Maybe not Malta

An article I wrote last year for the Thomond Student Times.

Clubbers in Numero Uno, Malta at DJ Chuckie

I sat down to write about a Fatboy Slim concert or the Armier Beach Party the following day, I slowly noticed however that I had gotten a little bit sidetracked.

DISCLAIMER: The following paragraphs do not mean that Malta is not a brilliant and beautiful place to visit or live. It also does not mean that the nightlife and clubbing in Malta has not been some of the best parts of my life thus far or that any of the events mentioned 

below were not absolutely.

For a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean that is rarely ever heard of outside of itself or UK retirees, Malta is doing its best to become a new clubbing destination, but it doesn’t look like its best is good enough.

One of Malta’s top DJ’s Brady D told me his point of view on it:

“Us DJ’s and promoters try to do our best in delivering high standard events for Maltese clubbers and even tourists, but for example the 4 am law is a little draw back. A lot of clubbers don’t choose Malta because of this, I think for example in Italy they are allowed till 7am”

To be honest though, I’m not sure that this is all that’s holding it back.

I am living in Malta on Erasmus exchange programme from Ireland and I had honestly never heard of the place before I came here...not to mind did it ever occur to me that someday I would go there to party at festivals with some of the top house music DJ’s in the world.

Since February, the list of DJ’s I have been to includes Dutch DJ Chuckie, Belgian brothers Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Ultra Records Pixel Cheese, Brighton’s own Fatboy Slim, Tim Mason of Size Matters, A State of Trance regular Tenishia from Malta as well as some of the best Maltese DJ’s like Lost Emotions, Brady D Georgio and loads more.

And before the summer is out, Steve Angello, Max Vangelli & AN21 will be here along with Avicii and Paulkalkbrenner. If you look at these two paragraphs you could think that it’s a line up for Creamfields. Unfortunately most of these acts were or will be part of different events. Granted the most I paid for any of the events was €30 for Fatboy Slim. LoveSexy Malta and 

Armier Beach Party just €15 and 1^st of May Dance Festival beating the pack at free, provided you’re there before 5pm.

It’s a very cheap island to go clubbing on, has an unbelievable climate for day or night time beach parties but yet if you look to any clubbers guide Malta doesn’t even get a look in, matter of fact the clubber guide is probably not even available in Malta.

A friend of mine in Ireland told me about the 1^st of May Dance Festival where Chuckie was playing, only for this I would not have known. I picked up flyers at the event and from there I got to know what was happening for the rest of the summer. There are some posters around showing what you can go to but you still have to find most of the information yourself. Like information on tickets, there is none.

Tickets are a small bit too hard to come by. I checked the information for LoveSexy, a festival which takes place in Malta, New York, Las Vegas and Bali. The tickets were to be being sold in Burgerkings who always seemed to be out of tickets and Chemimart’s (Yes a pharmacy) who also had no stock of tickets. What is wrong with a Ticketmaster of sorts?

Getting tickets for Fatboy Slim, however, that really took the biscuit. No one had tickets. The bar that allegedly sold the tickets was closed for renovations. There was a number on the poster that was never answered. Finally on the 2^nd last day before the gig, the number called back, a guy said he’d meet us at a roundabout. We sat there until a guy pulled up beside us, sold the tickets and then gave us a strange look and asked “Who gave you my number?” As if the guy was completely unaware that his number was on walls and on posters in bars in Paceville, the main nightclub area in Malta. How does that make sense?

Not that I don’t want it to succeed as a “big” party island, I really do. I’ve actually spent 90% of my time here partying in some form but as far as Ayia Napa or Ibiza levels I think it is probably a bit farther away than the people here would like to think.

Galbally Playground

This is an article I wrote for the student paper The Limerick Voice 

Pictured: Children of event organiser Maria Finnan.

Over a hundred children and their parents turned out in the Galbally Community Centre where the Galbally Playground Committee held their third annual Winter Wonderland on Saturday December 1.

The event, which collected in excess of €1,000, was in aid of a playground which is hoped to be built by 2014 in the village.

The Committee has been in operation since 2010 and so far has raised €14,000 out of the necessary €80,000 necessary for the project.

Ballyhoura Development has pledged to grant €60,000 to the playground fund once the committee have reached €20,000.

Head of the Committee, Maria Finnan said that:

“Although families of young children will benefit most, everybody in the village seems to be looking forward to the playground.”

It will be great for the community as a whole to have not just a playground for the kids but also a nice are for people to relax in the village.”

The Committee also runs a bingo night once a fortnight that raises between €400 and €500 per month and last year held cookery demonstrations which also raised €1,000.

The next bingo night is due to be held on Wednesday December 12. The committee have also a weekend of activities planned for the Easter Bank Holiday, details of this weekend are not finalised yet.

SpunOut.ie: Threesomes

There has been a lot of commotion in the past week or so over the SpunOut.ie article regarding threesomes. 

The problem some commentators had were that the unnamed author was using obnoxious language and was recommending that if a person is thinking about taking part in a threesome, they should do it with someone they either do not know or someone they have no feelings for.

Follow-up articles in the Irish Times and Irish Independent looked into what the "kids" actually know. This, I think, was the main problem that worried parents and others who spoke out against the article had.

The kids spoke about how other people their age (around the 15 year old mark) watched too much porn and expected relationships to be like this.

I have no issue with either of the sides of the argument, both in my opinion have valid points, I would just like to know why was it that the article on SpunOut.ie was unable to be loaded at the time of the debate which took place on The Late Late Show?

I tried on both my dodgy laptop and my super-fantastic mobile phone. Both came up with the same message that "This website can not be reached at this time".

The same article was perfectly accessible directly after the debate had finished, although it had been changed from the original that had been published.

Interesting much?

Edited article here

Priorities

Yaaaaaaay, blogging.

I don't really get blogging, I write it, no-one reads it, the thought's may as well have stayed inside my head. That aside...

Today, while comparing and contrasting the lunchtime news shows of RTE Radio 1 and Today Fm for a college assignment, I came across something that I can't say I am a fan of.

A good half an hour out of RTE's News at One (45mins) was dedicated to the issue of the Pope and his resignation.This would have been perfectly fine had Pope Benedict XVI not announced his resignation over a week ago. Granted, today was his last day as Pope and he is now to be called Pope Emeritus (Latin for retired). I consider myself Catholic and all due respect to the man but I think a simple bulletin followed by a report from the Vatican would have sufficed.

Instead, it was the main news item coming ahead of actual news like announcements that banks have been told to foreclose on houses where mortgage payments have not been met and proceedings in the Croke Park Agreement talks etc. 

There was a bulletin in the middle of the panel's conversation with reports of a bus crash in Offaly with one confirmed death of a 15 year old boy. This however was swiftly swept aside to return to news from the Vatican. Guess what... nothing had changed.

I think RTE need to really think about their coverage if they would put coverage of The Pope's last hours in The Vatican (where nothing happened and the panel were only speculating as to what he would be doing for the final hours) above other news that actually affects people.