On the Dot

• The practice of using shutters to bar entry to abandoned shops saves them from being looted or accessed by squatters. However, it does not stop passers-by from using the space between the shutters and the door as a skip. An example of this is the shop in the lower, stepped part St John Street, Valletta, adjacent to the Economical Shoe Store, just a few doors down as one turns the corner from Strait Street.

Dangerous

• Much ado was rightly made about how well Kappillan Mifsud Square in Ħamrun was refurbished. However, there have been several near-accidents because a plastic cover for a small drain, just across the road from the pet shop, is broken. It is just the right side for a toddler’s foot, a woman’s heel or an animal’s leg to get stuck into it.

Daylight

• On September 5, the street lights were left on all morning in the upper part of Old Bakery Street, Valletta. This is a waste of energy and, yet, another indication that nobody bothers to do visual checks on the switchgear.

Detention

• Yet another teenager has been sentenced to a prison term, probably because there is nowhere else for him to be placed. This is a shame. An adult committing the same crimes, or worse, is sometimes given a more lenient sentence.

Design

• It seems that on most of the new buses straps for the use of passengers are only present in the front part of the aisle, closer to the driver. Along the rest of the passage-way – particularly on those buses that have a step going up to the middle and back seats – there is not a single strap available for standing passengers to hold onto but solely the vertical rods. The fact that some of the rods are not secure places commuters in danger.

Dreadful

• Up to 1 p.m., the combined smell of urine, stale beer and cigarette smoke, and other assorted dreadful odours, still lingers in the streets of Paceville. Some areas are, of course, more affected than others. One wonders whether it would help if the place is regularly hosed down at least every other day.

Drive

• The new Arriva route X6 – Ċirkewwa to Valletta – has been called an “express route” with the proviso that it makes limited (sic) stops in Mellieħa, Mosta, Birkirkara, Fleur-de-Lys and Floriana. Meant to provide a faster transport connection between Valletta and Gozo, it still does not fully replace the erstwhile 71 bus route service.

Drawn

• The good news is that Malta has acquired a draw at the National Stadium against the Georgia football team, thus gaining its first point in Group F of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. One hopes that this can only get better.

Disastrous

• It is pathetic to see how traffic jams galore are created when no adequate plans are made to deviate traffic from an area that would be for any reason whatsoever. The most recent example of this shambolic management by crisis occurred when roads to Valletta had to be closed for a War-Memorial wreath-laying ceremony by the Slovak President, Ivan Gasparovic. Is it possible no one realised cars would tailgate all the way to Msida and Ħamrun if the street was closed for 30 minutes?

Dreary

• A large grey box, probably containing switchgear for telephony or electrical services, has been placed at the entrance to Tal-Virtù, Rabat. To make it even more of an eyesore, it has been elevated from ground level by being placed on a block of stone. One would have expected something more pleasing to the yes; perhaps a tiny statue with the words “Welcome to Tal-Virtù”, rather than this monstrosity, which could have been camouflaged in some way.

Desperate

• Is it possible that Arriva is so strapped for cash that it resorts to overcharging children? Youngsters aged between 11 and 13, who do not happen to have their birth certificate with them, are being charged adult non-Maltese fares just because they are not able to show a Maltese ID card when asked to. This means a fare of €2.20 instead of €1.30 or €2.60 instead of €1.50. This happens even when the child speaks perfect Maltese.

Disdain

• A bus driver failed to stop at a given stage, no doubt because he wanted to avoid the hassle of confronting a lot of stranded commuters who would have been waiting in the sun for a long time. This meant that the people who needed to get off the bus at that point had to take a long walk. Arriva management, which has proudly boasted that its customer care includes CCTV cameras on each bus, has no way of negating the fact that it is supposed to know what is happening on each bus, at each juncture of each journey.

Demarcation

• Some people assume that the stretch of pavement and the stretch of street up to the middle of the road across from their house is theirs alone to use. Therefore, they put out pot plants, chairs or even cardboard boxes to stop people from parking at the kerb, such that they will have a parking space when and where they want it. Some people even put official-looking marking on the streets. This is unfair on others.

Dumping

• The area of Tignè that was written about in these columns several times remains as filthy as it ever was. It would seem that people from other parts of Sliema are going there to dump their garbage bags because they are aware that some of the residents themselves take out their rubbish long before it is to be collected. This works on the assumption that a few dozen more black bin bags do not matter. What is the local council going to do about the state of the place and, more importantly, the illegal dumping of refuse?