-an OD of Love-

The 3rd of June 2007 is now a new glorious page in Maltese history. It is on this day, after two millennia of Christianity that a Maltese person has been raised to the official state of sainthood. I refer of course to the canonization of Dun Ġorġ Preca. To mark this historical event, the MaltaMedia Online Network has prepared a special commemorative feature . The scope of this feature is to offer an objective look at the life of this great man who has left an indelible mark on the Maltese way of life. While he first and foremost a religious figure, there's no denying Dun Ġorġ's impact from a social perspective. We should expect other Maltese to follow on the sainthood list in the near future; Nazju Falzon and Adeodata Pisani have already been declared venerable. The criteria for canonization are fairly rigorous, but there's no doubt the Maltese are tenacious when it comes to resolve and goodness. Now is the time to celebrate all the good things that Dun Ġorġ introduced into...

Piazza Navona

Windows fans (whom I never was) may think Jim Allchin has gone bananas (I don’t blame him if just like me he is forced to work on such a stupid windows platform all day). An email from 2004 just surfaced in which the Windows boss wrote “I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.” The email was in part an extended angry outburst by Allchin about all that was wrong with Microsoft. The email was made public this week as part of a lawsuit against Microsoft. In the email, Allchin says, “I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products.” Ouch! When he wrote that email, Allchin certainly didn’t expect it to see the light of day, and certainly not at a time when...

Why struggle with conversation over drinks or an overpriced, undercooked restaurant meal when you can have a lovely stroll in our majestic city of Valletta preferably when it is more quit at the twilight of day. After going thru the wide mains street just after passing by Cordina’s cafeteria, corner with Ascot House I recommend you turn on your left, down on your way to Manoel’s theatre but turn left again on your first turning and just next door to Marks and Spencer in straight street there is a lovely family run restaurant which I recommend whole heartily. This is my third visit and whenever I went the team at this particular place provided a faultless dining experience and a beautiful way to spend the evening. In my opinion this lovely little restaurant is one of Valletta’s best kept secrets. Infused with the romance of Italy, this quiet, yet lively Mediterranean trattoria cannot fail to delight with its infectious atmosphere. The place is lively, the staff work fast but are respect...

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton gave McLaren its second one-two of the year. The silver crew comfortably had the beating of Ferrari at Monte-Carlo, but they still let their drivers fight around every corner of the circuit for the victory. By the time they cooled off the battle in the dying stages Massa’s previously dominant Ferrari was almost a minute behind. The result puts the McLaren duo tied on points at the head of the championship, Alonso ahead by dint of his two victories. One could easily see that the starting on the left for Lewis Hamilton and Giancarlo Fisichella was a big disadvantage, as they both swept across to the right to delay their rivals as the red lights went out. Massa and Fisichella kept the third and fourth position . But Nick Heidfeld made an opportunistic start, vaulting up to fifth by passing Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg around the outside. Rubens Barrichello made a good start in his Honda to hold seventh, five seconds behind Rosberg, with Mark Webber and R...

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In a cheeky ad in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald, IKEA Australia asks Prime Minister John Howard “to sit on it” in response to the much publicised claims by WA Liberal MP Don Randall that people can’t really expect the Prime Minister to go to IKEA and put together “dodgy chairs”. Mr Randall’s comments were in defense of the PM’s purchase of more than $200,000 worth of new chairs for the Cabinet room. Created by its new agency HOST Sydney, in conjunction with creative partner The Glue Society, the IKEA ad states, “We respectfully ask Prime Minister John Howard to sit on it”, and shows an image of the JERRIK swivel chair at only $569, which is significantly better value than the almost $3000 paid for each one of the PM’s chairs. There has been intense media interest in the debate about the quality of IKEA chairs following the news from IKEA Australia CEO Kent Nordin that many dignitaries and embassies around the world have purchased IKEA furniture and are very satisfied with its quali...

This is one of my favourite ways to spend some of my free time. All alone in my garage, washing, polishing and buffing up my love! I had a couple of bikes and even if this one is gonna take me some more work to get her back to its formal beauty and shining glory, I still can’t help but look and stare at it and think to myself what a piece of striking metal Honda in USA, (Japanese design and engineering but build in Ohio) managed to create in the late eighties... and that is even when it is standing still, you have to ride it and feel the V4 engine tremble beneath you in a slow way when it’s idling and a weird kind of power and force whenever you stretch the rev counter and push it hard . It’s an unexplainable feeling as the wind embrace your face and plays with the little hair out of the helmet as you try to slice thru it... it is not just the destination but the trip to make it there...