On the dot...

The battered, cannibalised vehicle that has been parked for months in Mediterranean Street, Valletta, is still there. The tarpaulin cover has all but been torn away and cats have made it their not-so-mobile lavatory. This, of course, apart from the fact that it is occupying a precious parking space, so rare in that part of the city.

Car Fetish

Residents of Old Railway Road, Balzan, and Triq Patri Guzé Delia are annoyed by cars parked in private property for years on end which have become rusty, creating an eyesore in their vicinity. Their owner often also has other cars parked in the road on which he does repairs or restoration works, in the meantime depriving residents of parking room.

New Nuisance

Some farmers in the Siggiewi-Zebbug area have installed a new device in their fields to scare birds off their grape crop: it lets off the sound of a gunshot. The problem is that the sound is loud enough to seriously bother people living in the area. The frequency of the "shots" is so repetitive - about every minute throughout the day -it is driving everyone mad.

Neglected by-pass

The Mtarfa by-pass must be one of the most neglected pieces of real estate in Malta. Not only is one of its lanes still closed to traffic, as it has been for years, no one bothers to remove the overgrown weeds at the sides.

Date Line

"Appointments within five days", boldly states the sign at the Floriana health centre. Yet this proves to be only wishful thinking on the part of the administration because an appointment is, in fact, given for a date more than two weeks after the date in which one makes it. Incidentally, it would not be amiss if patients are told whether they need to take any documents or samples with them when the date finally arrives.

High Spirits

St George's Bay is tending to become the first flat skip on the island. One wonders whether the teenagers who regularly down bottles of vodka and other spirits there, tote the bottles from home, seeing that it is still illegal to sell alcohol to minors, even if it is in sealed bottles. If they are purchased from shops or other outlets, a bit of serious investigation is in order.

Dress Code

The time has come surely to thoroughly revise the dress code regulating appearances before the commissioners of justice in local tribunal cases. A case in point is the recent postponement of cases due to be heard at the local council offices in Sliema simply because the warden issuing the tickets had reported sick. Apart from taking time off work, defendants had to appear in the mandatory jacket and tie, in an afternoon temperature of 36° Celsius.

Steps Ahead

A member of the public made it amply clear that he had commissioned "someone with a jigger" to remove the dangerous bits of jagged metal from the missing steps at Marsascala after an item about them had appeared in this column. He then continued the exercise by levelling off the holes. However, the local council still has not provided a new set of steps, which are badly needed by children and those who are no longer as agile as they used to be.

Line Dancing (II)

The two wardens on duty at Constitution Street, Mosta, who often gainsaid one another about where parking was permitted and where it was not in the Jupiter Marine Supplies area, will thankfully quarrel no more. White lines have been carefully painted in selected places, to allow parking. Ironically, one of these slots is exactly in the place where a motorist was fined by one of the wardens, having been told it was all right to park there by another.

Streets Ahead

The grounds surrounding Adelaide Cini School, in Hamrun are desperately in need of landscaping, or at least clearing up. A sign still indicates that these were reserved for parking by visitors at the Prize Day ceremony. Wasn't the school administration embarrassed that this neglected area would give a very bad first impression to those attending what was supposed to be a celebration?

Spin-Off

The area next to the Tourist Office in Spinola is really deserving of the name "public garden". A lot of alcohol is being regularly consumed by groups of youths who then think nothing of using the place as a lavatory. The place is therefore not only filthy, there is such an intolerable smell that one wonders how these youths can bear to congregate there again and again.

Poor Upkeep

The state of the promenade pavement between Qawra Palace Hotel and Fra Ben Restaurant is appalling. Horse and dog excrement peppers the street and pavement, complementing the litter strewn along the place, while the phone box in the area has been the target of vandals - some of its glass panels have been smashed.

Vulgarity at Sea

If you were heading to the Blue Lagoon recently, you may have been witness to good old Maltese solidarity. A couple of cruise boats chugged into the already over-crowded lagoon, regardless of other boats, and their crew began swearing profusely and being generally vulgar, which disturbed and even frightened tourists. The police were contacted and reports have been filed.