Maltese Chronicles 2010... Part 6

Thursday 02-12-10

Another day in paradise!

Hazy heat beat down as we sat waiting for our coach. Today we’re going to Gozo ~ a beautiful, dramatic Island. An excursion... we’ve looked forward to this since our arrival in Malta.

As we Waited for our beautiful, luxurious, air conditioned coach; you can imagine our absolute disappointment when a clapped out, white transit van pulls up outside our rather posh hotel....

“Well girls” Miranda crowed “you get what you bloody well pay for” 

The four of us crept onto the van in a muted silence, hoping sincerely, that no one would see us.

Sitting to quickly, all four urgently pull out huge sunglasses, then gently, we disappear into well worn stained seats as we pull sunhats around our faces.

“Who the hell told us to come with this shit company” Samantha hissed.

“You Samantha, you” we all seethed.

“Come on guys, it will be fine” Charlotte ever the peacemaker, smiled.

On the ferry, we relax, order drinks and chill. We step off where we’re quickly ushered along to meet our designated Tourist Guide.

Standing in the Queue...

“Maybe he’ll be handsome or better still maybe he’ll be handsome and available” I laugh towards Samantha

“He better be, I’m getting desperate now”

“Oh no” whispered Miranda, “not another transit van”

“Hello, I’m Michael your guide for today”

Samantha’s mouth drops open ~ Miranda, Charlotte and I giggle ~ she really is desperate!

Michael who by the way is built like the back end of a bus, black spiky hair, brown eyes that seem to be focused but aren’t.

Once we’re seated in the van, Michael gets himself into the driving seat, we all screech as the back end of the van rises...

“Oh my god how much does he weigh” cries Charlotte. We all look around nervously. I have a feeling this is not going to be the excursion we were so looking forward to.

On our way at last, we drive through amazing scenery and to our delightful surprise, Michael turns out to be a brilliant, well informed tour guide, he definitely knows the island, its history and his information is coming across as interesting.

During our first stop, Samantha asks him to take some photos of us as a group. The views breathtaking and as Michael is taking a picture, Samantha’s now well known phrase echo’s around the mountains...

“Michael... have you got a girlfriend?”

“Yes I have a wife and 10 kids” Michael beams

“Oh my good god” she gasps.

The three of us double over in stitches, laughing at the shock across her face.

I looked at Michael and smiled, he couldn’t have said anything better, he then looks in my direction and as if he knew what I was thinking, he winks mischievously; this of course makes me laugh harder... I knew he’d told a porky, serves her right I thought, serves her bloody well right.

Half way through our day... a day which was turning out to be wonderful, Michael drops us off in a lovely, sleepy town, so that we can lunch and shop for a few hours. The sights and sounds feel wonderful.... we order lunch knowing we’re going to go shopping  to grab a bargain and if we have time we’re going to pay a visit to a fancy castle.

We arrive back approximately 5pm – the four of us decide to walk back to the hotel. On our way back we discover a fabulous street which for those of you who are old enough to remember, reminds me of the age old programme, the streets of San Francisco. As we walk along, a man waves at us and shout “Yahoo, yahoo” surprised, we look at one another.

“Is he talking to us?” 

We all turn back to see if he’s waving to someone behind us because, now he’s shouting too.

“Is he waving at you or us?” I enquire to a young girl behind us.

“It’s my uncle” she giggles “but listen he is probably talking to you”

As we walk by, Samantha looks back receiving a very sexy wink.

“Down tiger” Miranda growls...

Laughing, we hurry to get back to the hotel so that we can ready ourselves for another evening of food, drink and dance.  we also want to chat about our last evening together on the beautiful Maltese Island... We’d already decided to go in fancy dress... I was to be a carnival queen, Miranda a bunny girl, Charlotte little red riding hood and Samantha as usual had us in hysterics, she told us she’d decided she was going as an airline pilot...

Friday, our last night... was going to be a lot more than interesting, but one thing was for sure, we all need an early nite to prepare for hopefully a wonderful last evening together.

Juliana The Dancer...

Juliana the Dancer is a beautiful, fun-loving girl. She's completely unaware that there is much to be frightened of but, life is wonderful and living is fun! Until one terrible night, she leaves herself vulnerable and wide open to attack from an unsavoury character who has vowed to kill her........

Mist rolled quickly down the hill around her, she was very soon enveloped in an eerie, unfamiliar cloak … It was only when she felt it’s icy, penetration from within, that she began to shiver uncontrollably. Horrendously, she began recalling what had happened... Shaking her aching head, listening to sinister sounds through pitch blackness, she started to crawl tentatively along the edge of the hill, despite her injuries, she was mindful to stay close to the ground, just in case he returned. Hot tears squeezed through bruised, swollen eyelids, her tongue felt like a brick, swollen and dry it was stuck firmly to the roof of her mouth. Juliana panted because she could hardly breathe. The taste of blood made her feel sick.

