On the Dot...

The young lady who answered the 2122 4245 ETC line on June 30, at about 11.30 a.m., was feeling rather arrogant. Having left a would-be client high and dry on the line for 10 minutes, she then put down the phone. When the woman phoned again to complain, the employee said the situation was not her problem any more since she had seen to her already; rather, the exact words were hlist minnek. Aren't these people taught the basics of customer relations?

Buy the By

Unless the agency involved acted without permission, someone must have allowed the vertical advertisement on the exit that leads to Regional Road from West Street, Msida. This sign is in the direct line of vision of drivers using this particular exit and obstructs their view prior to their emerging onto the busy thoroughfare.

Street Smart

School buses sometimes pick up children too early for them to have had time to sit down to a proper breakfast. Confectioneries and delicatessens in certain areas therefore have their work cut out for them, since sales are brisk just before school opening hours. However, neither the owners of these establishments nor the administrations of schools and not even parents have seen it fit to instil upon the children the necessity of not littering. Perhaps, by the time the next scholastic year starts, bins will have been installed in strategic places.

Post Form

Inauguration Day was the last time that the two lights in Armonia Gardens, Siggiewi, were seen to be switched on; the day being October 24, 2002. Enemalta apparently disconnected the power supply cable on the next day and to date it is still there, swaying in the wind. Meanwhile, the darkness in the gardens provides adequate cover for those who want to use it for their favourite activities.

Pipe Cleans

A water pipe in Gianni Vassallo Street, Luqa, in the area of the DHL offices, that was supposed to be temporary, is still there over a year after it was positioned. Moreover, the street was supposed to have been resurfaced over three years ago. The pipe has worked loose with the vibration and weight of the heavy traffic that passes over it. A street lamp, after five months, still appears to be nobody's responsibility to fix and street sweepers are conspicuous by their absence.

Overgrown Weeds

The Mtarfa by-pass is highly popular for a constitutional walk by many people from around. The pavement along the by-pass is wide: three can walk abreast along most of it - if it were not for the weeds overgrowing into their path, in sections, forcing walkers into the fast traffic road. Perhaps someone would care to trim the vegetation.

Giving Hoots

The area comprising Abate Rigord and Princess Elizabeth Streets, and Msida Sea Front, past the police station and up to Rue D'Argens, has become nothing less than a stock car racing track. Souped-up cars compete for other prizes too; the loudest stereo, the loudest engines and horns, the murkiest exhaust fumes, the zaniest decorations being but a few.

Lights Out

The heat wave is taking its toll on the electricity supply in several places, notably the Fleur-de-Lys and Sta Venera areas. Businesses and households in the area report that the supply is cut off, often only for a few minutes or even seconds, in the morning, and on Tuesday, July 1, it was even cut off in the evening.

Football Crazy

Cars are parked every which way around Msida parish church, especially close to the Msida St Joseph Football Club. One would be forgiven for thinking that the patrons of this club are above the law since the police station and the offices of the local council are close by but nothing is done to remedy the situation.

Money Talks

According to the reply given to a recent parliamentary question, it costs a pretty penny, counting wages and other incidentals, to keep an inmate at the Corradino Correctional Facility. How much of this amount is paid by the prisoner himself, through work being done in the community or for a wage from which a reasonable amount is then docked? And how much are victims of crimes compensated by those who have wronged them by other deductions from their income?

Farm Effluent

Nothing seems to have been done about the water trickling copiously 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from fields in the Mtarfa hill area and forming puddles across the Mtarfa by-pass. This has been the situation for many months. As the water source seems to be the fields, walkers who have to step across it wonder if it is farm effluent.