this week

What a week!

Opinionated columnist and Housing Authority chairman Marisa Micallef Leyson loves going against the grain. Interview by Zillah Bugeja

Come September I’ll have been at the Housing Authority three years, helping to make it more social – not as simple as it sounds. My life is dominated by work and the fact that I have a four-year-old daughter. Basically work is a fantastically interesting and busy job, you’re never bored, all of which suits me. I like to have too much work rather than too little.

My time is mostly taken up by seeing the public, which makes a difference because we have set rules and regulations and talking to the people concerned helps us realise when we haven’t taken certain situations into consideration. It’s a way of keeping in touch with people – the public is often right.

Housing has always been politicised, and a lot of credit must go to the new board that we have not been criticised for being political in the past two-and-a-half years.

Besides working at the Housing Authority I do other writing work which causes a bit of controversy. I lived in the UK for 15 years, have been back for five, and initially started writing to cope with the frustration of dealing with things here, and of feeling like a fish out of water. I’ve always been opinionated, so I’m quite lucky that I’m one of the few women who appear on the back page of The Times.

People ask me why I’m not scared to express my opinion. Obviously I’m a political appointment. But as a nation we’re too afraid to express ourselves. We blame the politicians for everything while we don’t want to do our part. The politicians won’t improve unless we do.

I turn up at the office almost every day, even though I’m meant to be a non-executive chairman. I’m busiest in the mornings and in the evenings when I work from home. I’m lucky that I have a certain flexibility within a job of this calibre, what woman has that? I’m grateful for this position. If I were in London I’d be earning ten times my salary, but I’d also be travelling two hours a day.

I’m also on quite a few boards: the mental health commission, AZAD and BICC. I hope I wasn’t chosen to be the token woman.

I get up between 5.30am and 6.30am and I wake up awake. My daughter also wakes up chatty, asking where we’re going today. At one point I was thinking of returning to the UK, but the quality of life here is so good, and of course you have grandparents on tap! Our joint social lives are so much easier to manage here – everywhere’s within 15 minutes’ drive.

My daughter thinks that all children who go to school do so because their mummies work – that’s the only way she understands me leaving her. In fact she recently had an argument with a schoolmate whose mummy doesn’t work but plays tennis!

She’s now at summer school. If I can’t pick her up at lunchtime my parents help out. She’s asleep by 7pm or 8pm and I get on with my work. The last thing that ever happens is housework and cooking. I don’t make a mess, so I never actually have to do housework. And I like being cooked for, that’s important in any man in my life. Twice a week I get my proper vitamins from mum, like most people. Only occasionally do I toss something together.

I love reading, keeping up with the newspapers and magazines like The Economist and I’ve just finished reading China’s Children. There’s always something that keeps me from cooking!

I could go to the movies every night, I get bored watching films on TV. Last week I saw a really good film, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. It had a great definition of love: ‘what’s left after falling in love’. I don’t know why that struck me, but it did.

Went to the Jazz Festival twice, once properly and next after we went to dinner at Malata and watched the festival from St Barbara’s bastions, but I wasn’t one of those people throwing eggs. Valletta is so beautiful at night, the Grand Harbour is so gorgeous, while Paceville is so ugly. I guess that reflects that I’m not 15 any more. Being in Valletta at night, going to the beach at 8am reflects my love of doing things against the grain.

My main exercise is swimming, twice a week at the national pool. I used to be quite fit, which is why I didn’t have any problems after giving birth. I came out of hospital thinner than when before I was pregnant. I can eat whatever I like and I only weigh myself to make sure I don’t go below a certain weight, so I recommend having a child in your late 30s! Actually I’m a grazer, I can’t eat a large meal. I tend to eat more in the first part of the day and apparently that’s better for you. I live on endless cups of coffee and can have coffee before I sleep with no problems.

I try to make the most of all encounters with people, even when approached by angry people. The phone at home doesn’t stop ringing. I had to change my mobile number and now it’s given out to strictly work-related contacts, but I hope I am accessible. My daughter is a fantastic telephone manager, asking hello who is it? But then if I’m longer than a few minutes she starts making a fuss…

Last week we went to the beach a couple of times. I think this news about the pollution of the sea is a lot of rubbish. It’s not that it’s getting more polluted, but that we are starting to check more. I think it is scandalous that the opposition and AD are making such a fuss. We don’t look after the sea, none of us. We are starting to pay for all of us being filthy. We’re using and abusing more.

I like to think I’m quite green: it’s not just the prerogative of Alternattiva. The main parties will surely get the majority of the votes in the next few years, so green issues should be undertaken by everybody.

I try not to be wasteful, not buying things that have huge unnecessary packaging, and feel that schools should have a water dispenser to save those thousands of plastic drinks bottles kids take with them. I’ll only drive an unleaded car, wouldn’t dream of buying diesel.

Every now and again I do tend to resort to a bit of retail therapy and seek out bargains. Also a bit shrewd by now, knowing what will suit me, and yes, shopping does make you feel better.

I go to the hairdressers’ every six months for a trim, or get mum to do it. I’m low maintenance because I like to feel I have some free time. Complaining that we’re too busy is almost like a new kind of snobbery, we have to be busy to be worthwhile. I believe you need time out. On Sunday we had a quiet day at home, and friends were shocked! It was just so nice to have that time, reading and painting. We seem to plan our lives away. When I’ve had a day when there was no time for a breather, that was a badly managed day – you have to look after your soul. Although I am blessed to work flexible hours, even when I worked regular hours I worked quickly, always looking for that spot of time to stop and think. I’m prepared to work in the evening too, I figure as long as you enjoy what you’re doing, you don’t mind.

Being in the public eye is stressful, but I’m lucky to have the power of the pen myself. When getting this position, I was told that I’d been given the poisoned chalice, but I don’t see it that way. After all, it’s my profession and it’s what I’d been doing for 15 years in the UK. And I’m glad I can bring that experience to it and hopefully make a difference to people’s lives.

When it’s time for me to guide my daughter as to her career choice, I’d guide her into thinking about the financial side. I never imagined I’d have to maintain myself financially. I hope she’ll realise that a lot of money doesn’t make you happy, but it does give you the luxury of choice.