• To listen to some University lecturers speak in the vernacular, you would think they were born and raised in a country that has Maltese as its second or third language. One wonders whether this is the reason why students cannot write assignments in Maltese, though they may be more proficient in it than English.

Creepy

• A van in the space between the printing press and the petrol station in Canon Road, Sta Venera, looks as though it’s there to stay. Creepers have already begun climbing up around it, in a successful effort to camouflage it.

Wheelies

• Meanwhile, one notes that the van missing both its rear wheels is still standing, in a manner of speaking, to the right of the PBS buildings in Guardamangia Hill. Unfortunately, it is the owners of vehicles in use, who parked just a few centimetres out of the white line boundaries, who are fined.

Stealing

• The monument to stillborn children, stolen on a Thursday, had last been seen the Sunday before. This probably means there are no patrols at random hours in order to ascertain nothing amiss was taking place. Indeed, many people have found heavy items removed from their family graves, and placed, damaged, some way away or removed altogether. This is not what ought to be allowed to happen at a holy place.

Televised

• Both major banks ensure that clients queuing up for service are kept amused, through the use of large-screen TV sets. Bank of Valletta appears to favour financial news whereas HSBC plumps for international news bulletins. However, the effect of both is spoilt because the volume is kept off and the waiting area suffused with repetitive music. In offices where there is a decent film on – such as Go in Birkirkara – the volume is off, too.

Embroidery

• Some time ago there was great ado being made about how the Maria Addolorata cemetery, being one of the finest in the European Union, was receiving the facelift it so deserved. Work appears to have stopped at fixing a couple of paths, before it could reach the intricate stone carvings at the buildings near the entrance and along the magnificent walkway in the main area. Surely, there are architecture students who, armed with a set of plans, could renovate the beautiful monument?

Smoked

• Smokers may now only indulge in their vice in the open air. However, they fail to realise that when they stand in doorways of restaurants, hospitals and offices, the chances are that their smoke is blown into the building. This is ironic, especially when it happens in places such as Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, where the swirling smoke could actually be seen against the light in the doorway of the corridor leading to the side door beside the clinics at the outpatients department.

Students

• The same may be said for how the rules and regulations that are supposed to be followed by students at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology are constantly broken. Whereas it is specified that “…students are also not allowed to smoke outside the emergency exit and on the stairs leading to the main entrance…” some may, on occasion, actually be seen doing this. And, incidentally, why is it that only these areas are specified and not each stairway and exit?

Bumped

• The number of large vehicles as well as light cars that use the Mrieħel industrial estate must run into the hundreds. This is only one reason among the many why all the streets in the area must be kept in a perfect state of repair. Triq l-Imprendituri appears to have fallen out of favour with whoever is responsible for seeing to this. The number of potholes in this particular stretch is probably equal to the number in the whole area.

Collapsing

• Between the Joe Agius fish store and the railway terminus gardens in Birkirkara is a very old building. It is so old, in fact, the wall is in danger of collapsing because some of the stones have already been dislodged. It will only take one tiny movement towards the base or even one lightning strike to cause a disaster. One shudders to think what might happen to the cars parked below it or to parents and children on their way to the playschool inside the garden if this should happen.

Pathways

• Without any doubt, one of the most scenic routes in Malta is the one that leads from Xemxija to Għajn Tuffieħa. However, the whole effect is spoiled because all along it rubble walls have been allowed to get out of kilter and collapse. Was there not an exercise in teaching the new generation how to construct this traditional partition? This was followed with a pledge to renovate all the walls in Malta. Has it fizzled out into nothing?

Overseeing

• The pavement all the way from the Lower Barrakka to St Barbara Bastions in Valletta has been allowed to deteriorate badly. Tree roots have dislodged some of it and the surface is made up of different materials. Cars regularly park there and people often have to take to the street when they inch up to the bastion walls.

Reminder

• They are unlikely to react but the powers-that-be ought to be reminded that law-abiding citizens are still anxiously waiting to know the outcome of a magisterial inquiry into the fatal shooting by the police of a knife-wielding man in Qormi some time ago. In such cases, silence is far from golden.

Awareness

• The news that targets set by the National Centre for Breast Screening to be achieved over a three-year period were in fact reached within 12 months is welcome. It proves the level of awareness that exists and the success of the educational campaigns on this subject. Well done to all and keep it up.