I have eaten a jellyfish

It looked like and tasted like a salty purple granita. I was part of an official delegation to China and the officials there had just told us that they eat everything that moves except a military tank. I wanted to eat it as revenge for the number of times I have been poisoned by jelly fish. Eating is one of my favourite activities.  So is cooking.  I also like reading, writing, hearing music and going for walks and travelling to different countries.

I was born in 1952 in Mellieha.  I have three brothers and three sisters, another brother and a sister died as babies before I was born.  I admire my late parents a lot for bringing up such a big family on the modest salary of a primary school teacher.

I had a very Catholic upbringing and as a teenager I was already teaching the Bible to younger children.  I was very active in the Legion of Mary, Catholic Action and the Young Christian Workers.  I used to play football for Mellieha and even made it to the first team at University.  I was also very interested in theatre and I have translated Artaud, Brecht, Albee among others.

I have been writing regularly in the media for the last 40 years at least. Coming from a vintage Nationalist family it was not easy for me to move into the Labour Party.  That process took at least six years and it was a tortuous journey during which I explored Marx, Gandhi, Lenin, Martin Luther King and spent a year in Sicily working with an anti-Mafia activist Danilo Dolci.

I spent three years teaching at De La Salle College, another four years at the national broadcasting station and then 10 years as the editor and head of news of the Labour Party media.  I have been in parliament since 1992 working mostly in education, European affairs and tourism.  I have served as Minister of Education and National Culture between 1996 and 1998.  I look forward to more years of working for a better quality of life for us all.