Living in the Past

One of the reasons I enjoy blogging is because it gives me an opportunity to talk about anything I want to, with no interruptions or bored looks. Something I really enjoy discussing is my past - experiences I had at school or university, or when I lived back in Malta.

However, to be able to discuss my past and have it make sense, I should give a bit of a run-down as to what my life was like when I was little..

My parents got married quite young and had jobs in Malta, until my father applied for a job in Cairo. That's the reason why, two years before I was born, my parents moved to Egypt. I don't know if they intended it to be a permanent move or whether it was simply meant to act as a stepping stone. Anyway, most of the my mother's two pregnancies were spent in Egypt - the first with me and the second two years later with my sister. We were both born in Malta however, as my father worked long hours and my mum preferred to spend her 'fat' days with her family to look after her and with the familiarity of Maltese hospitals and beaches.

So the first school I attended was the nursery in Cairo, a place that I really loved. It was a very small school, very friendly, and I loved the fact that school days were Sunday to Thursday, but I would get Sundays off to because we had to go to Mass.

Towards the end of 1990, when my sister was born, my parents decided to move away from Egypt to Singapore, where I imagine my father had been offered a better job. I was only three years old at this point, and don't remember very much. However, I have a fair few memories of the two years we spent in Singapore. I went to an amazing school and started ballet lessons, which resulted in my appearing as a singing flower in a production of Alice in Wonderland - now one of my favourite books.

In one of my many ballet shows

My memories of Singapore and the times I've visited since have led me to believe that it was a great place to live. I loved the weather and being able to swim at Christmas. We had great friends and neighbours, including a surprising number of Maltese people. My mother was a brave soul, constantly taking her infant daughters on trips around the place - Malaysia, Thailand and so on. And once or twice a year we would make the very long trip back home to Malta.

The best way to spend a Saturday in Cairo

Our time in Singapore didn't last too long though, and then we moved to Istanbul, Turkey for a year. I have some vague memories of things there - the odious school lunches we were fed at my new school (the only thing I would eat was sausage pizza), the balcony from our apartment, my fifth birthday party when my sister tried to take center attention.

Our time in the Big Apple

After that year, we returned to Cairo - and that was the best time of my life. My new international school was amazing - our only homework was to read books from the library (I love reading!!), and I spent a lot of time dancing, learning gymnastics, and horse-riding on the outskirts of the Sahara. I loved visiting the large museum with the mummys and beautiful artifacts from the pyramids and tombs within. Best of all, I had some great friends there, and we were only a few hours flight from Malta, where we would go in the summer holidays.

We were barely there for another two years, but it feels like a lot longer than that. Sadly, we were moved to one more temporary location - New York. We were only there for four months during our summer holidays, and we spent a while thinking we would actually move there. However, my mother's Maltese maternal instincts settled in at this point and she made the decision to move us, permanently, to Malta. And that, people, is the story of the first 8 years of my life.