Archive for the “Personal” Category

In recent weeks, I decided that it would be as good a time as any to work on shedding some kilos. It did take some encouragement from various quarters but I decided to give it a whirl – my way. I would not exactly call myself obese, I consider myself rather proportionate, thank you very much; however I do recognize that I would look and feel a lot better if I were to shed some ballast.

So I took a step back and wondered what could be adjusted. I had a very good idea of what dietary habits were worst hurting my overall chances. My excess intake of bread and cheese products would rank highest, followed closely by my non-aversion to the regular midnight meal. When you lack personal time management goals and commitments, the hands on the clock and the date on the calendar cease to hold much meaning.

Well I made a number of changes but by far one of the most pleasant changes was the agreement to try out light yoghurt. In doing so I was skeptical, expecting a few experiences of forcing down a bitter sour sweet tasting mulch with bits in it, and then moving on to higher calorie foreign imports.

I was expecting Strawberry, lemon or Kiwi and fruit mix. What I actually had looked nothing like a traditional Benna yoghurt other than the cup format. The look had completely changed and the changes weren’t just cosmetic. New flavors popped up. Banana, apple pie, lemon tart, vanilla light; they seemed alien to me and even as I scraped off that layer of yoghurt that generally encrusts the tin foil lid I had a pretty good feeling that I was in for a pleasant surprise.

And I was.

The flavor of the light yoghurt was ‘Apple Pie’ and moments into the first teaspoon I understod why. While it lacked the crunch of apple the yoghurt had an ever so slightly grainy yet smooth biscuit texture to it and the after-taste of apple pie was certainly in there. Moreover the yoghurt lacked the bitterness of old times that I had grown to associate it with. With that small tub I understood what yogurt was ‘supposed’ to be like and it was almost humbling that it all went down for roughly fifty calories. Not bad for live bacteria.

So sure, keep it up Benna, and I do hope you will get around to improving the milk carton packaging for as far as the opening is concerned. Now if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment with some vanilla!

Tags: Benna, calorie, dietary, flavors, meal, yoghurt

I would say that it doesn’t take awfully much to annoy me. As somewhat of a perfectionist I take a moody disposition towards flaws and inconveniences, particularly where the ingredient of unfairness or incompetence is tossed in.

While I would say that I am one of my own harshest critics, I would also say that collective entities such as institutions bear a significant degree of the brunt of my scathing perspective also.

It was no different this morning as I negotiated the mish-mesh of streets in the heart of Paceville. Even though I’ve done it hundreds of times before, the disappointment and eventual frustration of being unable to find a legal parking space is a special kind of feeling that often tests the boundaries of that which I would call rage.

Circling in and out and about and in again, multiple passes, varying route, extending my search area further and further outwards as the second hand ticks down the minutes to the hour of appointment. All being told it took around fifty minutes to finally settle for a parking space fifteen minutes walk away from the intended destination. The brisk walk down and up the valley slopes long choked by urbanization was, by comparison, a relief.

It turned out to be worth my while however as even though I did arrive minutes late that which followed was for the most part a positive experience. Perhaps the end of an era of (official) idleness is upon me.

This would conclude this chapter of seeking that has spanned many months. While I would have said that I am frankly surprised that the search was not concluded long earlier, I cannot truly say that I am. After all, the national unemployment figures were up 2,597 persons to a total of 7,680 persons unemployed (link).

Tags: critics, flaws, idleness, Paceville, parking, perspective, streets

In the weeks prior to my post two evenings ago I wasn’t exactly feeling very inspired. I feared that I had lost my touch and this is one of the reasons that it took me so long to get back in the game. I have a tiny secret that I should probably share with you all.

I have little idea exactly what I am going to be blogging about.

That did actually bother me a very short while ago, but I have decided to place some trust in my tendency ‘not’ to run out of ideas, or things to say.

A former reader did ask me whether I would be writing about politics this time around. I may write about politics but it is not my intention to let politics rule my writings.

I will take things one day at a time.

In the meantime my thoughts are drifting to a field that I last recall interesting me some nine years ago – and that field is cycle design. No, I do not speak of the gasoline or even the two wheeled types that dominate the western markets. I am more interested in working on a four wheeled variant powered by foot and volt.

Unsurprisingly I have already received a rather negative response but adversity is something that I have come to expect in fields unorthodox or novel. I have a few ideas and while it is rare that I see them run the gauntlet from fantasy to realization, you just never know.

No I won’t be placing any bets.

Tags: cycle, design, four wheeled, idea, politics, Thoughts

Sometimes it is external forces that determine how the next chapter of your life plays out. This was true for a very good friend of mine who had to leave the Islands for an indefinite period in order to help sort out some family issues. It was my privilege to be entrusted with the task of looking after his apartment, particularly his pet rabbits.

It turned out to be a very interesting period. The weeks stretched to months. It was an ideal opportunity to escape to a place of solitude, and I took advantage of this opportunity very regularly. This, combined with the availability of a Wi-Fi connection, would also have been a good opportunity to revive this web log – except that it clearly didn’t happen.

This period followed rather tightly upon the heels of the dissertation saga, the month of June slipping by and the murcury rising. As such between looking for work and tending to small fuzzy creatures I spent most of my time either watching the television or playing games while listening to the radio. Both generally helped to take my mind off my relatively idle status.

