An Evening at Manoel Theatre: De Valette Chamber Orchestra in Concert

A Grand Surprise 

Back in June I was going through exams and had little more on my mind. After getting my Biology exam over and done with on a certain Friday, I felt as if an climax had been reached...I then found myself spending the evening at Manoel Theatre!

This was extremely unexpected, my uncle called last minute with an extra ticket and asked if I'd like to see the DeValette Chamber Orchestra. Of course! With about 20 minutes to spare, the house was ransacked for an outfit fit for the occasion. I went for black boots, a black skirt and a wine top with plenty of ruffles - my favourite! It was actually the first time wearing it since I had bought it a year ago, as my usual day-to-day outfits are rather plain and tomboyish.

So I went with my uncle and aunt. As per usual in Malta we found a major road closure and had to re-route the remaining part of the journey entirely. We were extremely lucky with parking (parking is a BIT issue anywhere in Malta) and found an empty spot right below the St.Paul's Cathedral, which is just a block away from the Theatre. Once in the streets of Valletta it did take a while to find the actual place itself - at night things tend to look differently, but with the help of Google Maps we found ourselves right at the entrance. It was 8pm on the dot, and the function was about to begin.

What about the concert?

Concert programme booklet of the De Valette Chamber Orchestra
at Teatru Manoel, Valletta, Malta (2026),
featuring Carmine Lauri and Hansjörg Schellenberger.

Several news outlets have been covering news on the De Valette Chamber Orchestra.

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/arts/music/142338/de_valette_chamber_orchestra_concludes_first_season_at_teatru_manoel

In the article listed above MaltaToday covered the Final Concert and also provided a list of the pieces which were played. These were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 followed by his Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314. The conductor Hansjorg Schellenberger played this oboe solo beautifully and I still marvel at such exceptional breath control. Next was Johann Sebastian Bach's concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor.

Took this pic at intermission.
Actually forgot to take more.

I admit that, having been presented such an opportunity last minute, I hadn't sufficient time to research the programme and familiarise myself with the works beforehand. 

Consequently, I just enjoyed the music, and lost track of which piece was being performed.  However, I suspect that the final two works after the intermission may have been presented in reverse order, with Kreisler’s Concerto being performed first. 

Whatever order they were played, these were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201 and Fritz Kreisler's Violin Concerto in C major “In the style of Vivaldi”.

Thoughts

I loved every single minute of the concert. The music was so well played - I can only imagine the hours of practice that went behind preparing this, and each note was literally - music to my ears. (Excuse the pun). After there was a little reception for the musician's close circle. We stayed till about 11pm before making our way back home. Quite an experience!

Even the bathroom was on a league of its own

Non-related

Poster advertising the Manoel Theatre Grand Tour in Valletta, Malta.

Playing tourists in Mtarfa

 Mtarfa is one of those places that had the potential to be a tourist attraction and site of heritage. However, it sits quietly and is overshadowed by Mdina facing it. 

Back in the days of the British rule, Mtarfa was a whole British community. The British built military barracks and later added a hospital to treat the injured during WWI. 

Eventually, the railway included Mtarfa too. You can see the bridge built on the valley to connect the two localities together. This has since been turned into a road. However, the little railway station is still there and has had different uses throughout the years. In recent times, the station functioned as a restaurant, and there are now plans to establish a veterinary clinic. 

Despite Mtarfa's relatively small size, we only covered a section of it. Here is a map I made covering the section we explored.

Map of Imtarfa

The British Military Walk

Viewpoint 1

Viewpoint overlooking Mdina

Prince of Wales Avenue in Mtarfa, Malta.

Historic British street names along the Military Walk in Mtarfa.

Statue of St. Nicholas in Mtarfa

Flowers

The British Military Walk

Mtarfa Clock Tower

A Blyton book set in WWII

 Notes on 'The Adventurous Four'. This was first published in 1941. Mine is an Armada edition published in 1962, so this book has seen a lot! (It's also been through a lot - as the state of the cover suggests).

