Friday 1st March
This Friday was the next date we had been given for the hearing at the Old Bailey to discuss jurisdiction over the person accused of killing my cousin. It appears he may need both to be tried here, for my cousin's killing, and in Germany for another killing. Having to go to the Old Bailey was the reason my sister and I had to return from Malta - otherwise we could have stayed there for the weekend.
During the week, things became more complicated. E, our Family Liaison Officer, called me to say a colleague of hers would have to take us to court, as she had another appointment. She said she would let me know by text on Thursday afternoon, (when the court lists for Friday are published) the time of the hearing next morning, as well as giving me the phone number of her colleague who would meet us. As I hadn't heard from her by the time we were boarding the plane, I sent her a reminder text.
Unknown to us, there was a further complication. The judge is currently sitting on a case at Chelmsford Crown Court. The original plan appears to have been to use the video link - Judge in Chelmsford, the rest of us in the Old Bailey; that's how it was published on the court lists at around 4 pm on Thursday. But then somebody noticed that the video link was already in use, because the accused needs to use it, as he does not attend in person but by video link from the secure hospital. So at about 5pm it was decided that, since it was a bit late to transfer the hearing to Chelmsford, the best thing was to cancel the hearing - by which time we were in the air! Once the list has been published, it seems there is no publication of cancellations. So I assume it's up to phone calls and word of mouth.
Even more unfortunately, E, our Family Liaison Officer, had developed 'flu; she decided that, instead of texting me, she would phone me at 7.30 after we had landed; unfortunately, the poor woman fell asleep instead.
We landed to find no message, and sent a further frantic text to E, to no avail. So we collected our baggage, found the free Wi-Fi at Heathrow, sat down and logged on to get the court lists. We found the case listed at the Bailey for 9.30 in a numbered court, but the Judge sitting in Chelmsford. And we knew the accused was already on a video link from the secure hospital, so we couldn't understand how it would be done.
Anyway, it seemed best that my sister and I stayed together. So, instead of going to my house, I went home with my sister. We considered we would need to be at the Old Bailey by 9. With no message from E about her colleague who was to be her substitute, we had to assume we were on our own. If you go to court with a police officer, you can sit in the court itself and you just turn off your phone before you go in. If you have to go into the public gallery, you can't take your phone with you, and there is nowhere for you to leave it at the Old Bailey; you apparently have to leave it in a local shop, paying for the privilege. We needed to find the shop - hence my going home with my sister, as the chance of our meeting without phones was nil, and I needed to keep my phone until we went into court, in case E or some other officer decided to contact me after all.
At 5am on Friday morning, E woke up from her 'flu induced sleep and nearly had a fit when she read my texts; she immediately sent me a hurried text, which woke me up. I cancelled my early alarm and set another for 7, so I could tell my sister not to bother getting up. Later on, E called me to explain what had happened. Poor woman sounded so ill; having been a teacher (in a different life) I know how difficult it is when the kind of work you do doesn't really permit you to be ill.
The bad part is that, for the moment the case seems to be being transferred to Chelmsford Crown Court, and is currently scheduled for 9am on Thursday 7th. E says the police can take us to Chelmsford, which is just as well, as the complications of getting all the way there in the very early morning would otherwise make our lives quite difficulty. However, that's the day Paul gets back from the United States and he has no key to get into the house! I imagine we might have to leave before 7 am, long before Paul arrives.
Of course, the date could change! I won't necessarily know what is happening until Wednesday night. The court lists are published between 2 and 4 pm the day before. I have noticed that the Old Bailey are often late in publishing (then this time, cancelled the hearing at 5pm.) I don't even know if my sister will be able come, she would need to go into work very late. If she can come, I think I might stay with her so there will be fewer complications for the journey to Chelmsford.
Monday 4 March 2013
Sunday 3 March 2013
Leaving Malta
Thursday 28th February
When we woke up on our last day on Malta, and only a half day at that, we found it was bright and sunny and much the warmest day we had had so far; it seemed a shame to be leaving on such a beautiful day, especially when we had had some cold and windy days earlier on.
We had an early breakfast and checked out of the hotel shortly after 9.30, leaving our suitcases for collection later. We caught a bus into Valletta, where we planned to walk the ramparts right round the city, a walk that takes around 2 hours. It was a little difficult to find the way onto ramparts at first, since so much restoration work is being done at the entrance to the city and streets are blocked off. This is the reason I have posted no photographs of the gate into the city; any photo would just be full of dust, workmen, cranes and hoardings.
We started at the western side, in gardens called Hastings Gardens. We were able to look out over Marsamxetto Harbour, and across the water slightly to the west of Sliema, where we had been staying.
One thing we noticed immediately was the thickness of the walls, they must have been at least 15 or 20 feet thick; no wonder Valletta was viewed as impregnable.
That section of the wall looked down on what had originally been a gate, with a long, narrow dog-leg shaped entry - minimising the field of fire for assailants, making it impossible for them to get a good run up with a ram to the gate, and exposing the them to fire down from the wall above for a long way. For most of the way round the ramparts, it would have been difficult to assault the walls with ladders, since the top of the wall was so thick and sloped downwards and outwards at quite a steep angle. Of course, the fortifications were built after the Great Siege of 1565, so the Knights of St John would have had a great deal of experience of what worked in the way of fortifications!
We were able to walk round most of the ramparts as far as Fort St Elmo at the end of the peninsula. The War Museum is there, but unfortunately we had no time for that. There are also clusters of horse-drawn buggies awaiting customers - perhaps some people flake out by the time they have walked that far and need a ride back. Valletta is not flat, so we did a good deal of climbing up and down steps, and also slogging up some very steep streets. Some of the streets are amazingly steep, one we climbed earlier in the week was so steep it had chevron shaped ridges in the tarmac to stop the cars sliding down it.
