Dear Editor, For many years I wanted to calibrate my watch, buy a couple of new lugs and an original strap for my Raymond Weil Watch but the hideous long trip from Gozo to Valletta was too much for just an hour’s errand.

Last week, I was hosting a couple of beautiful Couch Surfers (Google it) from Sicily and they asked me if I wanted to join them for a day on Comino. I wanted to very much, but the thought that I would not find a nook of space to set me down for ‘the empty deck chairs who have more rights than us humans and Maltese Citizens,’ always puts me off from going to the Blue Lagoon. I also knew that I would have slowed them down so I thought of my Valletta errand and told them that I will take this opportunity to go to Valletta while they go to the Lagoon.

The Fast Ferry seemed as a blessing. This was on the 10th of last week. I bought a ticket and hopped on. As I was to sit down I saw a mobile phone on the seat. My mobile has a cracked face so this brand new, expensive looking gadget sparkled my eyes and I confess that some tantalising thoughts crossed my mind. Yet I remembered how important my personal mobile is for me and I put on the owner’s shoes and felt sorry for him.

I thought maybe he has his whole house connected through some apps like mine which can light up bulbs, switch them off, open doors, answer front doors, switch on the electric kettle, maybe a massage chair like mine and so on.

If I ever lose my phone I would go crazy and so I figured that also this person would, but how do I get it to him? I have to take it to the staff, but then I tried to unlock it and I was successful on my second attempt. I found a Chinese text message open and wrote something like “I found this mobile on the Virtu Fast Ferry, please tell the owner that I have it” I figured that this person was a tourist and will hate Gozo for the rest of his life associating his loss with going to Gozo.

Then I got a ??????? message back. ‘Blimey’ I said these guys are Chinese!. Then I looked up his contacts hoping to find a non-Chinese name. He was lucky, he had Maltese contacts on his phone so I called the first Maltese surname I found. Called it twice but no answer.

Then I felt a little bit scratchy (because it was not my mobile and I shouldn’t be prowling in its data.) but if there was one Maltese surname there must be more, and true enough, there was! I called this second person and in Maltese I explained to him that his Chinese friend lost his mobile, can you get in touch with him and let him know. ‘Yes I can contact his wife’ he said. I also found out from the friend that the man lives and works in Malta.

Anyway soon enough, one of the captains of the ferry came up to me and asked me to go downstairs for someone who lost his phone is here to collect it. A member of the staff opened the door and another ground member took the mobile and gave it to a man. Before the door closed I saw the man smile at me and gesture a thank you with his hands. That was my first good deed of the day. Great feeling.

I cannot compare the two operators because I just found Virtu Ferry’s one ready to sail when I got to Mgarr. All I can say is that I had a swell time talking to the best educated Stewardess, with a smile that big; that it exhibited through the mask, who could have sat down and relaxed but instead chatted with me and kept me company the whole 40m trip.

Then I went up the lift (the old one of course) which I had ridden when I was a toddler with my father, God rests his soul, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGC0fQ_krGY and found myself at the beautiful upper Barrakka.

Had a coffee and a toast at a bar and had a chat with a friend, owner of a shoe store in front of St John’s Co-Cathedral who had donated a lot of shoes to my poor Peruvian friends when I used to mission there.

The watch was ready in less than an hour and back down on the lift while I reminisced the Greenfield’s song https://youtu.be/zMv9PyC_JkY Before I left I met a very nice Netherlands family waiting for the same Virtu Ferry to take us to Gozo.

I also introduced this family to the Stewardess and she was very nice to them too. I offered to drive them to Kempinski Hotel but they had already booked a taxi. Kempinski is my dream hotel if I ever get rich. It was so nice to look out of the windows as we left to see the Grand Harbour and more. https://youtu.be/5_y7hBFupr8

With the Fast Ferry I truly feel I am MALTESE and not Maltese//Gozitan. The errands, study, work, visiting relatives, entertainment, eating in restaurants which we do not find the like in Gozo and Educational sites now became in reach.

I always felt that I and all Gozitans are discriminated against because of the simple fact of the sea stretch between our islands. Now with the special low fare and fast commute I feel equal to my Maltese brothers and sisters.

Anthony Zammit,

Gozo

Photo supplied by author

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