Front Cover

I first read The Adventurous Four by Enid Blyton before I grew to develop a keen interest on WWII. That was when I was ten, and yet ignorant of the chain of historical events that had happened in the last century. The book is set in the early 1940s Britain, very much in the midst of war. 

A slightly battered back cover illustrating
the secret enemy submarines hiding within the islands.

In her book, Blyton sticks to calling the bad guys 'the enemy', however there are several obvious, indirect references that make it clear it is the 'Nazis' that the children come across. Such are;

       "Haven't you seen the sign on the wings?" asked Tom, in a curiously angry voice...The sign of the crooked cross was painted on each wing - the sign of the enemy, the foe of half the world"

Rereading it again, I'm still baffled at how I failed to make the link, but I'm glad I do now, for it makes the story much more exciting!

LOCATIONS From the very first page it is listed that the children are on holiday in a little fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland. Now the North East of Scotland is more commonly understood to be this area below, including Aberdeenshire.

An initial observation is that there barely seem to be any patches of land dotting this part of the coast. However, in the book, there is mention of not one, but many islands that can be reached within a few hours from where the children are staying.  Keeping in mind that locations used are entirely fictiounous, I am still going to have a go at locating these islands off Scotland. 

Therefore, to be geographically possible, Blyton must have been referring to the geographical north-east coast. The western coast has ample little and big islands. The eastern coast has far fewer. For simplicity, I have decided to base my search on the Orkney Islands.

SPOILERS For context, 3 children, Tom and his twin sisters Mary and Jill, are on holiday with their mother in Scotland. We've already mentioned the location. Their father is in the Air Force (typical of WW2), their mother passes the time knitting. 

The children had quickly made friends with a local boy, Andy, who is the son of a fisherman and very knowledgeable. Andy is  a 14-year-old lad, older than the others, and is the one who becomes the sensible leader during their adventure. 

The children had arranged to go off in Andy's fishing boat for a brief stay on a nearby island. It was too far off to visit and return in a day, so they prepared to spend a night or so there instead. 

However, a storm during their trip leaves them without a bearing and floating out at sea. Eventually, their boat gets caught on the rocks of a completely different island. It also seems as if the island is uninhabited! With no boat to sail back home, the children make themselves 'at home' and prepare to spend the following days there.

The children soon discover that there are more islands apart from the one they were shipwrecked on. They also discover that they are not uninhabited but occupied by 'someone' who would not be pleased to know about their presence on the islands. In fact, Andy orders them to remove the signal they had put up as a sign for help. 

I don't wish to spoil the rest of the story, but there is a lot of island hopping. Here is a brief overview of the first three. 

First island: where the boat is caught on rocks and shipwrecked. It is where the children stay at first. It is also very bare and offers no secret hiding spots.

Second island: reasonably accessible from the first island by rocks when the tide is right. The children discover a cave with an enormous inventory of food. They come across this by chance and then 'borrow' food back to the first island to stock up their little kitchenette. This island also has a decent spot where a seaplane can land on.

Third island: is much further separated from the second one, than the second one is from the first. Andy and Tom have to swim across to explore it, however, Tom gets tired halfway, and Andy has to carry him to reach land. To return, the boys 'borrow' a small boat from the enemy and row back. There's quite a lot of 'borrowing' going on. This island also has a 'fine natural harbour' and housed many anamy submarines. 

Throughout their adventure, the children only get to the 3rd island (the girls don't even get so far), however, there are more islands which the adults explore later on. 

Had a go at copying one of the sketches

Taking it easy pt.1

 As per usual, summer in Malta always calls for that step back from long hikes. It tends to get extremely hot in those peak day midday hours, which leaves only the early mornings or late evenings for hiking. 

Well, I was never a morning person, and evening walks need to be timed carefully so not to end up walking in pitch darkness! Therefore, we usually like to head to one of those small villages and do a neat, short walk with a U-turn. Admittedly, it is MUCH less exciting than a circular route, but those big ones can be planned for winter.