I did find some time to indulge in some self-taught skills however. While I did not really manage to get my head around coding in a more practical language than those taught in the Maltese education system I did become somewhat familiar with some aspects of computer aided design as well as rabbit care.

That pretty much sums up the period until the near year-end when this friend returned to reclaim his home, life and pets. It was certainly a more relaxed time than the preceding months had been and I do not recall waking up from half-hour power naps to slave at a deadline.

Tags: apartment, idle, rabbits, skills, web log

It is the beginning of March and it is as good a time as any to get things back on track. It may as well begin on a slightly personal note, bringing readers up to speed with the past 18 months – the period this web log has been idle.

Well first a bit of context. As of around the time I logged my final post I was getting set to tackle the final academic year of the course I was reading at the University of Malta. I was also wrapping up my summer role as welfare officer and getting set to take on further work by night.

My decision to take up the offer to continue working was probably a mistake on my part and that choice did come back to haunt me later on, compounded as it were by a couple of setbacks that ultimately served to sap my will. It was just a year ago today that I respectfully resigned from my work position.

By that point things were looking rather bleak. It didn’t help that I had been working on my confirmed dissertation topic for just a few months following the scrapping of the foundation work done on earlier prospective topics.

I’ll admit that I did lose composure at times but it would have ended badly were it not for the several persons who were very supportive. Good advice, encouragement and tolerance of my repetitive (and depressing) play list at 4 o’ clock in the morning all served to grant me doses of inspiration and motivation. If it weren’t for such individuals I likely would be in much poorer shape today.

Thankfully that phase is over and done with. I’d consider returning to expand upon it, but I think that an informal note would be more palatable for the foreseeable future.

Tags: academic, dissertation, james, web log, work

As one door closes others shall open. This is the way of life even if the doors may not immediately be clear. I do recall referring to this same phenomenon upon an older web presence of mine several years back and yet it remains just as relevant if not more so.

This web log has floundered. It has become an online fossil floating upon the cyber waters of the information ocean. It fell silent for a number of reasons and I shall not delve deeply into them, and not at all for the moment.

The pace was broken and I apologize to those readers who have been left wondering what would become of this space. Well I can finally give a proper answer to this question.

It shall be made whole…

Up until now this web log, while it operated, was one of a reactionary nature. I looked outside and observed and came back to this space with my observations. It has thus far been too political, too aloof and too impersonal.

I am not entirely certain what I would like it to become but I do have a number of ideas, most importantly of these will be the dispensing of a few myths and discarding the unnecessary and the unjustified.

It is time to take a step towards humanity and break the silence. This moment is not now – I have yet to determine how extensively things may or may not change – but things shall change.

We shall see.

Tags: change, observations, reloading, silence, web log

Here follows a compilation of comments received in the ‘Ask James‘ page in the July-to-August period that weren’t replied to in an elaborate enough fashion to warrant their own posts. The quality of such compilations are determined by the readership in their inquisitive capacity. Two questions received and expanded upon are not included here but are included in the ‘Ask James‘ category.

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Sandro Vella: Kemm iggerrih fil-gurnata?

Ask James.

Me: That is a question of an unreasonable nature… ^_~

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Tony V: Ghalfejn dejjem tikteb bl-ingliz inti? Mela mintix malti bhalna?

Me: Hello TonyV,

Yes I do happen to be Maltese. The primary reason as to why I always tend to write in the English language is due to my superior grasp of the language relative to that of the Maltese language. I also believe that the ability to convey a message is far more important within any discourse than the language that one chooses to convey it in.

Secondly since Malta supposedly has two official languages, an international functional language and a local cultural language, it suits me fine to select the language that one not only expresses oneself most naturally within, but also results in the widest and furthest reach possible.

I hope that will suffice as a reply. :c)

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Sandra: Why do you pick on the Nationalists only? Labour have done much worse in the past.

And I don’t like your site. You have nothing better to do?

Me: Hello Sandra,

I do not actually “pick on the Nationalists”. You will hopefully have noticed that I am not flinging mud upon them but placing qualified criticisms. I also do not reserve criticism for the Nationalists alone, although I do believe that the Nationalists ought to bear the brunt of my criticisms, having practically been in a position of power for a couple of decades now, bar one or two years.

While it somewhat saddens me to know that you do not like my web log I do humbly point to the several links on the side-bar leading out of this site. I am confident that you will find something more suited to your taste. I am, of course, open to suggestions for improvement. :c)

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Michael Falzon: X’tahseb fuq l-ijuni tal-bidla James?

Sindy: James are you single?

“James Cauchi”: emmm Sindy if you’re single I am …….

Me: Michael Falzon,
Honestly I do not have any opinion about the so-called lions of change. I am skeptical, being of the belief that the Labour party is at least moderately infiltrated by the Nationalist party, and that therefore we have a one-party system posing as a two-party system… but it would be early for me to assess the reds in their apparent new form.

That was a short answer but for as far as parties are concerned my primary stand is that no population should have to feel captive to it/ them.

Oh, and for the record ‘James Cauchi’, the real James Cauchi would sound more along the lines of:

“Hello Sindy,

I do happen to be single as of at this time.”

I’d probably have inserted a bunch of other lines to weigh it up, but consider it highly suspicious that 3 questions came through in the space of 2 minutes. I guess a ‘lion of change’ paid me a visit. ^_~

Majjal ta’veru: James of course it is a joke, we (you know us) tried to pull a fast one :)

Me: No worries. ^_~

Tags: ask, cauchi, james, joke, question