The End of the Road

First, sorry to the legions handful of people out there who follow our exploits via this blog for the lack of posting. For a while I was just lazy, but for the past 3 plus weeks, I've been working almost literally nonstop. Either way, the result is that this is (probably) going to be the last Malta Media. Sad, I know. Also, no photos as my laptop is on its last legs.

Since we celebrated my big three-oh in London back in March, Al and I have taken a few good trips. For spring-break, we went to southern Spain, traveling between Seville, Granada and a few small towns. Spain is probably off the radar for most American's, but we were blown away. Those cities and towns, and the land between them, the food, history, culture, art and architecture are all stunning and I would absolutely tell anyone interested in visiting Italy to choose Spain instead.

The day we returned from Spain, Allison's sister, Amanda, and her boy friend Dan were there waiting for us. After a few days rest, the four of us headed to Italy's Amalfi coast. We spent a few days there along with some iffy weather before visiting Pompeii then parting ways in Naples. Allison and I headed to Rome to meet up with her class who then departed for a class trip in a national park in Tuscany, whilst I headed solo to Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance. Florence was pretty and I saw some terrific art (including Michelangelo's David), but the combo of being travel weary and lonely/bored had me ready to get back to my temporary home in Malta.

Next up, we had special visitors from D.C., our friends Jeanine and Rachel. Rachel's arrival on the island was especially apt, as she was the clever one to come up with the name "Malta Media" back when this blog was just an idea. They spent a bit of time exploring Germany and Austria, then flew down to Malta for a couple of fun days. We gave them a good quick tour of our 'hood in Sliema, visited Gozo, partied in Paceville, hit up the beach (sans a recovering Sean), visited the prehistoric temples (dating from 3600-3200 BC, some of the oldest standing structures in the world), and ate, ate, ate. I think they had a pretty good time, and it was probably nice to see two very different sides of Europe.

Our third and final trip was a quick jaunt to Valencia where we met up with Allison's cousin Nick who was spending a month in Spain cycling. The impetus for the trip, beyond the family visit, was to check out the Europe's largest aquarium, the Oceanografic. The aquarium was fantastic, with exhibits of fish, birds and mammals from the world over, and the city was a delight to explore on foot. But the real joy in going anywhere with Nick, aside from his ever present sunny disposition, is his vast knowledge of food and drink. Whenever you eat with him, you just let him take over and enjoy the results.

Back in Malta, Allison was finishing up her classes and I was doing some part-time work. Her classes ended about a 6 weeks ago so she became a professional beach bum. Also, in case you missed it on the Facebook, I've had my first article and photos published in an online travel magazine, which you can check out here. Also, I was on the cover of a Swiss magazine, seen here.

Things here have shifted pretty dramatically over the past few weeks. Allison returned home about 2 weeks ago and I've been working on a big movie here in Malta (which I'm not supposed to talk about online, but here's a link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/). It's hard work, constantly running around and days can last up to 18 hours, six days a week. Still, its fascinating to see how it all goes down and I'm having a blast working with tons of interesting people. My job has me dealing with the extras, of whom there's usually about 500 (one day we had about 900), getting them through costume and hair and makeup, fed breakfast and lunch, onto set, off of set, into positions, knowing their actions, etc, etc. Yesterday was my last day and I'm going to miss it, but it's opened up some doors, so we'll see what happens.

And that's about it. Now I'm going to enjoy a few days of relaxing (and sleeping) before I head home to see my lovely wife. It's honestly been an up and down time here in Malta, but we've been blessed to meet some wonderful people and see some truly amazing and unique things. The whole experience didn't work out the way we had planned, but that is life, no? I would really like to say thank you and we love you to our amazing parents, without whose support this endeavor would have been much more difficult. Finally, thanks to you, dear reader, for following our adventures.

Ciao!


Sean & Allison