Somehow I always have  a mental picture of the person I am to meet, and this time was no exception. I was given a name and   contact details and told that the young woman in question was a soprano. Naturally I assumed that the woman I was about to meet  was a tad older and - how can I put this nicely?- larger than what is today considered the norm. I couldn't have been more surprised on meeting our interviewee of the day. Maria Angela is a slip of a thing, Petite, and only twenty three, she is not only a soprano but also a medical doctor. At present a  houseman  ( happily there is no such politically correct word as houseperson yet) she graduated recently and is at present happily experiencing all  the different facets of medicine our hospital has to offer.

I find her delightful. Maria Angela is bright, interesting, well spoken and a well rounded personality. She is quite the busy bee having a decent social life, work and singing, with a few performances thrown in for good measure. Maria Angela sings at many functions- weddings and funerals, concerts and also, being a rather decent sort, at philanthropic functions too. Kudos to her, I say. When many youngsters are into the latest fashions and Facebook, meeting someone like Maria Angela restores your faith in the younger   generation.

Yes Maria Angela always wanted to become a doctor. Did she play with dolls, sharpening pencils to make syringes  while wearing a small white coat and a toy stethoscope? Sadly, it turns out my imagination had run away with me. No such thing happened. However, Maria knows that  she decided she wanted to be a doctor aged seven.  Singing came earlier. There's a video somewhere, of her crawling under the piano at home singing away.  That must be adorable.

The piano at home belongs to her mother,  Claudia, an accomplished pianist and organist. Her father, Guido, is a bass baritone. This musicality certainly runs in the family. Maria Angela's twin, Francesca, is also musical. She's a singer too, but unlike her Soprano Sister, Francesca is a mezzo soprano. I imagine family get togethers are an interesting affair. I tease her about doing so much, jokingly asking if besides having been taught to play the piano by her mother, she might also have a violin stashed away somewhere. Her reply, that she tried violin but piano and singing were already time consuming enough with school, floors me. She still has two violins in her room, but they are not used anymore.

Why am I not surprised? Maria Angela's typical day starts early with a decent breakfast and then she's off to work. She gets to hospital earlier to have a cup of coffee before ward rounds. Then, from what I can gather, she is rushed off her feet until after half past two. She usually grabs a banana half way at about noon, has lunch at home and then rests before studying.

Once a week she attends her voice coaching lesson with Juliette Bizazza, unless she's on night duty, meaning  that she goes home the next day, after the day's work's done. Supper - usually vegetable based - is followed by some time spent socialising with friends. She also tries to fit a session or two at the gym which helps her keep trim. Does she stay out late, at least once a week? Referring to herself as Cinderella, Maria Angela likes to be in bed by midnight, even if she's off work the next day. Sleep is important, but then, so is an rounded life.

Again, I am incredibly impressed with the way she manages everything, and tell her so. It is delightfully refreshing to find that the next generation are as full of life as we once were, even though technology has taken away much of the outdoor life that was once routine. Maria Angela believes that time management is of the essence. This had started when she was a medical student, which, in her own words is very time consuming.

Having already been a singer in a choir, she continued with both. Even in her schooldays, as part of the Cantrores Sancti Juliani conducted by Maestro Lino Attard, she managed her time  well. She remembers when they sang for Pope John Paul II, describing it as a wonderful experience. The choir was so big that they would fill the entire  parish church  of St Julians. Goodness, I think, there must have been hundreds. Today the choir is no longer. I imagine it  was disbanded as  most singers couldn't give half their working week to rehearsals.  Today our young soprano sings  solo and , at times, with a couple of the young ladies she befriended during  her choir days.

Conversation turns to fashion and then to art. Again, I am pleasantly surprised. Maria Angela shows me some of her doodles and sketches, and paintings too. Her favourite media are watercolours, acrylics and pencils. She is extremely talented, and, bless her, self-taught. She discovered her love of art one summer. Wishing to do something with her time (and I'm as surprised as you are that she had any to spare ) she enrolled for a summer course in painting. Sadly, today she has no time to pursue her painting, but she does draw occasionally. Those doodles themselves are stunning. Her mother tells her that Maria has an untapped talent which she should work on when she retires. Somehow, I doubt that  she will ever understand the meaning of the word. I imagine what her mother means is  to say is 'when you give up full time medicine'. Looking at Maria's eyes shine when she talks about her work, I don't really see that ever happening.