It's nearly over! Just a couple of days until JC routine starts again next Wednesday!

Tonight, I've been thinking about this year's summer and honestly, it puts a smile on my face, something which I thought, wouldn't happen back in July. There are several highlights by which I'll remember Summer 2008...

In the first few weeks of this summer, I'd say the first 4-5~ weeks, I spent most of my time inside. I wasn't really bored, I can't say I was happy, but I was doing OK. I needed to come to terms with myself on some issues and so I took advantage of the lone time. I spent most of the time coding, working on this blog engine. I learned a lot, mainly Object Oriented Programming with PHP, complex SQL (joins, mysql functions, normalizations) and un-obstructive JavaScript. Those I did during the 'working' hours. Then my 'entertainment' (which normally I would have spent by hanging out with friends) was watching shit loads of movies, watching the whole 11 seasons of Top Gear and listening to podcasts - geeky ones.

After that 'lone time' period, I started going to the beach with two friends of mine.. We tried to meet up and go to Ghadira every week, something which we managed to do. I went with my brother-in-law to Ghajn Tuffieha a couple of times also, something which I enjoyed a lot.. especially getting to Ghajn Tuffieha and back in his Defender

Then I started meeting up with another friend from secondary school, one of my best friends actually, to whom I have total respect. Without him, this summer wouldn't have been the same. Mostly, we hung out around Bugibba, at Amazonia and a couple of bars. There were a few times where I wasn't comfortable, because we used to hang out with a couple of Italians and I don't know how to speak Italian, so there was a couple of awkward moments, yeah. But I would go through it again, it was fun! And we went to the beach a lot too, something which again, I enjoyed. I remember when we used to go to the beach, we used to do what we call in Maltese manjati, which I have no idea what it's called in English. Basically, you sneak up on someone who is swimming (of course, it has to be someone you're confident with, do it on a stranger and you'll be in deep shit) and you send him straight down to the sea bed, something which I enjoyed doing, especially on the chicks mwuhahaha.

Then there was the mighty BBQ. I remember the charcoal not lightning up, so we went on the hunt for a bag of charcoal in Bugibba, on a Saturday night. At least I managed to find one on my first attemp. Lots of sausages and burgers, a cholesterol feast. Laying down on the beach, watching the stars. And the inevitably, a little bit too much wine. Simply Awesome.

Next was the month of September. Which was cool too! Highlights from this month were the few nights which we stayed out very late.. and by late I mean very late. The kind of late that when we took a glance at our watches and it was 2 in the morning, we looked at each other and said 'we still got 4 hrs to go mate!'. Of course, by 6am we felt like crap, but to get back to our senses, we used to go to the beach at that time and the cold water cured our sleepiness. All this wasn't enough, so after going to the beach, we used to head to a local restaurant and have breakfast. The good ol' mighty English breakfast. What makes me smile however is that when we were finished with breakfast, we look into each others eyes and say to each other 'another one?', and to the amazement of the waitress we ordered another course. Who cares about cholesterol? We only live once, right?

I'm not sure whether I'll have any more memorable experience in this last week.. but there's the airshow next weekend and I'm really looking forward to see the eurotyphoon. Hopefully I will also make a visit to my secondary school, pick up some stuff, check what's going on and what's happening to the teachers, that sort of stuff.

Ahh well.. there are a lot of experiences that I left out.. If I had to write about every single thing I went through, I would need another blog just for it. Apart from the great experiences (and a few nasty ones, I might add), this is a reminder that yes, life is worth living and no matter what crap you're going through, there's always two sides of the coin, the good and the bad. And also - best things in life are things which money can't buy!