She heard an unusual noise which stopped her in her tracks; listening as hard as she could she felt the fear of god knows what... Terrified she stifled a cry, biting down on her lower lip she tasted fresh blood, pushing herself deeper into the sludgy, slimy mud she almost screamed as she felt him breeze past like a puff of wind and that’s when she smelt a vile, familiar odour, her mind rigged flashbacks as she remembered with clarity the previous few hours... clearly as if she’d turned the TV on she started seeing the vicious attack. Oh my god, she realised with icy terror, he’s returned to finish the job.

In the pitch of darkness her senses alive, her mind a luminous machine, savagely detecting, searching the immediate vicinity for danger. Then she heard his malevolence whisper,
“You may hide, but, you will never escape, as long as there is blood in my veins and breath in my body I will find you my beauty, I will find you and I will kill you”
Momentarily, her senses arrested from the fresh wave of adrenalin. He was near, very near, his footsteps, told her he was uncertain... his steps nervously went to the left, then to the right. She knew he wasn’t sure about anything except his own fear, he was panic stricken. Her new luminous mind machine sensed a tidal wave of air from the left; a heavy steel knife hit her hard... he started to run, he ran like the wind.

Lying motionless Juliana’s breath came in quick painful jerks, her heart hammered, sore, swollen eyes now closed shut from the vicious assault. Seeing through tender slits was nigh-on-impossible, especially in the dark and right now being alone, was not what she wanted. Her focus, to escape but, only once she was sure he’d gone. Juliana lay quiet a little longer as she held on tightly to the heavy knife he’d thrown just before he scampered off like a wild animal.

Juliana wasn’t sure how long she’d lay in the deep, wet mud, but she knew it was time to make a move. From her photographic memory, all sorts of information had been retrieved. Slowly but surely, she realised what’d happened. Seeing the bigger picture made her realise it had definitely been an incident waiting to happen.

Juliana was a rising star, an up and coming dancer. A young lady going places and sadly you know what can sometimes happen to happy go lucky, carefree, spirited characters... unfortunately they can occasionally pick up insecure, loose cannons. At this terrible moment in time, Juliana became conscious that she’d fallen prey to a dangerous stalker.

Still weeping and shivering she commenced crawling, lifting her head a little at a time. She had no idea where she was, she was cold and the mist still hung low for as far as she was able to see which wasn't ar in the darkness...

Crawling in the clinging mud, her mind drifted off to earlier in the day... Juliana had been out for the evening for a friend’s birthday tea, a few drinks and an amazing time later she called a taxi. Juliana’s carefree smile washed over the taxi driver as she paid him. Then strolling the short distance towards her front door whilst at the same time she leisurely searched her handbag for the door key... beautiful Julianna completely unaware that there was an evil entity lurking in the shadows, waiting...waiting, to pounce.

Juliana didn’t stand a chance. He hit her over the head with his trusty rounder’s bat, expertly bundled her hurt and bleeding into the back of his dirty old van, her loose, lifeless body, bounced around as he drove at breakneck speed towards the dark, inviting countryside. His deed done, he’d show her... he’d warned her... several times, but they never listen!

His van raced at 100miles an hour, raced like his manic brain, when he heard her groan from the back.

Infuriated, he slammed to a stop, doused the lights and then shot to the back of the van, a pure black hatred in his eyes... surveying his position In a farmer’s field which was closely surrounded by forever rolling hills, he threw open the van doors dragging her viciously by the hair. No respect shown, he was all consumed by a dark red hatred of her for not giving him some special attention. He was going to make her pay...

He continued dragging her and as she woke from out of her unconsciousness, he savagely kicked out catching her eye. The pain red-hot seared through her head, blood spurted from her left eye, she screamed a high pitch terror-filled scream which caused him to stop, he dragged her to her feet punching her in the face, his hope, to knock her out... No room for screams, no room for noise, not even in this wide open wilderness.

His idea didn’t work she screamed again so, he knew he’d have to shut her up. Efficiently he drew the glinting, heavy, stainless steel blade from out of his jacket pocket, and then sickeningly he hit her with the full force of its thick mother of pearl handle, more blood oozed copiously, through beautiful blonde hair. Silence...

Sighing heavily, he commenced dragging her roughly across dirty wet grass. He visibly flinched as he caught sight of lights from another vehicle driving towards him or at least that’s what it looked like. He ran faster dragging her towards the bottom of the hill. She was heavy, so, he threw her lifeless body into the bracken as he ran towards his van. With lights off, he drove in the opposite direction from the oncoming vehicle.

By this time the mist was much thicker and swirled hard around everything it stroked.

Sometime later Juliana found herself stood upright. Hands frozen she frighteningly whimpered as she could not feel her feet. There was a rigid terror to her very core; standing like a poker she prayed he wouldn't return. She needed to get help but her handbag had gone. Looking around, she couldn’t see any lights, not even road lights.

