Challenge on the Sister Isle

On the weekend of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th March 2013, a few friends and myself set out on a challenging hike that would take us along the entire coast of the island of Gozo. This 52 kilometre hike would take us along ever-changing terrain but will also enable us to see all the beauty that the island of Gozo has to offer.

 

The plan was to take a half day off work on Friday and head to the northern port of Cirkewwa to catch the ferry to Gozo. Once we arrived on the island we set out towards the West. Our first pit stop (or beer-stop as we liked to call it) was Xlendi where we got to relax for a short while and have a few pints of Cisk to re-fuel. Once we were done we set out to reach Dwejra by nightfall where we would pitch our tents and spend the night. Before we went to sleep we treated ourselves to dinner at the only restaurant that was open, and although the choice had been made for us due to the lack of options the food was very good and so was the wine.

 

On Saturday morning, we struck camp and set out for the rest of our journey. The next beer-stop was Marsalforn and because we were ahead of schedule we decided to spend a couple of hours there relaxing and chatting over a few pints of beer and an English breakfast. Once we had refuelled our bodies and our supplies from a nearby supermarket we set out for the final stop of the day - Ramla Bay in Xaghra. The journey to Ramla was difficult and dangerous and the most challenging one we had encountered till now, but the worst was yet to come. Passing through tightly packed bamboo fields, climbing crumbling clay cliffs, and all while carrying about 10 kilograms ore more on our backs were just a few of the challenges encountered that day. On arrival in Ramla Bay, however, we pitched our tents, gathered some wood, prepared a fire, and managed to relax proud of the fact that we had made it this far despite all the obstacles thrown in our way. Little did we know what would be in store for us on the last day of our hike.

 

That night was a very windy one, which meant that those of us who were light sleepers did not get much rest which is always a problem when undertaking a challenge such as this. Another let-down for the day was that one of the hikers encountered issues with one of his feet which meant that he felt he was unable to continue and had to catch a bus back home. With one man down and a slight lack of sleep, we set out for what would become the most challenging part of the entire weekend trek. Using our previously made calculations, we concluded that this hike should take us approximately 4 and a half hours due to the distance and the average speed we had maintained throughout the weekend so far. Therefore, by our calculations we should have been home for lunch. This, however, was not the case, due to a number of factors including a very dangerous and long field covered in massive boulders, more bamboo fields, and getting lost due to a lack of clearly marked paths. In fact, the last part of our Gozo hike took us almost 7 hours to complete. Nonetheless, we completed the challenge we set out for ourselves and walked the entire 52 kilometre coast of the island of Gozo. This hike enabled us to see the beautiful scenery that Gozo has to offer from a perspective rarely seen when just holidaying on the island. It also made us proud that we were able to prove to ourselves that this challenge was not out of our reach.

 

 

Photos coming soon!

Three Times in Three Months

I am aware that the title leaves a lot to the imagination but that is exactly what I was going for. It is important that you, the reader, starts this story off with not much of an idea of what it is about. Now that I’ve got your attention, I will elaborate by noting that this story is about the trips I’ve made in the past three months – November 2012, December 2012, and January 2013.

I knew I had a special love for London since the first time I came here back in 2011. To this day I’m still not sure what it is about this city that I love so much, but what I do know is that it has continuously brought me back here time and time again. The fact that two of my best friends live here, which means I have more of a reason to come up and pay a visit, may be the biggest contributing factor, but if I’m honest it is probably not just this fact that keeps pulling my attention to this city.

My first visit here was in 2011 when a couple of friends and myself decided to plan a holiday to London where we would stay with another friend of ours who lives and works here. That particular holiday comprised mostly of sightseeing so involved a lot of walking around and rushing to see all the landmarks and places of interest in the short time that we had. Though I’ve been here with friends from Malta, I’ve made the journey here alone more times than with others. The main reason for my trips to London has always been to watch some band play live at one of the many music venues available in this city. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Black Keys, The Macabees, The Cat Empire and Alt-J are all bands I’ve had the pleasure of watching in London and since I consider music to be a very big part of my life, I never minded the expense and travelling time involved in getting to the city. I’ve also been able to watch some local football games while in London such as Fulham vs Sunderland at Craven Cottage, and more recently, Arsenal vs Swansea at the Emirates Stadium, which is one of the most beautiful and luxurious stadiums I have ever seen.

The number of times I’ve been up here alone have been great, mostly due to the fact that my friends living here always take good care of me by keeping me entertained in any way possible. Also, when alone it gives one the time and freedom to do and see whatever they desire. Case in point would be an Alan Turing exhibition at the Science Museum I had the pleasure of viewing a couple of days ago. Due to the fact that I’m possibly the only person in my entire group of friends remotely interested in science, I would probably not have been able to do this had I been with other people while on this trip without making somebody unhappy or extremely bored. That being said, my friends will always try to keep everyone happy even if they would have to walk through an exhibit they have absolutely no interest in, so I’m pretty lucky in that respect.

This time around I was lucky enough to wake up to snow on one of the mornings. It was the first time I had seen snow in years, and the very first time I’d seen it in London. Although, snow is probably the norm or even a nuisance to most Europeans, it is a novelty for us Maltese as it never snows on our little island as we do not have the right weather conditions for it. In a way, it is a blessing that it does not snow in Malta, as if it did the entire country would cease to function.

