Every year, around this time, I find myself having to put in a little disclaimer at the beginning of the column: I'm not going to write much about the Budget because a) it bores me rigid b) you will have heard too much about it by now and c) given the volatility of the international situation, it's all a bit up in the air anyway.
Suffice it to say that this year's round of mind-numbingly turgid statistics (no-one's fault, that, numbers tend to do that to themselves) gave Joseph Muscat and his merry men an excuse to play hide-and-peek from behind that Sunday paper that is rapidly assuming the mantle of KullĦadd and the lil'elves a reason to exercise their line-toeing capabilities.
Other than that, it was a pretty standard affair, with none of the excitement of days of yore, when we would wait with bated breath for the Minister of Finance to announce the price of a small can of tuna and be regaled with the sight of grown men applauding wildly such earth-shattering pronouncements as "the price of capers, in brine, will be reduced by 3 mills" (cue wild applause, thumping of desks and lovingly lingering shots of Dom Mintoff looking smug).
In the meantime, of course, the world continues turning on its axis, while, at the same time, hurtling through the universe at some un-graspable rate of knots, the marvellous machinations of Ministers of Finance the planet over being as relevant to the cosmos as the flight of a gnat on the other side of the globe is to me.
Up at Tal-Qroqq, the rector's insouciant abandonment of the notion that freedom of thought and expression, even the most ridiculous or obscene expression, is fundamental to a University went by as if nothing at all had happened, with the student body apparently more concerned about the erosion of the stipend's purchasing power than about the erosion of the right to think for one's self.
It says much (for which read: little) for the fine men and women of the academic staff, too, that they seem unperturbed at the way they also are judged unable to think for themselves. Is there anyone up there who is actually paying attention?
In the context of freedom of expression, there were those who pointed out that the "Adriano Spiteri" who wrote to the Blood Bank saying that he would give blood only if it was guaranteed that his blood would not be used to help illegal immigrants, had every right to express this opinion, revolting and disgusting as it may be.
Sorry, folks, that ain't so: by expressing this opinion, this foul specimen (whoever he was) was seeking to deny an even more fundamental right to a fellow human being, the right to life, so there's no way "Spiteri" should be allowed to expect that his own rights, less fundamental than the right to life, are respected.
And that is an accepted theory of human rights law, incidentally.
For those of you who weren't listening to Radio 101 last Sunday morning, when they would have had the opportunity to hear my dulcet tones discoursing on matters immediate (doing the paper review with some other blokes, in other words) we had a bit of a discussion on the Balluta car-park proposal.
I took the opportunity to pull a bit of an "Astrid" and threatened all manner of mayhem with my mighty pen if anyone took leave of their senses and started to monkey around with the square, which is a rather fine example of urban-space architecture.
This prompted the mayor of St Julians to call in and give us the low-down, which was good of him.
Apparently, the project, if approved, will affect the part of the square to the South-West (ish) that is between the top of the square itself and the bank, which is already good to hear. Also, there is no intention to mess around with the topography of the square itself and, anyway, there is to be full public discussion of the plans.
The mayor, and, on reflection, I can't really blame him, was pretty peeved with the way everyone and her brother (including me, this time) had gone off at the deep end without bothering to check things out, so I'm happy to place on the full public record, here and now, that nothing major will be done without the fullest of full consultation processes taking place, which means that all interested citizens should keep a beady eye out to make sure that all relevant factors are taken into consideration and given their due weight in the deliberations, if you'll forgive me a touch of pomposity.
You'll recall that, last week, I promised to give you a quick run-down of our romantic dinner for eight at Tarragon and I'm happy to report that it was, quite simply, a superb meal.
The roses went down well, too (see, there was some romance in the air) but the food and service outstripped the blooms. Very much up to the standard I'd been given to understand I should expect.
Somewhat at the other end of the scale, but a fine example of its genre, is Ġanni's, on the Sliema Front. We had Saturday lunch with the ancestor there and it was really very good, both in value for money terms and in outright quality terms. If you decide to try it out, and you should, it might be a courtesy to give Ġanni a call, so he can call on staffing resources accordingly.
imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs