Occasionally, I decide to put pen to paper, so to speak, about some issue or other which is getting up my nose. This time I want to say a few words about the standard of driving in Malta; well, not so much the standard, more the attitude of the drivers.

I, like everyone else, make the odd mistake on the road, and if I feel I have made a mistake and incurred the wrath of another driver, I am humble enough to wave in an attempt to say sorry, my mistake. I seem to be in a distinct minority on this point of basic courtesy. In the vast majority of instances when I have been cut off at a roundabout (daily event) or had someone pull out in front of me without looking (hourly or more frequent event) and sound my horn in warning (what it was actually invented for!) I am met with a tirade of shouting and fist waving, as if I was in the wrong. Bizarre behaviour to say the least.

And to the lady who stopped in the exit lane of Pavi supermarket to load a week’s worth of shopping, and who thought I was inconsiderate to suggest she was ignorant for holding everyone up for five minutes, I say, “Get a life, and take some lessons in how not to be obnoxious to other people”.

This leads me on to the use of the horn in narrow roads in built-up areas, like the narrow streets of Żebbuġ where I live. Here is an announcement: The horn is not a replacement for brakes. Slow down.

No doubt this will bring out the “go back where you came from” brigade and the “UK is just as bad brigade”. Well, to all of you I say get a life and learn to drive.