I am sitting in my balcony with a book at hand and a view of the Mediterranean on this glorious day, away from the dusty construction site which Victoria has been for the past 12 months.

Immediately below me is Qbajjar promenade which for years marred the scene with its rusty dilapidated state. Not anymore though.

True it still needs a lot of work to get it back to its original state of the early 1990s. The pavement on the seaward side remains dangerous for the unwary. The once-upon-a-time fountain is a sore thumb in the middle. The garden areas are basically just weeds.

No doubt, works on these and other aspects are in train. But what a change a little cleaning and refurbishing has made.

New weather resistant benches, though half in number, replace what remained of the crumbling 20-year-old ones. New railings have been erected on the shoreline where the rusty disgraceful bundle of iron once stood.

New footlights, allowing for a relatively safer stroll around the promenade after dusk, stand in place of the original ones which had disappeared or been vandalised over the years.

The parking area has been floodlit and playing areas rehabilitated complete with rubber matting and synthetic grass, much to the delight of families with young children.

Most of all, the area has been given a big clean-up, after years during which dust, paper and plastic accumulated there, and it is also being regularly swept and trees pruned. May this continue.

For all this a big thank you to the Gozo Minister and the mayor of Żebbuġ, Nicky Saliba, who is taking a personal interest in the project. To them we raise a glass of beer in thanks every evening following a nice stroll around the promenade in the fresh sea breeze. And that’s what I call a God’s gift of an evening.