Unfortunately this summer I made the unforgivable mistake of hurting my ankle on the second day of the holidays. The SECOND day! I can still walk on it but those long walks are unthinkable at the moment. 

Instead we've been going on walks with a more leisurely pace - more of a promenade really. One such walk happened to be at Wardija. Wardija is a lovely little hamlet that has not, as yet, been engulfed by the construction boom going on. It can most easily be accessed from the Burmarrad - Bugibba main road - there is a road near Burmarrad Lidl (previously Scotts) leading up to it. 

The incline is fairly steep and would make a great walk in itself, but an increasing usage of this road has probably made it less safe to do so. Unfortunately, there is no pavement. 

Road to Wardija.
Take the right turning each time until you reach the top

Continuing. Once up the hill, you can either explore to your right or left. Both are parts of Wardija, but the one to the left heads towards the San Martin area and has the more grandiose properties that own acres of land. To your right are more modern, smaller houses, and a very interesting trail... But more about this in another post. 

A myriad of signs to help you out. Good luck reading them all!

Well! I've just realized that I've already surpassed my usual quota for word count. Guess I will split this post into two parts, so be sure to read the next!

Enid Blyton locations pt 2 The Rilloby Fair Mystery

Here's the second Enid Blyton book read so far, this time split between 2 days. The Rilloby Fair Mystery very much focuses on a fair, and as fairs are constantly one the move from one place to another I was curious to see which locations Blyton would mention. Disappointingly neither place mentioned logically links to a real life setting. However, there are a few random links which I will soon be exploring.

Cover of the book. The first pages were torn out,
but I'd guess this Armada edition is from the late 60s or 70s period.

THE STORY BEGINS  A clash is set to happen in the Lyntons' household. Cousin Snubby and his dog Loony are meant to stay over, but so is Great Uncle Robert. Their personalities are quite the opposite, so you can imagine the potential chaos. 

En route, the two end up sharing a train compartment, HOWEVER, neither is familiar with the other. Snubby ends up making a fancy plot about a Green Hands Gang, which the old man believes, and this further adds to the awkwardness when the two meet again at the house. 

A busy busy household

It is unusual for Uncle Robert to visit when the children are on their holidays and at home. Alas, a theft at Chelie Manor, where he was staying, made him prefer the noisy din of dogs, monkeys, and the presence of Snubby. Of course, he didn't know then that he would be accompanied by dogs, monkeys and Snubby! 'Chelie' sounded more French than English, and my guess as fairly close, as the is a Chélieu in France. I must admit that Chélieu sounds much more finished, but then it wouldn't fit the English setting. 

It seems that a gang was targeting buildings housing old documents, such as letters, or maps, and steeling this. One group of items stolen were maps of the county of Lincolnshire, which is factual enough. Don't mind the map below, you can be sure that those stolen from the collection were very elaborately drawn and probably date hundred of years back. 

Fun fact - Lincolnshire spans the North, Midlands, AND south of England!

What's particularly peculiar about these robberies is that the thief manages to get into locked places! 

Coincidently at that time a fair was also at Pilbury. This name sound extremely British, and I was surprised there is no place under this name. It sounds familiar, and may have been inspired by the brand 'Pillsbury', an American brand of baking and dough products. 

This is where Diana makes the startling observation that wherever the fair is, a robbery seems to follow...This is also were Snubby, with minimal evidence, informs Great Uncle Robert that the next robbery will be in Ricklesham. The name is quite similar to Icklesham village in East Sussex. Apart from that, there is minimal connection to a place in real life. 

Icklesham is very close to Winchelsea and Hastings. 
It is located in one of my favourite areas of the southern English coast. 

As it so happens, Ricklesham House is the next to be targeted, so Snubby finds himself in a pickle. With Great Uncle Robert on his tail, Snubby nicely niftily gets out of the way and spends a day or two out of the house making errands. 