Once we had passed Fort St Elmo, we had rounded the point and were on the other side of the peninsula, looking over the ramparts down into the Grand Harbour. On the opposite side of the harbour from Valletta looking east is an area known as the Three Cities, one of which, Vittoriosa, we had visited on Tuesday. We could look across to Fort St Angelo, where Caravaggio was imprisoned after he committed crimes in Malta.
The building where he was imprisoned is the one with the cross on top.
We were on the eastern ramparts near the monument to the siege of Malta and the bombing in the Second World War. This is a handsome cupola which houses a big bell that is struck every day at midday.
There is also an enormous statue, which was erected at the point where there had been a huge gun - the metal tracks used to turn the gun are still there, set in the stone.
The next part of the walk was round to the Lascaris battery, from where the noon gun is fired. The necessitated a slog up the steepest street yet - it is too steep for cars, so it is just steps. It is also very long, and we had to stop for a breather several times. No doubt people who live on streets like this, of which there are quite a few, keep very fit!
We arrived at the Lascaris battery at about 5 minutes to midday, so we were able to join the crowds of tourists looking down on the gun battery to watch the noonday gun being fired. According to the commentary, there were originally 3 guns, at sunrise, noon and sunset, because most of the population didn't have any other means of telling the time. The noon gun is the only one fired now.
After this, we were practically back at the city gate and it was nearly time to get the bus back to collect our suitcases. We just had time to look in one shop for souvenirs before picking up a snack to eat later, then we had to rush round to the bus station for the bus back to Sliema. We were back in good time to collect our suitcases, and were able to sit on the sea front eating our snack while waiting for the airport bus.
At the airport, there was free Wi-Fi, so I was able to post 2 days worth of blog.
When we woke up on our last day on Malta, and only a half day at that, we found it was bright and sunny and much the warmest day we had had so far; it seemed a shame to be leaving on such a beautiful day, especially when we had had some cold and windy days earlier on.
We had an early breakfast and checked out of the hotel shortly after 9.30, leaving our suitcases for collection later. We caught a bus into Valletta, where we planned to walk the ramparts right round the city, a walk that takes around 2 hours. It was a little difficult to find the way onto ramparts at first, since so much restoration work is being done at the entrance to the city and streets are blocked off. This is the reason I have posted no photographs of the gate into the city; any photo would just be full of dust, workmen, cranes and hoardings.
We started at the western side, in gardens called Hastings Gardens. We were able to look out over Marsamxetto Harbour, and across the water slightly to the west of Sliema, where we had been staying.
One thing we noticed immediately was the thickness of the walls, they must have been at least 15 or 20 feet thick; no wonder Valletta was viewed as impregnable.
That section of the wall looked down on what had originally been a gate, with a long, narrow dog-leg shaped entry - minimising the field of fire for assailants, making it impossible for them to get a good run up with a ram to the gate, and exposing the them to fire down from the wall above for a long way. For most of the way round the ramparts, it would have been difficult to assault the walls with ladders, since the top of the wall was so thick and sloped downwards and outwards at quite a steep angle. Of course, the fortifications were built after the Great Siege of 1565, so the Knights of St John would have had a great deal of experience of what worked in the way of fortifications!
We were able to walk round most of the ramparts as far as Fort St Elmo at the end of the peninsula. The War Museum is there, but unfortunately we had no time for that. There are also clusters of horse-drawn buggies awaiting customers - perhaps some people flake out by the time they have walked that far and need a ride back. Valletta is not flat, so we did a good deal of climbing up and down steps, and also slogging up some very steep streets. Some of the streets are amazingly steep, one we climbed earlier in the week was so steep it had chevron shaped ridges in the tarmac to stop the cars sliding down it.
Once we had passed Fort St Elmo, we had rounded the point and were on the other side of the peninsula, looking over the ramparts down into the Grand Harbour. On the opposite side of the harbour from Valletta looking east is an area known as the Three Cities, one of which, Vittoriosa, we had visited on Tuesday. We could look across to Fort St Angelo, where Caravaggio was imprisoned after he committed crimes in Malta.
The building where he was imprisoned is the one with the cross on top.
We were on the eastern ramparts near the monument to the siege of Malta and the bombing in the Second World War. This is a handsome cupola which houses a big bell that is struck every day at midday.
There is also an enormous statue, which was erected at the point where there had been a huge gun - the metal tracks used to turn the gun are still there, set in the stone.
The next part of the walk was round to the Lascaris battery, from where the noon gun is fired. The necessitated a slog up the steepest street yet - it is too steep for cars, so it is just steps. It is also very long, and we had to stop for a breather several times. No doubt people who live on streets like this, of which there are quite a few, keep very fit!
We arrived at the Lascaris battery at about 5 minutes to midday, so we were able to join the crowds of tourists looking down on the gun battery to watch the noonday gun being fired. According to the commentary, there were originally 3 guns, at sunrise, noon and sunset, because most of the population didn't have any other means of telling the time. The noon gun is the only one fired now.
After this, we were practically back at the city gate and it was nearly time to get the bus back to collect our suitcases. We just had time to look in one shop for souvenirs before picking up a snack to eat later, then we had to rush round to the bus station for the bus back to Sliema. We were back in good time to collect our suitcases, and were able to sit on the sea front eating our snack while waiting for the airport bus.
At the airport, there was free Wi-Fi, so I was able to post 2 days worth of blog.
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