The theme of this  month’s mag ‘the F word’ which by the way is FAT  (I know what you were thinking!).

The articles are not much better than the pun of the ‘f’ word.  The copy purely insulted my intelligence and lacked any credential substance. Within minutes of leafing through the magazine, I could see the sales and marketing team had been hard at work…. Of course being summer everyone is concerned about their weight so BAMMM it on the front cover, match it up with a yellow highlighted spot about ‘shoes’ and obviously this issue would fly off the shelf. I have nothing against marketing… I’m an online marketing expert.. but I left a job in the past where sales becomes more important than better good of your users. There has to be some balance.

There was NO balance in this issue of cosmo… the mag still included its normal ‘adverts’, full page spreads showing tiny models of the perfume and fashion industry. I found it hypocritical to read one article about ‘celebrity weight pressures by the media’ and on the page next to it see not just a tiny framed model, but a tiny framed model in a corset. If celebrities are pressured by society and media, don’t you think  that consumers and the girl next door are pressured in exactly the same way.

I was annoyed about the article showing ‘tummies’ of different sized women, obviously cosmo opens up their article with a full page shot of a tiny model’s stomach, followed by women ‘off the street’ who are happy with their size. Principle is not always about being happy, what about the health factor, no mention of BMI or waist to hip ratio. My question is: ‘Why not?’ Where is the substance the how to the real facts the issue about Obesity and the UK. Of course readers do not want to read this, but as a publication that reach so many women, it is their responsibility to inform the public and guide the public. I’m not talking about turning cosmo into a fitness magazine, but for gods sake a blurb about ‘healthy weight loss’ or a snippet of a useful ‘tummy exercise’ would be nice.

I think the articles lacked depth of what looks good and IS healthy.

If you are looking for some useful magazines about health, beauty and fitness, my favourites can be found here

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrr13HuECrA

For once parking wasnt a problem and the MFCC was half full. The event was said to be sold out, but it didnt look that way; there were defintely not 10,000 people there. it looked more like 5000.

I really cant say much about the organisation of the event. The opening band ‘tribali’, now seriously! What do Tribali have to do with Prodigy? Most people were outside before Prodigy started -- then it was a huge push and shove to get to the front when they started. The worst part was that the sound sucked, vocals were overpowered by the music.

Overall: an overpriced disappointing event!

In a nutshell, a monument which, admittedly is shaped like a penis has came into the target of Luqa mayor John Schembri. He wants it removed so that the Pope, who is visiting the island this weekend, does not have to avert his eyes when his entourage drives past. Locally, the monument is already infamous for let’s call them phallic connotations, and while some Maltese are revelling in serious (well as serious as you can get from inflamed comment trolls) debate about it, others are simply enjoying the farce. The story has been featured on sbs.com.au, yahoo news, the guardian and the bbc to name just a few.

However, all I can think of is that the 3 men involved in it, mayor, artist and holy man, are precisely that, men. So maybe what’s happening here is just a manifestation of what men seem to be always thinking about, their ‘pulsating members’! And that they don’t really like stone ones that are bigger and have wilder colours.

Apart from causing traffic jams
making it difficult for everyone to get to work,
more dust everywhere;
now we are going to remove pieces of ‘art’ because they ‘would be offensive to the pope?

I have decided to come up with a list of vital changes that should be made before the visit:

• Please knock down the mosque
• Please knock down the powerstation (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Knock-Down-Marsa-Power-Station-Because-The-Pope-Is-Coming/110789245620874?ref=mf&v=wall)
• Please stop women from wearing bikinis on the beaches next weekend.
• Please cut down any trees that look phallic
• Please cover up the Ggantija temples because they look like a naked woman
• Please destroy the painting of the Beheading of John the Baptist because it shows (yes you guessed it) his nipples.
• Please remove all young boys from the island (quickly…)

Now for the ten Maltese commandments which much be obeyed by all residents of Malta during this special weekend.

1. All women must wear dressesAll Maltese people must wear rosary beads and a gold cross around their necks
2. All Maltese people must stop using the the saints’ names when swearing.
3. All bars, clubs discos must be closed.
4. All citizens are expected to walk barefoot towards places that the pope will visit(thus new tarmac!)
5. Each family must give a donation to the vatican, (because its only the richest organisation in the world and they need more money to help the poor)
6. No sex is to be had while the pope is in Malta.
7. All black spray cans and paint or anything that can draw pedopandas on billboards must be removed from all homes and burned.
8. All condom vending machines, GU clinics and pharmacies to closed or covered.
9. People who cohabit should go back to their parents and repent from their sinful lives.

