Malta

Well, I've been back from Malta for a couple of weeks now. A very eventful couple of weeks!!

Malta was brilliant! The weather was windy, but warm, and my balcony was cement, so it protected me from the wind. I lay in the sun for a couple of hours every morning. I did some sightseeing, mostly just walking about the ancient cities and marvelling at the rich history of the place. It's been "conquered" by almost everyone at one time or another! And the Maltese people just keep on doing their thing. The island is mostly rock, so things don't grow well. Their main source of income seems to be tourism, because I couldn't find anything that they export! In fact, during busy tourist times, they have to import water!

Malta is actually a collection of three islands; Malta, the largest and most settled one, Gozo, smaller and more scenic and untamed, and Comino, a tiny island with only a hotel on it, but a beautiful beach. I stayed on Malta because I only had three days, but I would love to go back and do some more exploring. The Maltese people are very nice, and all the buildings are very old and interesting. There is a bus service that gets you pretty much everywhere you want to go, and a taxi from one corner of the island to the other is only about $30.

On the plane down, my seatmate was from Calgary, believe it or not! Her name is Donna, and she was going down for a month, for a stress break. We spent a day together touring around and whatnot. It was nice to have someone to do some things with.

Pictures from my trip to Malta are here:
http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Malta

So, I got back from Malta and went straight into the office. There was a phone message waiting for me from a Paul. Paul and I had met almost 4 years ago in Calgary. He is in the British Army and they were on exercises down at CFB Suffield. We had fell in love, but there were complications, and he went back to the UK. We both tried to forget each other, without success. He decided to try to find me a few months ago, and placed some calls that tracked me down here. He was very surprised that I was living in his country! So, we have started seeing each other again, and I am very happy! He is very sweet and we are just as crazy about each other as we ever were! Not to worry, this doesn't mean I will be staying here, it just means I'll be bringing him back to Canada with me! He is currently down near London, but will be rejoining his regiment back up in North Yorkshire in a few months, after he recovers from back surgery.

So, things are going swimmingly! Work is good - spent a day and a half in Toronto last week for some meetings - it was very exhausting flying all that way for such a short time, only to fly back again. Now I'll be able to stay put for a month and a half, until July, which will be busy with visitors and a company meeting in Paris.

The weather has been dismal, but not too cold. Not nearly as nice as in Calgary! Looking forward to some sun, but not sure when or if it's coming!!

Ciao for niao!!