Visits blog and we managed to get tickets.

This was my first time at the Union Chapel…but WOW what a venue! Especially with the atmosphere set up, and the organ playing, it was like walking into this gothic atmospheric location – the atmosphere created was perfect! On a tip from IanVisits we found a place in the top pews and settled in for the movie as one by one we went to collect our free drinks and popcorn .

The movie started.

It was my first time watching Dracula…I am not the biggest fan of horror movies, so wasn’t the most excited about this, but seeing as it was from 1958, I must say the horror aspect of it was lost a bit with the much simpler effects available to the director/producer. Also, the acting was not exactly as we have now become used to…in fact, a number of supposedly scary parts  ended up eliciting laughs from the audience more than cries.

Nevertheless, in spite of all this, I really liked the movie! Having seen it in that environment I think I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t gone! So thank you again Michael for dragging me to an event I did not have much hopes for, but for it actually being exactly what I didn’t know I wanted (Yes…it seems like most of the more unsuccessful events we’ve been to have been my suggestions…maybe I should leave the planning to him? :-/)

Ahh…and btw…Michael has made a much better effort at this post than me…I know I know…but I have so much to blog about, it is starting to get on top of me…still have the weekend activities to blog about…AND the notes from the last (luckily!…as I DO write too much notes!) Styles in Paintings lecture. Hope they are up in the decent near future…

Another World Blog Surf Day has come (remember my posts from the previous events? See them here and here). This time it is about holidays and celebrations. The guidelines were to write about our favourite new holiday and how it is celebrated. I think one of the only ones we don’t celebrate in Malta is Guy Fawkes Night. Unfortunately last year I didn’t celebrate it in any way, and it is due next week…which would be too late for this. So I decided to cheat a bit…and compare Christmas in Malta (I am Maltese) and in Denmark (my boyfriend is Danish), where I spent Christmas last year (you can read up more about that in the posts from the time).

Christmas in Malta

Christmas in Malta is a big thing. Being a quite Catholic country, the emphasis on Christmas as celebrating the birth of Christ I think still exists more than in other countries where the feast has become much more commercialised. Christmas for me is always a happy moment – I get that warm fuzzy feeling when it’s getting closer, a smile on my face walking through streets with Christmas carols on, and a big grin looking at displays. I always look forward to the time!

So first up in my Christmas preparations used to be the decorating the house. This normally happened in early December, often by my mum and me (my sister and brother always try to escape this it seems, but I enjoy it ). The most important ‘decoration’ in the house is always the crib (possibly in most Maltese houses) which represents the grotto in which Jesus Christ was born.

Christmas crib in Malta (Photo: Matthew Mirabelli)

Besides the main crib we also have a small Christmas tree (and many other smaller cribs which we collected along the years ). We also decorate the cribs with white ‘gulbiena’ (read more about gulbiena here from another Maltese blogger), which we would have been growing in the dark for some time (or in our case, our aunt would be doing that for us ).

Decorations done we then wait for Christmas Day. On Christmas eve there will be a procession with a statue of baby Jesus around the village streets, during which children get dressed as angels or shepherds and everyone sings Christmas carols. The procession ends in the church, where after a few more songs everyone goes home to rest before returning for Midnight mass.

Christmas Procession

Midnight mass in Malta actually starts at midnight! Although this is a longer mass than normal (of course, it is a feast), I never mind it! The main highlight of the mass is normally the ‘boy’s sermon’, where a boy (in the past an altar boy, but now any child, even a girl, or sometimes a girl and a boy together) recite a small sermon about the meaning of Christmas which they would have learnt off by heart. Being chosen for the sermon is quite an honour generally for the child (incidentally I never got chosen ). This sermon traditionally always end with the child saying in a loud joyous voice: ‘Viva Gesu Bambin’, meaning ‘Hurrah to Jesus Christ’.

After the mass in the last years the tradition of Christmas breakfast is starting to set in, where after mass young people would have booked a place for this breakfast and go fro breakfast (this means breakfast at around 2am!!!). Being shattered from all this we then all go home to be rested for Christmas day when the big family lunch is on. This means a lot of overeating, overdrinking, laughter and noise (yes…we’re good at noise us Maltese!). Writing about all this I am already missing it…so glad we’re going to Malta this year!

Christmas in Denmark

Christmas in Denmark was quite different to what I am used to. First of all, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th, not the 25th! So when I was there last year we first went to the Christmas service in the nearby church. Following this it was then on to the Christmas dinner, then gift giving. I hope to highlight a few things which to me were quite different when I was there last year.

Christmas trees and gift giving: Before gift giving the Danes have this tradition where they all hold hands round a Christmas tree and go round (sometimes running!) singing Christmas carols. It was quite a hilarious moment for me! Following this everyone sits down for the gift giving to commence. The way it works is that everyone would have wrapped the gifts for everyone else and placed them underneath the Christmas tree. Then, the youngest person goes to the centre picks up a gift and gives it to whom it is meant for who opens the gift (smiles, thanks people etc etc). This is followed by the next youngest person, and so on, till all the gifts are given out. This is very much different to what I am used to…in my ‘tradition’ gifts are hidden underneath the Christmas tree and you find them there as soon as you rush down on Christmas morning. However, even more important than gifts in our family is the Christmas stocking (YES…my mum still makes it for us to this day…we have a long-standing agreement that we get no gifts as long as we get the stocking…which she fills with dried fruit, nuts, chocolates [and normally some money and a small gift like a pair of socks or something). To make it more interesting my mum has now taken the habit of hiding the stockings somewhere so we have to run around looking for them (yes...we're all over 20 :S but we enjoy it all so much )

Another thing which they had which we don't have is the ris ala mande! This is a dessert of rice pudding with nuts and cherry sauce. In the bowl there will be one whole nut which whoever finds it gets the 'ris ala mande gift'. Alas, last year it was nowhere to be found...maybe I bit it and didn't realise it? maybe no one put it in? Who knows! So we ended up rolling dice for the gifts .

Ris Ala Mande

Well…I see I have written so much…so I will let you go…on to the next person: Eyeflare

Ahh! And the loyely Karen from Empty Nest Expat is following this trail of blogs on Twitter…Check her blog and twitter feed! Something mroe about her:

“Karen is an American expat blogger last seen in Prague. The Wall Street Journal said, “Her blog makes a fun read for anyone looking for reassurance that change can be a wonderful thing–and also for anyone interested in visiting the Czech Republic.” Including this information about Karen is our way of thanking her for being our Twitter Reporter on Saturday! She will read all of our posts and make Tweets on Twitter throughout the day about each of our blogs! How awesome is that!”

And yes…I agree…she IS awesome

ahh – and btw, if you want to get to the whole list of blogs just in case the link gets lost, you can read more about WBSD and find the list here.