Saturday 22 January 2011

Maltese Chronicles 2010 Part 3...

The busyness of life and its commitments very often dictates the availability one has to do the things they particularly enjoy... working full time and trying to find any time to write for me is usually a chore, this is the reason I’m working on a solution. Although I’m not a well renowned author who’s wrote a vast array of books, I know deeply that I don’t get any less happiness, from writing the bits that I do get time for... Would be nice though to sit each morning knowing I have the luxury of time to write those hidden gems that hide within the creative side of my brain.... So without further ado, I’ll proceed with hopefully another interesting chronicle about 4 ladies let loose to discover their own journey which they willingly share. This is based on a true story of fact, fiction and fantasy. As usual real names hidden, but personally visualised on four females from the well known, much loved ‘Sex in the city’ saga. Carrie Bradshaw... Samantha Jones... Miranda Hobbs... Charlotte York also starring the added 5th Angel ‘Selina’

Monday 29th November 2010.

Another glorious sunny day... rays of white, warm, sunshine penetrate enormous dining room windows. The four of us hurry through into the dining room. The savoury smell from breakfast invades the senses. We hear a hundred happy shouts of ‘good morning girls’ which makes us smile more. After a hearty breakfast, infused with further chatter around our breakfast table, we decide unanimously to explore surroundings. Our departure from the dining room was not dissimilar to our entrance we knew the jerry’s (geriatrics) loved us and in a rather strange turn of events, we were beginning to love them too... much to Samantha’s surprised disbelief.

Walking through the busy little town of Sliema with its ancient buildings mixed with modern architecture, I was not alone in noticing the traffic was mad, mad, mad... Driving in Malta, one could see you needed nerves of steel. I wasn’t actually sure how anyone could drive at all with all the beautiful breathtaking views around. The people on the streets were friendly albeit in an aloof kind of way, if that’s possible. Several hours later on our way back to the hotel, we decided to stop for lunch... now I have to admit this wasn’t the best eating place we’d seen but we decided to stop, sit and order. It was whilst we were waiting for much needed drinks we howled with laughter. I’d noticed during our few days together, it seemed that we’d started to christen everyone on our travels with look a-like names and corresponding personalities... Our latest victim was the owner who’d taken our orders... ‘Cruella deville’... Our meals came. The shock must have been obvious on all our faces as we stared down at what had been put in front of us... I stammered asking for sauces, without a sound Cruella left and returned with the worst looking sauce bottles I ‘d ever seen in my life... I can honestly say, I think that’s the only time I’ve known my girls and I to be stunned into silence. It was Samantha who broke the stillness by stating categorically, neither of us would return to E-Coli Cafe ever again... I further quipped in I think her sauce bottles need to be retrieved and immediately examined by the Maltese equivalent of environmental health. I tell you this, even the disappointment of our meal didn’t stop us from laughing and it was then we realised we should have taken the hint, an empty cafe with a member of staff like Cruella should really have spoken volumes.

Despite our dodgy trip to E-Coli Cafe, Monday turned out to be another wonderful day, we sunbathed the afternoon way, reading our books and magazines... returning to our individual boudoirs to glam up for another night with our Jerry’s. It was a great evening at the old fogies ball, with more friends met and made and together we hilariously shook our butts off... we shook, we rattled and we rolled.

I’d noticed an elderly lady sitting quite close to the stage, her feet tapping to the beat of the music when Samantha a bit too eagerly, strutted her stuff a little too close to the old lady almost dancing clumsily onto her feet, when the lady briskly pushed her away, asking her to be careful as she’d had an operation on her foot... Samantha apologised sheepishly, moving away just as another new beat started up, without further ado the old dear jumped up from her chair and danced at a pace I would have associated with someone half her age, Samantha thinking the lady wanted to dance with her put her hand out, only to be brushed away and danced around...

Samantha’s exasperated, lifted her eyes towards the heavens,

“Bloody hell her foot soon healed” and she strode off to the bar.

On reflection I believe as a group we also learned something from our new friends... The strictly come dancing team were made up of many people all ages (mostly retired) they were also from all over the world and had their own individual identifiable characters... we noticed some smiled when they danced and other looked like they were made of stone, others appeared frozen in time. Many were married and still retained that magic witnessed throughout time. We girls were mesmerised but, however much we enjoyed our time with our Jerry’s, we realised it was time we went out into the locality and search for other places of entertainment.

We were just buying another round when a group of guys walked in I smiled mentally as I watched Samantha go into man alert mode... her whole persona changed as she singled out her target... he walked past her smiled and stopped... my own antennas alerted to protector switched to search, scan and locate possible specific idiots... I eyeballed Charlotte, Miranda and Selina... they all visually materialised from the shadows, as if we were connected to some amazing hidden communicator. With eye movements of the most discreet kind, I was able to gather the girls so we could keep an eye on Samantha and the young man she was talking to.

My god she was well into her role and flirting perfectly, despite his height he must have been 6ft 3” I could see she was managing to maintain eye contact, little touches on his arm, staring up at his face as if he was the only guy in the world... licking her lips as his mates smiled and left to go to the bar, it was then I realised she was doing an awful lot of arm movements and over acting... I approached with caution, he smiled, and I asked if she was ok.

“Oh yes, I’m great” she said sarcastically.

“What is it?” I said confused.

“It’s him; this, this gorgeous creature, can’t bloody speak a word of English”

I looked at him then looked at her, my smile widened as I realised... Aha if they can’t communicate she won’t be getting into any trouble... I would later eat those words!!!

“Ok Samantha come on, let’s go and join the girls” I offered.

“Yes, ok two seconds”

I walked over to the bar to join the girls and told them immediately of Samantha’s plight.

I have to say as we continued to watch it didn’t stop her from attempting to communicate and when she knew she was wasting her time she still didn’t give up; she went over to his friends and asked them to interpret, but sadly, their English was almost as bad as his...so you can imagine, we had a brilliant time watching her try her best at finding a solution to her problem.

Eventually the new guys left and despite the lack of understanding between the tall young man and Samantha, it was evident chemistry was pulsating between them. Going through the double doors from the bar he turned... I watched and witnessed an electric current flash between them... In slow motion Samantha turned to look at me; it was then and there I knew... OMG, we’re in big trouble.