To Be Continued...

Life is for Living...

This week I’ve had major dilemmas, important thoughts and the occasional idea. On more than one occasion I found myself concentrating long and hard about a saying I’d heard many times ‘Life is for living’ this week I discovered that to be very true ~ my weeks had many priorities and I’m relieved to report, I managed to accomplish everything I set out to do... even my beloved writing which, as you know these days it's a flippin miracle if I get the luxury of sitting down to tap, tap, tap away... However the good news with this long standing issue is that, I feel closer than ever to seeing my dream materialise.

Right where was I? Oh yes, ‘Life is for living’ throughout the week I clearly saw that if you present to the world as a happy, smiley person who loves everything and everybody, then feedback is immediate and overwhelmingly positive. If however you’re sad, down and not presenting as that happy little person who has the world at their feet then on more occasions than not, you’re on your own and unfortunately, you’ve simply got to get on with it... Long ago, I discovered it was easier to be the actress, pretend the world’s alright... bury your problems including sadness and yes, even loneliness because I realised if I was the me with issues, then I felt I wasn’t acceptable, I found myself pretending to be popular, the person who’d got the world at her feet... Of course it was usually play acting but throughout time, I realised if I pretended then sometimes even I believed.

I also discovered it wasn’t actually a bad thing to pretend, because more often than not I ended up helping to heal myself without making any demands on other individuals... who quite possibly had their own nightmares going on... This in turn helped me to help others as I ended up becoming quite a sensor for other people’s hidden hurts, I seemed to lock into their difficulties and sense their challenges... The miracle for me has been when helping others, it’s magically helped me and as well as being a huge learning curve I’ve also grown to understand why life really is for living.

We may go through life learning much. Each person seems to have their own fair share of challenges, good or bad. For my family and I the past two years have been particularly challenging. On reflection, if I thought the stuff I went through as a child was tough, then I had no real understanding of how hard it was going to get. I have also gratefully discovered how beautiful life can be and how simply wonderful it is to hold family and friends in ones heart and know always, it's your job to be the best you can be...

I always find myself saying, I’m not perfect, I’ve made mistakes, but, I’ve also learnt so much too which is thankfully ongoing. I have weaknesses, I have strengths, all of which are totally important and relevant to life experience.

Recently I described myself, as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky but always, always accessible. As I’ve become older, I know beyond any shadow of doubt, I’ve become wiser and with that knowledge, I feel a deep warmth which protectively wraps around all my senses, when those are protected, I feel secure and I know I can do so much...

Angel looks to her beautiful girls drawing them in close, she spreads her wings to wrap them in her profound, protective love and light...

Family, Friends & Freedom

Over the past few months I’ve had my own fair share of thoughts; it would appear that I’ve become one of life’s thinkers! It’s also well documented how much I love to write. I enjoy the freedom of words and thoughts, which one way or another ensure magically they come from the top of my head and on the odd occasion from behind my ribcage. Today I thought about a very special file I hold on my desktop... Its label clearly states ‘Inspirational pictures’ Since 2009 I have carefully collected beautiful pictures, mostly motivational, that I’ve occasionally stumbled across whilst researching articles.

Sometime ago I collected the picture above, I instinctively recognised that one day I’d want to use it just to get a special message across to family and friends... letting them know, I love them and to possibly say a big fat sorry if I’ve ever been a pain in the ass... It’s terribly important to acknowledge the fact and let people know you really are sorry if you’ve upset or ignored them or even just not seen their pain or suffering.

I know sometimes we can all get thoroughly consumed within our own lives, our own difficulties, that we somehow miss important signs, especially from family and friends who maybe not so great at stepping up and saying, “Hey this is happening to me”... “I’m not coping, I need you and I need your help” Instead regrettably, it can go unnoticed until something drastic happens and then it can be too little to late or, you do help but sadly it’s rushed. Being realistic, that unfortunately can be the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. However, it doesn’t mean you’re less of a friend, just means sometimes... you have you own stuff to contend with...

Me personally, I‘m one heck of a lucky lady... the internet, social networking websites and my forever disappearing mobile phone, has brought to me, a wealth of contact and communication... I think I would cease to be if I could not communicate. Sometimes just sometimes, I wonder whether I'm guilty of communicating too much and possibly waffling on a bit too long... but, hey that’s part and parcel of someone’s personality, if you’re in the company of family and friends then it’s absolutely A-ok!

So my dear bloggers, if you’re reading this and you’re in my family or you’re my friend, then I want you to know I don’t often say it but, I love you. If you’re a stranger reading this, then I sincerely hope you got something from my ramblings, because I always manage to get something meaningful from sharing them...

Angel turns to look where her last impatient thought went as she lazily stretches her wings high up towards the heavens...