Signals - A promenade island!
Ġieżu Casha and Jesmond (Jież) Mula have been friends since tan-nuna (pre-primary education). Both are opinionated pensioners, enjoy long walks and the art of conversation. They could be quite funny. Today's stroll takes them along Ta' Xbiex, Gżira and...
Ġieżu Casha and Jesmond (Jież) Mula have been friends since tan-nuna (pre-primary education). Both are opinionated pensioners, enjoy long walks and the art of conversation. They could be quite funny. Today's stroll takes them along Ta' Xbiex, Gżira and the Sliema front.
Ġ: Reclamation! In my opinion that's the country's most vainly used word of the decade...
J: Opera House, is my choice....
Ġ: But that falls under alienation; or what you want the great unwashed to think during the intervals, in between bread, circuses and TV chat-shows. What we are dealing with now is...
J: You would say anything as long as you have the last word; always been like that. Still recall when the Sup of the Mużew asked us boys why did Joseph and Mary take Jesus with them to the temple and you said, it had to be you, no? Because they couldn't get a babysitter.
Ġ: When I think of the front in Sliema, the time of the Ferries, and how those R.e.m.e. services people engineered its development, using reclamation... They literally doubled the road space...
J: Same at Msida. All that area in front of the church. Before, it was all covered with water... In fact it still is, after every downpour.
Ġ: Now just imagine: If we were to extend this seaside promenade all around the island?
J: Come again?
Ġ: We met at Sa Maison right? Walked round Msida, Ta' Xbiex...
J: The stony balustrades are an improvement but would have preferred a fancier fencing.
Ġ: What's that?
J: A fencing that would not obliterate the seaview for yet more stone-view. Too much stone around. Creates more dust, more glare. Bad for the lungs and the eyes.
Ġ: Is that why you dropped almost half-dead on the first available bench in this garden? I tell you this sitting down is not doing anything for our constitutional...
J: Garden? You call this a garden? Where you can see, and hear, all the hustle and bustle of the traffic? As if sitting in the middle of some centre strip during the rush hour! A garden is for refuge. Solitude.
Escape.
Ġ: Still cannot escape the escalating cost of living. The bills will get to you. Even in your garden.
J: I'm not joking. This place should have huge shrubbery and thick foliage where one can rest - and lose his soul - among nature.
Ġ: Actually, it's precisely what happens. But much later. When it's real dark.
J: What do you mean?
Ġ: According to the good people that rub with the good parish priest; and the good Gżira local council members...
J: What's the rubbing got to do with it?
Ġ: Because rubbing is also part of the ... you know, with the resting, and doing what comes naturally, and losing one's soul in the process; and the wallet too, if you are not careful. Of course it all happens when it's dark or by the light of the silvery moon...
J: That's nice; seeing that most of the garden lighting is on vacation.
Ġ: Back to reclamation now? Please?... Was going over the coastline, Sa Maison, Ta' Xbiex, all along the Gżira, Sliema fronts, and then keep on moving past the Carmelite church, de Porres, Tigné; until you come to the...
J: Apartments. And yet more apartments. To the left, right, back and front of you one thing that you may be certain of is sprouting flats and apartments.
Ġ: I think the current buzzword is gardens. In the past we referred to such buildings as kerrejja. With gardens it's more trendy I'm told.
J: The gardens of today will be the slums of tomorrow, want to bet?
Ġ: Actually been to one lately. The maid asked me to help find her pussy. Seemed to have wandered into one of these hanging gardens of the contractors' Babylonia... You're right. They're bad. The ones I've seen, on a clear day, you could almost see through the windows. And really small ehh? Which is kind of nice, I suppose, because there's really no room for complaints!... As to the walls, now talk about their being flimsy...
J: Let me tell you about flimsy. Don't know where exactly, but they had just finished this six-storey building, right? As soon as they removed the scaffolding, the building fell! A whole mountain of rubble, right? When they got to Perit, he remained calm, lit a cigarette and said, "But I told you. The scaffolding doesn't come down until the wallpaper is up".
Ġ: Reclamation! In my opinion that's the country's most vainly used word of the decade...
J: Opera House, is my choice....
Ġ: But that falls under alienation; or what you want the great unwashed to think during the intervals, in between bread, circuses and TV chat-shows. What we are dealing with now is...
J: You would say anything as long as you have the last word; always been like that. Still recall when the Sup of the Mużew asked us boys why did Joseph and Mary take Jesus with them to the temple and you said, it had to be you, no? Because they couldn't get a babysitter.
Ġ: When I think of the front in Sliema, the time of the Ferries, and how those R.e.m.e. services people engineered its development, using reclamation... They literally doubled the road space...
J: Same at Msida. All that area in front of the church. Before, it was all covered with water... In fact it still is, after every downpour.
Ġ: Now just imagine: If we were to extend this seaside promenade all around the island?
J: Come again?
Ġ: We met at Sa Maison right? Walked round Msida, Ta' Xbiex...
J: The stony balustrades are an improvement but would have preferred a fancier fencing.
Ġ: What's that?
J: A fencing that would not obliterate the seaview for yet more stone-view. Too much stone around. Creates more dust, more glare. Bad for the lungs and the eyes.
Ġ: Is that why you dropped almost half-dead on the first available bench in this garden? I tell you this sitting down is not doing anything for our constitutional...
J: Garden? You call this a garden? Where you can see, and hear, all the hustle and bustle of the traffic? As if sitting in the middle of some centre strip during the rush hour! A garden is for refuge. Solitude.
Escape.
Ġ: Still cannot escape the escalating cost of living. The bills will get to you. Even in your garden.
J: I'm not joking. This place should have huge shrubbery and thick foliage where one can rest - and lose his soul - among nature.
Ġ: Actually, it's precisely what happens. But much later. When it's real dark.
J: What do you mean?
Ġ: According to the good people that rub with the good parish priest; and the good Gżira local council members...
J: What's the rubbing got to do with it?
Ġ: Because rubbing is also part of the ... you know, with the resting, and doing what comes naturally, and losing one's soul in the process; and the wallet too, if you are not careful. Of course it all happens when it's dark or by the light of the silvery moon...
J: That's nice; seeing that most of the garden lighting is on vacation.
Ġ: Back to reclamation now? Please?... Was going over the coastline, Sa Maison, Ta' Xbiex, all along the Gżira, Sliema fronts, and then keep on moving past the Carmelite church, de Porres, Tigné; until you come to the...
J: Apartments. And yet more apartments. To the left, right, back and front of you one thing that you may be certain of is sprouting flats and apartments.
Ġ: I think the current buzzword is gardens. In the past we referred to such buildings as kerrejja. With gardens it's more trendy I'm told.
J: The gardens of today will be the slums of tomorrow, want to bet?
Ġ: Actually been to one lately. The maid asked me to help find her pussy. Seemed to have wandered into one of these hanging gardens of the contractors' Babylonia... You're right. They're bad. The ones I've seen, on a clear day, you could almost see through the windows. And really small ehh? Which is kind of nice, I suppose, because there's really no room for complaints!... As to the walls, now talk about their being flimsy...
J: Let me tell you about flimsy. Don't know where exactly, but they had just finished this six-storey building, right? As soon as they removed the scaffolding, the building fell! A whole mountain of rubble, right? When they got to Perit, he remained calm, lit a cigarette and said, "But I told you. The scaffolding doesn't come down until the wallpaper is up".