Well, basically I think you get the gist of my story. I like London and will continue to come back here time and time again. I may even possibly live here one day that is still to be determined and will not be the case for at least a year or two due to certain factors keeping me in Malta.

Computing - The Quantum Way

I recently received the results of my thesis and am glad to say that I passed with flying colours, which is extremely satisfying considering the amount of work and effort that I put into it. Countless days and hours were spent in front of both the laptop and a number of large books on the subject.

As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, my thesis was a research paper on Quantum Computing. Now, since I don't want to bore you all with the Physics behind this particular subject, i'll just keep it brief and give you the basic concepts.

In conventional computing, a number of transistors on a circuit board are turned off and on in a controlled sequence according to what task the computer is required to carry out. These transistors can either be on or off, or in a state of 1 or 0. That is, each transistor can either be on (1) or off (0), but not in both states at the same time. The switching on and off of these transistors creates binary strings. These strings are made up of 1s and 0s and look something like this: 10111100010010. These 1s and 0s are the base components of a computer and are known as Binary Bits.

In quantum computing, on the other hand, the base components are known as  Quantum Bits or Qubits. These qubits are essentially atoms or sub-atomic particles. The beauty of quantum computing, and the true source of their potential power, is the fact that qubits can be in a number of states simultaneously. That is, where a binary bit can only be in a state of 1 or 0, qubits can be in both a state of 1 and of 0 at the same time. This phenomenon is due to Physical principles such as wave-particle duality, superposition of matter and decoherence, and is the reason why quantum computing has the potential for creating extremely powerful machines that can perform an extremely large number of calculation in a very short amount of time.

More on this subject coming soon....

It's Been a While

It has been ages since I last submitted a new post to my blog, and for good reason as nothing that exciting has been going on of late. That, however, will hopefully soon change as a new year comes along. I'm not usually one to give much notice of a change in date or the significance of that date, but this year I know things are going to change because I'm going to make the effort to change them. 

Change doesn't happen on it's own, through some divine intervention or by chance! Change happens when an individual puts his mind towards something and strives to achieve that goal he or she sets!

I know that it seems that I'm coming along all philosophical and holier than thou, and all that crap, but I believe that the internet is a place where people can vent, share their views, and just talk rubbish in general. One case in point is the press. Every time I access a local news site to take a look at what is going on in my country and around the world, all I hear about are stories of murder, violence, theft and, worst of all, politics. 2012, in fact, has been the most unbearable year for anybody who has no interest in politics or is even sickened by the thought of conversing about politics. An election is coming up in March 2013 and this election has been a long time coming as 2012 has been an entire year of the two main political parties campaigning. The sheer amount of billboards, junkmail and TV adverts we have been forced to see and watch has been ridiculous. It has almost pushed me not to cast my vote when election day comes around. The only reason I will cast my vote is that I know it is my civic duty and before I do cast my vote I will be sure to gather all the information I would need to make the right choice. However,I would very much like to do this on my own and in my own time, and not having it shoved down my throat by politicians.

Enough about politics, as I wouldn't want to bore you, even though I fear that I might have already done that.

On a lighter note, the weather has been beautiful here and due to the festive season, all friends living abroad have come back home for a short while so that we could all catch up on old times as well as new. Lots of food has been eaten and copious amounts of alcohol have been drunk at the large number of parties that have been organised across the island. All in all, it's been a fun one and I can't really complain about recent and current happenings.

I will now love you and leave you, as it's time for another Friday night full of jokes and beer with the guys, and maybe some girls.

Until my next post....Caw Gadajs!

New Venture

I've only recently decided to take a stab at blogging as I'm trying to get a footing in the web community and what better place to start than to share experiences and ideas through a personal blog. The main reason why i want to get more involved in the web community is that I'm extremely interested in the web industry and e-commerce and am trying to get a piece of the pie, if you know what I mean. Therefore, I've started working on a number of websites for friends and family which are already looking very promising.


I currently work as a Systems Administrator and have always been interested in the IT industry but recently I have become very interested in the ability to show your knowledge and artwork to a worldwide audience via the internet. Nowadays there are so many different technologies and ways in which people can design and build websites and web applications, making it an interesting way to make a living while also getting your message and the messages of others across. Due to the fact that the web design industry is one that is constantly evolving it is sure to remain an interesting part of the IT world.


Using a number of the different available technologies, I am currently working on four different sites. One is a surprise for a family member who is interested in photography and, in my opinion, has a talent for creating art with his camera in the everyday things that we see on our beautiful island of Malta and it's sister islands of Gozo and Comino. This website will be a relatively simple one consisting of a home page, gallery and contact page. I might also include a blog page but have not decided yet. Two of the other sites are for my cousin and a friend of hers who are professional dancers in Amsterdam and need a place of their own on the web. These two sites are still in the very early stages of development but will probably get well underway within the next couple of weeks. The other site is one that I completed a couple of years ago but would like to upgrade using newer technologies as it is a site that is entirely composed of HTML and CSS which doesn't make it the most of interesting of sites as you can imagine.


I hope that this new venture I'm embarking on will be fruitful, both with regards experience gained  as well as money earned. Also if anyone does actually read this, which is not very probable, any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.