That was quite a week, that was from every aspect and it started with a puncture, so I knew my horoscope was not too good. The last thing I ever do is look at the wheels of my 20-year-old-car-with-four-doors-and-a-dozen-dents. But I did on Monday morning and yes, it wasn’t my bad eyesight. One of the back wheels had a puncture. So I called RMF and Daniel, with whom I am now quite well acquainted, turned up and repaired it. We recognized each other as, one night, some weeks ago, he had retrieved me from the Tal-Barrani road where the car broke down, on my way to meet friends. He tried so hard to find out what was wrong with it that I was impressed. If only all our workers were so caring. So there he was again this Monday morning as I needed to dash to work more than ever. But the puncture was only a hiccup to the rest of the week filled, not only with work but also with ballet and the Golden Oldies and other occasions to lift up the spirit.

Certainly, the old opera house transformed into a kind of Greek theatre was a pleasant surprise. It was built by Barry in absentia, since, an architect, as I was trying to climb up the steps told me that in fact Barry never came to Malta to look at the site. With its weathered stones, fiaccoli and high steps like a woman of a certain age, it looks much better by the light of the silvery moon than in stark daylight. I was there for the first time to see the Ballet d’Europe’s Mireille. I thought Mozart’s Requieum on a hot summer’s evening in ballet form would be a little too much. I don’t like Requieum’s at all except in a church and there have been enough Requieum’s in my life so I try to avoid them. The Dance Council must be congratulated for undertaking to treat us to such a wonderful spectacle. Jean-Charles Gil’s choreography was motion magic with some very interesting choreographic devices, which I had certainly never seen before here. The foot work intricate, the whole show, including the simple clothes, fluid. This was no safe traditional repertoire. But not that kind of contemporary dance which normally bores me to death. Danced to the music of Charles Gounod, that beloved late-Victorian figure, it was easy to watch and pleasant on the ear for Gounod is a composer of charming melodies, an orchestrator in the lighter vein and creator of genuinely theatrical music. Let us not forget that his Faust was Queen Victoria’s favourite opera. His keywork is, in fact, considered to be Mireille. I am told by friends who attended both performances that Mozart’s Requieum was even finer.

I was to meet these young, gifted dancers and their choreographer for drinks at Saturday lunchtime at Cleland & Souchet where I also met two British artists who are presently exhibiting there: Lionel and Narinder Coates who have moved from Cornwall to live and paint in Malta.

More ballet and this time a dance school which has enjoyed a very good reputation for so many years. Olivia Dow presented Queen of the Dance at the Temi Zammit Theatre, University of Malta. Some 120 pupils showed us what they had learned. Mercifully the theatre is air-conditioned so we were comfortable and happy watching a lovely show with some beautiful costumes. I could not stay throughout the second half but noticed that the Prime Minister and Mrs Gonzi were there and enjoying the show. You have to admire a couple who work hard all week but then still find the time to attend a long show on a Sunday evening. I loved the colourful costumes and what a feat it was to put so many youngsters of all ages and produce such a good spectacle. I found the little fairies particularly enchanting. John Baldacchino, Olivia’s husband who has always taken an active interest in her school, tells me that some of the costumes were made here but many were imported from as far away as the USA. The attention to detail and the organization and discipline were impressive and I take off my hat to Olivia and John for a lovely production. It certainly cannot be easy.

I went with one of my sisters and sister-in-law to the Golden Oldies, again at the ruins of the Old Opera House. We had been looking forward to this for weeks on end. We knew that Spiteri Lucas Entertainment were going to give us a slick show, plenty of songs from our girlhood and gifted singers. I bought a few chocolates, but only just a few since although my companions, perenially on diet like me, always grumble a little whenever I produce any goodies, they always enjoy them and in fact they brought some delicacies themselves. My sister reminded me that our father and mother had, in fact, met at some opera or another at this very opera house which of course brought back a wave of nostalgia and a flood of memories.

These singers and dancers performed to a full house, some 1,200 seats that is. Surely the sort of audience one wants when on stage. It was fun, the audience were enjoying themselves at a most successful and seamless evening. Davinia Galea and Mario Frendo must be very happy indeed and must wish that every evening was like this one. It is the sort of thing people want. A relaxed show with plenty of familiar music and seamlessly going from one song to the next. Leontine singing Lili Marlene under a lamp post, Glenn Vella with Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Ludwig with Granada. How can I mention some 40 songs individually and some very gifted singers? There were video clips as a backdrop and we loved every minute of it. For me, the discoveries of the evening were Triccas and Antonello Persiano. I had never heard either of them before and they were brilliant. Persiano imitating Elvis Presley with a good deal of humour. The audience loved him. And Triccas, a more sobre version with a Rock’Roll Medley, Bobby Vee’s Poetry in Motion, Blueberry Hill and so on. One feels comfortable with the familiar. Call it plebian if you like but our lives are stressful enough and we don’t want to go to the theatre to stress ourselves further. This was the ultimate sit-back-and-relax show.

I can’t say that Children’s Commissioner Sonia Camilleri is a favourite and one can easily criticize a thing or two she has done. However, her recent call for vetting of new employees’ past conduct, if there is a possibility they will come into contact with children, is to be praised. Her recommendations for further legislation in this area have been forwarded to the Attorney General. The idea is that employers request prospective employees to forward details of their criminal record so that any history of child abuse will come to the fore.

I hope this will include those who engage underage youngsters in conversation on the internet. Which mature grown-up with good intentions would do that? We recently had the case of one of Where’s Everybody’s directors resigning and being arraigned because of doing just that; engaging a girl of twelve in conversation. But, except for Super One and the Labour press this was hushed up. I liked Charles Flores opinion piece in last Monday’s l-orizzont, Mur ara u mur ara. Exactly, had it been someone else goodness knows the publicity such a case would have been given, including a full-blown programme by Where’s Everybody. Not everyone is so well connected and the Algerian national who was charged with defiling a 15-year-old had his full name published in today’s Times. Of course the director of Where’s Everybody only talked to the girl virtually and had not met her but…