I do want to say a few words about the recent excellent concert at St James Music Room given by the Duo Clapiès which is made up of the violinist Mélanie Clapiès and the pianist Célimène Daudet. Célimène has already played in Malta before, forming a duo with our own Stefan Cassar whose music we shall be able to enjoy, come June. I’d like to drop him a hint: please include some Liszt and Chopin in the programme so that I can really, look forward to it. Thank you Stefan.

In their 20s the duo are both qualified as teachers and performers and met when they were studying in Lyon, and thus, formed the duo. They seemed so much at ease playing Mozart, Ravel and Debussy, a happy mixture and after the interval an Enesco sonata. When I see these, to me at least, new names on a programme I get butterflies in my stomach, not, of course as I would if I were forced, under threat of death, to skydive. Musical butterflies are not aggressive but a composer which sounds modern and unknown worries me. I am not very adventurous in my music and prefer the tried and tested. I have not had the time to look up this Enesco but he was clearly no fool and I loved the Sonate Numero 3, so beautifully played by these young musicians.

You may remember that Célimène lived in Mauritius for some four years. Her mother Ghislaine originally came from Haiti and wore dresses made out of Yves Saint Laurent materials. She taught management at the University of Mauritius while her husband, Professor Yves Daudet, a lawyer worked as consultant with the government. The French Embassy tell me he will be visiting soon to do some work with the International Maritime Law Institute.

There was little time for more than a coffee with the gentle Célimène. She was here mainly for the National Council of Women’s BMV Music Competition 2007. So we met on Sunday morning, just before she was travelling back to France and had a coffee at Cordina and caught up with each other’s news. Both her parents teach at the Sorbonne. I recalled how at the University of Mauritius some members of staff had pooled to buy an exercise bicycle and Ghislaine and myself used to try to use it at lunchtime, whenever we could manage a lunchtime. Does her mother still try to fight her fat I asked Célimène, just as I do? Yes, ‘toujours’ she told me. The battle of the bulge goes on and on, but we don’t give up even if we don’t succeed in looking like Kate Moss. Célimène teaches at the Conservatoire in Toulon and she told me she has offered a scholarship to the winner of the BMV Music competition.

She loves the travelling that performing involves – a pleasant way of seeing the world and has played in a number of European concert halls as well as in Russia.

I hope she will come again together with Mélanie. They really are a splendid duo and should be invited once more.

Well to go back to our tea at Le Méridien Phoenica with Simone Mizzi and her team and Olivia Lewis. The European Song Contest is not something that has ever captured my imagination I must say. I just think it’s a laugh. All this loud rock and rubbish is stopping children from developing a love of real music and merely making them deaf. At least most of them who regularly attend places where there is incessant loud music will be partially deaf by the time they are my age and even before, I read somewhere.

Whenever I’m in a sadomasochistic mood and watch some of these musical shows on TV I come away feeling that there wasn’t anything halfway listenable. Everyone hugs each other on televised programmes while in truth wishing each other dead and well out of the way possibly with a broken guitar over their heads. I wanna go on listening to the good old songs – again, again and yes again. I want to listen to Perry Como and Frank S; to Nat King Cole and to ‘You do something to me’ Cole Porter. I can hear my darlings saying out loudly, as they do, again and again: “But they’re all dead, moo!’

I can’t stand the back-to-front baseball cap singer though now it is mostly transvestites which seem to be in fashion. Or men in tight vests over enviable pectorals and opportunistic school kids hitching their skirts up to their armpits and who are balletically agile. Every woman is entitled to her day, even one of a certain age and thank goodness for CDs and the good old vinyl records, so that I am able to play the sort of music that tells my soul something.

Anyway Olivia will be representing us this year and one thing I know for certain is that she will be using the new spring summer collection Vital Brights makeup by Body Shop. She recently presented herself to a few hackettes, her face beautifully made up by Sasha, and I immediately thought that a good makeup artist may work miracles on me perhaps. I’ll have to try it one of these days.

Olivia told us that essentially she is aiming for an oriental look. Joseph Bonello of Fgura will be designing the dress. Ivory & Co. are sponsoring it and they will be purchasing Roberto Cavalli material.

She will be taking with her two sets of makeup: one for the daytime and one for the glaring stage lights. The dress will be similar to the one she wore here. We urged her to do away with the heavy fringe as well as the curls and to keep everything simple. Whether she will is another matter. But good luck to her. It’s an experience anyway even if she does not win. But then, she may. Certainly we hope so.

I went to watch the versatile Mario Micallef of Talenti in his fourth one man show, L’Imfietah at St James theatre-in-the-round. Last year I had enjoyed Il-Qassis which was a serious study of character and certainly not a comedy. L’Imfietah is a comedy and was penned by Mario himself and Zep Camilleri who also directed. There was Mario changing from the role of St Peter to that of Hitler, Cleopatra, Nero, Casanova and the devil. It was a witty and amusing script which also involved a bevy of pretty dancers. Pity I cannot remember any of the lines and quote them to you but it was very entertaining.

Remembering them must be a nightmare as from one character Mario moved, seamlessly into another with a complete change of wardrobe and makeup. Of course, if one were to analyse, this sort of theatre is much more than a one man show. When afterwards I went backstage to say hello and well done and offered to take some photos quite a number of people turned up and that wasn’t everyone either. A good one man show needs a dedicated supportive team and Mario and Zep have it.

I particularly liked Mario’s interpretation of Cleopatra which had more than a raunchy touch and he even managed to look seductive.

Friends called and asked me why I had kept so silent about the Labour victory at the Local Council elections. Well, there is no need to always make a great deal of noise. No matter the reams of analysis written about it all, yes, a victory for Labour it was. I love the way some columnists try to dismiss it as if it did not matter. It matters. So did Labour’s electing three MEP’s in spite of the frattarija the Nationalists made over our entry to the EU. What could be more significant than that? And how sad it is to find that they actually lied about the hunting and trapping. I mean, that’s not Catholic is it? Deceiving the swallow annihilaters in that way. And the rest of us too, for that matter. And all that coming and going between here and Brussels of so many men in suits, who knew precisely what was being said here, but never uttered a word to deny it. Brussels too, is to blame for this. A sin of omission we used to call it at doctrine classes.

Still as the militant Peter Darmanin said triumphantly, they sold many figolli, but many.

Figolli too are useful. I hope they are not being eaten before Lent is over. Maybe there is an EU regulation somewhere about this too….