Now that we are PURE, holy and non offensive society ; the pope can come to our country…

What is it about Air Malta…. apart from ridiculous over pricing, the old planes and scary scary landings… they just cant seem to get it right with me…

Today I was sent an email by ‘air malta’ saying that there had been a change to my flight to Italy in July. Fair enough these things happen. I look over the email: sorry for the inconvenience bla bla bla insert other usual stuff here… anyway so i look over the email and at the flight details because essentially i dont really have time to ready 2 full paragraphs of garble  and I couldnt see the difference… I simply couldn’t figure out what had changed. So i followed the contact us link which sent me to the call center number and I called them…
‘If you would like to speak to someone in English press 2′ – I press 2 because my Maltese isnt nice for anyone’s ears. I am put in touch with some guy – I cant remember his name because honestly I would write it here if I did. He asked me for my booking number I told him, he checked my booking and said AHHH yes caz your flight is going to leave at 7.55 not 7.05. With my computer in front of me being the geek I am I looked at my email again and asked him: but my email says nothing about a time change – the time stated on my email still says 7.05, to which he answered ‘Im sorry madam that is the web teams responsibility if you want to complain you have to call them’…

Well howdy doooo please pass on the buck and send me on a telephone scavenger hunt…. ‘NO thanks’ I replied, ‘just tell me what time my flight is please so I dont miss it!

We get past the marsa traffic and to the airport. I go to the air malta desk to ask about my air miles. They were as helpful as a nostril on my elbow. In the past 6 months I’ve been on over 15 air Malta flights they simply hold a ridiculous monopoly on destinations but Im not here to moan about air malta today. We checked-in and I was overjoyed that I had managed to pack a suitcase into another one and two people’s clothes into one suitcase and still weigh in at 20kgs! Class!

At the airport we had some overpriced drinks and waited for boarding. YAY, no one was next to us on the plane. – during the flight I got thinking about why my father used to want to sit above the wings of the plane…. Honestly if it crashes I doubt its going to make a difference.
On a less serious note but still one of some concern my boyfriend seems to have ‘visually picked up’ a blonde 5 year old  sitting across our aisle. Impressed? Me hardly! For dinner we are served a lovely meatball sort of object surrounded by veg and shredded potatoes…. we discussed dinner immediately after poking at the food. On landing the flight ended off with a classic comment from a passenger talking to her partner:’ look hunny its raining – its wet everywhere!’ my thought – yes because it rains in patches :/
The rest of our evening was pretty easy. Gatwick express to Victoria station a couple of stations on the district line and then onto the picadilly line straight to terminal 4. We used the tunnel in terminal 4 directly to the hilton hotel. The passage was pretty interesting – motivational poster telling you how many minutes left you had to walk down the 6 minute long passage; we did not miss out on a photo opportunity at each sign. Hotel was pretty cool with really nice staff.

Facebook is the most popular site for Maltese people – we love to know what everyone is doing so facebook makes it so much easier

Second come our friends Google

Followed by  youtube and then other search engine

The wikipedia the source of all references nowadays

The times of malta ranks as the top Maltese owned site on the list

and is followed mainly by ebay, hi5 and other sources of ‘waste your time at work portals’

Gomobile is the second maltese site in the list but is still out beaten by Twitter – just to think a couple of months back I think I was one of the very few Maltese people on Twitter – VIRAL boom!

Bank of Valletta site beats HSBC by about ten spots… so im guessing thats good for me… ‘Dear bov, can I have less interest rates for mention you here?’ Ok cant blame a girl for trying

Of course rapidshare is up there in the top 20 – Piracy? Maltese? We know not what you talk about mighty internet lords, we are an innocent nation!

Ranking in 33rd spot some good old porn site!

The list goes on to mention several betting sites, more social network sites, air malta, melita cable and so on….

So now you know – its not that hard for me to find out what you are doing online! Im watching

Something that i have been using for quite some time now is Twitter. I use it to get word about about my new blog posts mostly as I know that people arent really interested in my ever single move. That said it is a great way to learn about new things and share them which is what Web 2.0 is essentially about.

So here is a simple video about what is twitter for all those people who dont know about it yet (Yes mum its for you – Now that you have got facebook down – its time for something new!)

Funnily enough this video is about a user whose name is Carla!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

You can sign up to twitter by going to twitter.com

Once you have an account and are signed in click here: twitter.com/carlamaree and Iwill follow you!