-an OD of Love-

Some people never seem motivated to participate, but are just content to watch while others do the work. They are called 'Spec Taters''. Some people never do anything to help, but are gifted at finding fault with the way others do the work. They are called 'Comment Taters'. Some people are very bossy and like to tell others what to do, but don't want to soil their own hands. They are called 'Dick Taters'. Some peo ple are always looking to cause problems by asking others to agree with them. It is too hot or too cold, too sour or to sweet. They are called 'Agie Taters'. There are those who say they will help, but somehow just never get around to actually doing the promised help. They are called the 'Hezzie Taters'. Some people can put up a front and pretend to be someone they are not. The are called the 'Immy Taters'. Then there are those who love others and do what they say they will. They are always prepared to stop whatever

The recipe is simple, fix a day at least three months before. Start sending as many emails and smses, (as much as you can afford timewise) and just hope that at least ten friends turn up due to other commitments that funnily enough always pop up around that day. One of the funniest answers I received this time was that “I’m sorry Chal, but I’ll have the painter coming in that day so I will not be able to do it.” The Fenkata happens after eight in the evening and keeping in mind how hard working the local painters are I have trouble driving at night since all roads are usually jam-packed with ladders with men dressed in white dungarees all painting in the middle of the night. So once I get the idea of how many people will turn up (usually a couple of days before) I book a table at our favourite snack bar in Zebbiegh which is called the Farmer’s Restaurant for what the locals call a Fenkata (A night in a plain, simple and clean workmen snack bar eating a local delicacy which is rabbit t

Whenever I see the name Peter Hedges printed on a movie poster as a director, I know that the movie will have a unique blend of humor and heartbreak, yet Dan in Real Life is also blissfully funny and touching. Good comedians who become Hollywood actors tend to follow a familiar pattern. Over time, they get soft, becoming all tender and ''humanized.'' Richard Pryor more or less set the template for this ritual and his example was followed by Robin ''I Love Me!'' Williams and Jim Carrey, who's had an on-again, off-again fling with taming his own made revolution. Steve Carell, after The 40 Year-Old Virgin , he already looked he was halfway in the same pattern I mentioned above and the way he played the yuppie Noah in Evan Almighty made me dread the worst when I went to see Dan in Real Life , in which Carell plays a family-values newspaper columnist, an advice column filled with the common sense he lacks himself, who is also the widowed father of thr

Time flies for everyone and if it wasn’t for some billboards popping up for the next election I wouldn’t have believed that the leader of the opposition has been sitting on the other side of the house of parliament for the last 16 years ,except for the 22months that he served as a Prime Minister in 1996. Sixteen years at the wheel of a party is a very long time and it must be very frustrating to have spent only 22 months in government. The coming general election will be crucial for Alfred Sant. Successive opinion polls and surveys carried out by independent newspapers have confirmed, time and again, that the huge majority of those questioned have little or no faith in Alfred Sant as Prime Minister. This may very well be his last days as leader of the Malta Labour Party after 16 long years on top, or he may go on to win the election meaning that he will carry on for practically another decade. He surely must be taking this election very seriously. You can’t blame him; his future is at

Former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff "may" contest the general election as an independent candidate, PBS reported tonight. It said the 91-year-old former MLP leader would not confirm or deny the possibility. Mr Mintoff successfully contested 14 elections since 1945 and was a member of parliament until 1998 when he did not stand for the general election of that year. He also did not stand in 2003. Josie Muscat, leader of Azzjoni Nazzjonalim said that Mr Mintoff would not stand with Azzjoni Nazzjonali, although he confirmed having had meetings with him, finding him to be 'energetic.' Mr Mintoff's last foray in political life was to oppose EU membership. Dear Josie, you should know well enough that Mintoff never plans to run into a defeat for anyone. This chap never stops from surprising and leaving everyone guessing is part of his game...

