A big thank you to the reader who sent me a laminated holy picture of St Anthony, with a prayer at the back. I love it and it is now stuck to my computer. The old one fell into my coffee. Now St Anthony is protected.

Thank you also to the friend who not only brought me back a holy picture of St Anthony from Rome but also a lovely ‘ecological’ candle with his image. Yet another reader sent me St Anthony and Baby Jesus in the shape of a heart with invitation at the back to sign it and return it to the Messaggero S. Antonio together with a donation – yes, St A. has his very own newsletter. The signed holy picture will be placed on St Anthony’s tomb in Padova. He even has a website: www.saintanthonyof

padua.net. There are other benefits if one subscribes to this newsletter including a little pendant in the shape of a heart made in Murano. Well, this has opened a whole new world for me. Thank you very much all those who went to the trouble to send me the various items. I no longer need to trudge to St Paul’s Street for a holy picture now. St Anthony is still in fashion and will always be.

One of my nephews sent me a text message on 13 June, feast of St Anthony: “Aunt, just to let you know that today is the feast of St Anthony of Padova in case you want to drop him a tenner.” I do not part with tenners that easily but I will arrange something special post-birthday since I cannot bake him a cake for the occasion. My engagement ring disappeared some months ago and I want him to find it for me. Only St Anthony can work that kind of miracle. He is a star in my firmament where stars are only too rare.

I very much enjoyed the Good Causes Fund Concert at The Palace Courtyard. It was a balmy evening so it was very pleasant to sit in this beautiful part of Valletta.

Our national orchestra conducted by Maestro Christopher Muscat played one of Franz von Suppé’s popular overtures, Light Cavalry. Although Poet and Peasant and Morning, Noon and Night are more appealing to me perhaps because I am very familiar with them, I enjoyed the vibrant playing.

My favourite piece that evening was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espanol. This Russian composer is said to have drawn much of his inspiration from the exotic East and the Russian fairytale. I love his soundworld.

I became a little excited at the prospect of the orchestra playing a Hungarian rhapsody, thinking it was one of Liszt’s and sulked for a short moment when I saw that it was by a David Popper. Never heard of him, I said to myself. Some johanny-come-lately I suppose and felt peeved that he had dared compose a Hungarian rhapsody which to me are strictly the domain of Franz. But upon reading the programme I saw that Popper was one of the leading cellists of his time, born in Prague in 1843. So I switched on the sort of respectful attitude I reserve for dead composers. The following day I googled him and voilà he had been married – and divorced – to one of Franz Liszt’s star pupils, Sophie Menter. Eventually he settled in Budapest where he taught, until the end of his life, at the conservatory which Liszt had established there which was to become famous. By now I liked him much better and could understand why he had wanted to compose a Hungarian rhapsody.

The star of this concert was the cellist Eugen Prochác who was the soloist in a piece by Dvorák, the Bohemian son of a butcher: Rondo for Cello & Orchestra in G Minor with which he mesmerized his audience. He also played another lovely piece as an encore but I did not catch its name.

I took two days off on catch up with errands, chores, have the geezer replaced at some absurd price, go down to the bank and arrange for internet banking – so that my girls are proud of me and think me a past middle-aged whiz kid, and so on. On my second day off we had the pleasure of those powercuts so no electricity and no water except for that coming out of the tank. So my day had to be rearranged and most of my plans postponed. However, I had already started making a dessert: Iles Flottants which I had not made for some 20 years. The ‘islands’ are whites of egg beaten as if for a meringue and poached. That is when the electricity failed and my ‘islands,’ which should have been ‘peaks of perfection’ in my mother-in-law’s words – slumped in the pan and of course never floated. That was very disappointing but I am not going to wait for another 20 years before making it again.

The government had better check out its horoscope properly. As if all the scandals and alleged corruption are not enough we now have some 700 workers without a job – all at one go. My commiserations. I wonder if Dr Austin Gatt is gloating and saying: “There you are. I told you so. And ten years aren’t even up yet. No room for textiles here.” Will he recruit all 700 of them for Smartcity? But that’s not for tomorrow. What will they do in the meantime?

The hapless Censu Galea has to deal once again, with the ever fascinating subject of scandal. This time it is yet another bribery story. Some 500 persons have been arraigned by the police, according to this morning’s news for being recipients of a licence for which they paid Lm170 each. That is Lm850,000 worth of ill-begotten licences. It is alleged that Mr Galea whose earlier incarnation was minister for the Maritime Authority has known about this scandal since 24 May but two of the four officers were er his chums and he failed to take action by way of loyalty I suppose. Well, I am certain he is not entirely thrilled with the behaviour of his friends. Step forward the auditors and they unravelled the simple mathematics behind this scandal. Why were there more seamen’s licence holders than the number of people who had actually attended the course?

So we have drivers on our roads who should not be driving and out at sea and near our beaches teaming with people Rambos in their powerboats with a licence they should not have. What consciences!

I don’t think Mr Galea will be making a twit of himself again and grimacing at any more TV cameras. But we do expect at least a huffy rebuttal from him of some sort the next time he is approached by a labour journalist. You know, I am beginning to feel sorry for him. He needs to be advised on damage limitation at this stage and to start papering over the cracks in his career in time for the general election. I am certain that while he would have wished to enhance his media profile this is certainly not the way he wanted to do it. But all this does not mean that he will not be re-elected with an increased majority at the next General Election. We are that sort of country.

It never ceases to fascinate me that the usual enthusiastic Blue spinners and todies never refer to these scandals in their columns but go on yapping about Dun Gorg and the immigrants for goodness sake.

All that which is being said and written about Josie Muscat is utterly useless. The majority disagree with what he stands for but those who have already made up their minds to vote for him are certainly not going to identify themselves and proclaim it on newspapers. They will keep mum and when it is voting time they will cast their vote quietly. In the meantime those whom he upsets can go on prattling away.