This was quite a long list, all these places where mentioned in the first few chapters. The next place Rilloby, is were the fair moves to, and where the scene settles.  Rilloby has no real connection, and does sound quite made up. All the consecutive events happening occur either between the Lynton's house, the fair grounds and very interesting castle. 

Snubby is caught snooping around the caravans

Marloes Castle - there is actually a Marloes village in Wales, with St Brides Castle nearby. Marloes village seems to be more of hamlet, but has land stretching much further. This is, in fact, a Marloes Penisula and Marloes Sands. 

Marloes

Marloes sands, Wales

In the story, the castle is near Rilloby, and not named after a village of the same name.

All the little random connections mentioned are very small villages, and I doubt if Blyton even knew of such a place as Chélieu when she was writing this book. I have no intention of revealing how the storlyline develops, but it makes a great read!

Still on the lookout for a shoe

 The search for that hiking boots is ongoing, and nearing desperation. Don't think I've been constantly searching non-stop though, I haven't! I had exams to think about.

The thing is that there aren't a lot of options when it comes to hiking boots, or shoes in Malta, especially if you have feet problems! As far as I know only one single shop would import a specific brand. For instance, Mochika get Solomon, Surplus and Adventure get Hi-Tec and Lowa, SportsDirect get Karrimor, Gelert, Merrell, and some others. To be fair, I think Solomon is amongst the few brands found across separate outlets. I saw it at Mochika, SportsDirect and Decathlon too, unless I am not mistaken.

I also came across two very cheap hiking boots from SportsDirect and Decathlon, which were selling for 17 euro. The one from SportsDirect honestly had a lot of potential, however I wear my shoes with a special insole, which unfortunately tends to be ticker than most soles that come with the shoe. Sometimes it takes up more space and results in odd creases with each step.

Donnay walking boots

The other 'bargain' was a Quechua shoe, also selling at the grand price of 17 euro or so. However, they run narrow and squeak most irritably! Oh well...

NH100 Walking Boots

Buying a hiking boots can be tricky, as this isn't any shoe where an uncomfortable spot can be tolerated. Spending hours walking in it means that an irritation becomes a blister, swelling, etc. I did, unfortunately, make one bad buy. The first, very first hiking shoe I put my foot into was a Hi-Tec - I just love Hi-Tec shoes. I was a bit hesitant about this one, and turned towards other shoes throughout my search, however, eventually returned to buy it. 

The Hi-Tec boots

Looking back, the fit was obviously small on my feet, and despite spending literally an hour, if not more, walking around with it in the shop I seemed to have overlooked this fact. It was just so wonderful I must have deluded myself into believing the size was right. Fortunately, my mother wears a size smaller than I do and needed a hiking boots too, so at least that's one problem sorted now!

An updated map of Gozo public transport

 This blog is Malta on a map, but er, it’s Gozo that will be getting a map this time. More specifically, an updated map of its public transport. 

My version

Map showing routes of Gozo Public Transport Map

I came across a map of Malta and Gozo I had bought a couple of years ago. It isn’t that top notch detailed map to be used while driving, but does include the basics, like the main connecting roads between the towns and village and tourist attractions. This map is, in fact, mainly meant for tourists, and has sections translated in German, Italian, French, and so on.  

Big Map! Packet of Tissues for reference

In one section are two maps of the islands’ public transport. One for Malta, and a smaller map for Gozo. The Gozo one was quite simple, so I decided to make a more detailed, and now updated one!

Tallinja transportation links

I next plan to work on one covering Malta… however, this may be more challenging. There have been more changes to routes and new routes were added. Additionally, main routes ending in Valletta will be trickier to map in terms space comparing to those ending in Victoria, which would be at the centre of the page, and therefore space. I may split them…and have a map with routes serving to and from Valletta and routes between towns themselves. Thoughts?

P.S. I know the new map is looking bare, but I plan to make a copy of it and use water colouring to make it more 3D like the original one! 

Want a digitalised copy? Download it from here.