Anthony Kiedis at the End of the World

August 29th, 2007, 1 Comment »

    Anthony Kiedis at the Blue Chimney

  • When you live on a tiny speck of land in the middle of the Mediterranean.
  • When you live on an island off the coast of an island.
  • When you take some visiting friends down to see a local tourist attraction.

The last person you expect to see is an international rock sensation.

Julie and I are with our friends Rob and Suze, and we’re wading around in the shadow of the spectacular azure window. We’re just on our way out when we pass a group on their way in. Suze points out that we’ve just walked past none other than Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and occasional nudist.

Rob snapped a surreptitious photo while I resisted the temptation to go over and ask him if Catholic school girls do, in fact, rule. It was a bit surreal, as it’s kind of the last place you expect to meet the guy who wrote, say, “Sexy Mexican Maid” or “Fight Like A Brave”.

I happened to see Mr. Kiedis and his girlfriend again today as they were riding a scooter down Republic Street in the island’s main town of Victoria. That dude has a lot of tattoos.

I saw over on Malta Forums that somebody scored an autograph.

In related photographic news, check out how I managed to ruin this perfectly lovely shot. That’s me with the snorkel. I did manage to compensate for it, though, by snapping this nice photo with Rob’s camera.

1 Comment »

Photos of the Oft-Photographed Azure Window

May 7th, 2007, No Comments »

Azure WindowThere are wonders of the world, both natural and man-made, that look better in photographs. You pitch up at the actual thing and go, “huh, well, yep, there it is”. I felt that way about the Eiffel Tower and Capetown’s Table Mountain.

Happily, we felt genuinely awed by Dwejra Bay on Gozo’s west coast.

It’s a couple of kilometres east of our village, and home to some of the best snorkling and diving in the Mediterrenean. It was too windy to go swimming today, but we did clamber around the rocks to see Dwejra’s prima donna: the Azure Window.

It’s an enormous natural arch formed in the sea cliffs. Because of the blustery weather, the waves roared through it and smashed against its shore-side interior. Directly in front of the Azure Window is another geological wonder: the Blue Hole. That sounds like a sex club, but it’s actually a natural chimney that’s 25m deep. It opens to the open ocean 8m down.

The Azure Window is apparently the Hollywood sign of Malta. Everybody comes for a visit, and snaps some photos. I took more than my fair, and managed to winnow them down these four. I also shot this cool-looking Morris Minor, and an enormous limestone quarry on the way home.

No Comments »