Space

As a child, I thought Boxing Day was about a noble and violent sport. It was with considerable disappointment that I gradually realised that the day had less to do with fisticuffs on a black and white TV than boxing up presents for the ‘less wealthy' and 'social inferiors.'

Nothing much remains in Malta of this very Anglo-Saxon tradition, despite years of colonisation. The day after Christmas is now about unwrapped presents, headache management and gentle anti-climax. While yesterday I was woken up by a child squealing at a bulging sock on his bed, this morning was met with black coffee and a quiet shower. It would all have been pretty stereotypical were it not for the fact that my wife had work to do. As freelancers, we are the exception to the rule that dictates that most of Malta is on holiday till January 4th. So by 9.15, Jacob and I were blinking at a watery sun over the runway at the Old Luqa airport and my wife was starting her copy writing assignment for a flying school.

We watched Liz climb into the Diamond DA40 behind the pilot, and waved, feeling like bit parts in a play. Then the propeller kicked into life and before long we were trying to keep track of a dot in the sky. It was then I realised that about forty years ago, I had spent an entire afternoon in the same location waiting with my father for a plane that never arrived. It was the cue for my own impromptu flight, fuelled by mental snapshots of RAF bombers and silver Camberras, when my father wore a uniform that gently smelt of engine oil and tobacco. I only stopped gabbling when I sensed my child fidget to hide his boredom.

So we went back to watching the clouds from our perch outside the old barracks. Until the little plane dropped out of the sky and the propeller stopped as suddenly as it had sprung into life.

"We should get up there more often," said Liz, as she climbed out over the wing. "You can see the pockets of green and space in Malta that are so difficult to find when you're down here."

Boxing Day is a waiting room for the new year, a penny for your thoughts. And for floating above the clouds to find your personal space outside the box of this island.