Norman Lowell will contest the general election of Malta The nonconformist far-right Imperium Europa leader Norman Lowell will be contesting the upcoming general election. Mr. Lowell came into the political game as the voice of anti-immigration in 2003. He reached the height of his popularity in 2005 with an infamous speech in Ħal Safi, during which he suggested that if need be, immigrants' boats should be sunk 14 miles out at sea. Shortly after that speech he was charged twice with inciting racial hatred but the cases were put off. He was arrested and charged with inciting racial hatred and, among other things, for joking about the president in 2006 but the case has not yet been decided. Since 2005, particularly after the formation of Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana (ANR), his movement was fractured and now counts only a small number of loyal supporters. The news was discovered by Sandro Vella a blogger (www.sandrovella.org ) who attended a meeting this Saturday in which Norman L

The first thing that I read every Sunday morning are the magazines that are laden with adverts which come free with the Sunday papers. Mind you, most of the times; most articles are really boring except for the ones in my favourite magazine 'Homeworks', which I tend to, read every part of it, sometimes even more than once. Last Sunday’s freebie was the Sunday Circle and as from today till the 8th of March, the only 'model’s' gracing the front pages of all magazines will be Alfred Sant or Lawrence Gonzi and that had already put me off reading it, but since it was the only available I just sat and started going thru the ads and some articles. When I made it to page 35, (it took me seconds) I was captivated by a lovely smile and that made me read the article with more interest, but to be sincere I spent most of the time looking at the pictures at first, (men will be men!) The article was about a young lady who goes by the name of Daniela Xuereb and about the love of art

As most of my readers know I tend to have a soft spot with anything which is usually designed to be enjoyed mostly by children. Could it be that a (small :)) part of me never accepted the idea of growing up or the reason might be that when I think of getting older, I just get rid of the idea and that helps me feel younger at heart. Well as you might have read earlier one of the best film in my opinion of 2007 was Ratatouille and after the massive success made from Pixar thanks to the little character of Remy, on the 17th of June and that means that probably we will be seeing it in Malta around October if not for the Christmas season, we will have a new contender to soften our heart. Its/His name is Wall-E and so is the name of the new animated film by Disney-Pixar. Wall-E is a tiny robot, with sweet eyes very clumsy but otherwise a fantastic little thing. Here is the latest teaser/trailer and I recommend you watch this precious new gem, which I’m sure will have the same repeated succe

Since the dawn of time, mankind has been searching...searching for something more. Ever since the first homo-sapiens pushed a mammoth over a cliff; feasted on its widely dispersed remains and decided that it was a pretty good meal; we've been on the road to culinary improvement. Much later a German, let's call him Helmut, fried up a bit of mince, slapped it between two buns and changed the course of history. Helmut didn't realise it at the time, but he had just invented the burger. But mankind wasn't satisfied with the burger. No, man is never satisfied.  Since that day we have continued to improve, refine, enhance and augment. We have continued to experiment and explore, to add pickles and fried onions, to push the burger boundaries. As most of my readers know I am fascinated about food but some days I feel like having some less sophisticated stuff and when it comes to burgers(especially if you do have a large appetite) The King Of Homemade hea

One of the e-papers I love to read is the British Times. The main reason that I look for this paper almost every day is so I can read Jeremy Clarkson's reviews which originally were about cars and during those days only the four wheels, sometimes the two wheels were the things that bothered him, in the good and in the bad, so they had to go thru his hard criticism but nowadays anything that moves or doesn’t tend to end up under his sharp wit and cut down to pieces and becomes just dust in the wind. Yesterday as I was reading one of his article about the new Mazda MX5 (His final conclusion is that it's still a bacon sandwich made with good bread, good butter and good pork but now it has a splash of HP sauce)I came across two interesting articles and as I was reading them I kept telling myself how lucky the Maltese students are compared to most students in the European countries especially the Maltese students over sixteen years old who not only do they all get free tuition but

GOOD NEWS Well I weighed myself this morning after I believe more then three weeks and I can proudly say that I managed to shed down almost 20 kilos without loosing any muscle, even if I eat all food that I love and it’s food that all nutritionist wanna be tell you that are unhealthy…since I started my diet on the 1st of December 2008…keep them coming… P.S. I’m still experimenting to create some low carb dessert but so far some of my successful dishes I managed to create are Strawberry cheese cake Almond cookies Chocolate chip cookiesTorta Del Re (an Italian lemon and almonds cake) Cherry muffins (I still have to try the blueberries version but the fruit is out of season) And my always favourite: Coppa Sorpresa a double cream, mascarpone based dessert with dark chocolate and almond nibbles