What's that coming over the hill? Is it a Panzer Tank?

Right. Since the last post. Malta, Nottingham (agaaain. Why do they never change the menu? Although the duck in orange and rosemary was a surprise and spankingly good). Edinburgh, finally. Normally I would describe myself as a person with persistently itchy feet, but this summer, despite having done more travelling than an STD in Bangkok, I have found myself persistently missing Edinburgh. This place rocks.

So before the trip with Granny to Malta, I realised that it would be my last bit of Fringe Festival action this year, and that a sensible plan would be to make the most of it. So Monday and Tuesday both involved 4am returns to bed (and involved much high jinks and the story of the woman who 'I altered' - I would relate it but it is a little egocentric and people might (possibly rightly) of being big headed) and then Wednesday involved just not bothering to go to bed at all. I had to be at the airport for 6:30am, so rather than getting an hours sleep and trying to make it there, I figured it would be more fun just to stay up (although going to bed might have meant avoiding Mr Old Man obviously lost watching a ska band who relentlessly talked to me about Elvis for half an hour). Needless to say, the rest of the day was pretty hellish, and the family saw the worst of me (apart from when they got to see my athletic prowess, running through the airport Love Actually style to get to a post box), but when we got to Valletta, it was very pretty.

In fact, most of Malta is pretty, as long as you stay near the coast. The rest of it is dry and dusty, but seeing as its a small island, a lot of it is coast. And the diving is incredible. I got to do a couple of dives with a random guy running a dive school out of an old Ice Cream kiosk, on some wrecks and through some caves. This isn't a very interesting story to anyone who doesn't dive, but I saw a few stingrays, and flying gurnards and stuff you dont get in the UK.

The other thing Malta has lots of is old stuff. The have religious temples 1000 years older than stonehenge and lots of catacombic tombs. Here's a picture (OK, there isn't cos blogspot aren't letting me, but check out Flickr instead).

The Nottingham trip doesn't have much to report on other than that I led worship for our Student Ministry staff conference we had, and my voice got likened to Chris Rea's. And the man was serious.

Oh and has anyone heard of Bic Runga? She's incredible and I got to stand right at the front for her concert last night. I know you're jealous.

Edit: In response to the comment - no the Lovesac has not yet arrived, however the saga has extended with the addition of more costs assosiated with customs. But today is the day it's supposed to land in Liverpool docks. So as long as those cheeky scousers don't nick it, we'll be alright.