I wonder if you ever feel that you are living in a different world? Yes, I know some of my many fans, generally those of the Elfin persuasion, sometimes accuse me of being from another planet, if not a different universe, to boot, but that’s not really what I mean. Or is it?

What prompted me down onto this particular avenue of the muse was a Facebook status, put up in capital letters, no less, by Aleks Farrugia, editor of It-Torca. He was promoting an exhibition to be held soon of an exhibition by Giovanni Trevisan of his plans for the Royal Opera House Project.

Now I mean this in all sincerity, I am pretty sure that the plans are very good and worth looking at and all that, though (and here I am sure that it is I who is at fault, culturally lacking, as it were) I have little idea who Mr Trevisan is or what he does and/or what his claim to distinction in the field of architectural endeavour may be. Seriously, people, don’t flame me for this, it’s just that he hasn’t crossed my radar, which is not a particularly sensitive one in this area, anyway.

But within weeks, if not days, of the Piano Project having been approved, of what real or actual (in the Italian sense of attwalita’, if you like) interest are these plans? I might as well have been invited to take a look at the plans for the Centre Pompidou or the London Eye sites, for all the relevance to any current debate that they have.

Which is why I wonder if it is I who is living in a parallel universe, where the debate about the Piano Project (a name I use merely for identification, incidentally) is done and dusted while for others, there is an alternate reality, where they’re still wondering what to do with the site.

This feeling of detachment from the real world overtook me, again, on reading the news that the Government has decided to allow Spring hunting for a week or so towards the end of April.

My own feelings towards hunting, and the reasons for them (the feelings) are well known and no doubt the pro-hunting commentariat will spring into action below and call me all manner of names and attribute all manner of personal agendas for it. This having been said, why is that the Federation of Conservationist Hunters (itself an other-wordly title if ever there was one) persists in coming over all huffy and puffy whenever it is confirmed to them that this is a civilised country that is moving towards eschewing barbarism in favour of civilised behaviour?

It’s not as if certain specimens of the hunting fraternity hadn’t brought this onto themselves in the first place, after all.

If you want a prime example of how some people inhabit one type of world while others function in a different one, perhaps one more in tune with truth and historical fact, you could do worse than take a look at Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog. She’s currently engaged in a running battle with some people, again apparently adherents of the Elfin Faith, who seem bent on proving to the world that they are qualified to produce only fairy-tales and lousy ones at that.

For every so-called “fact” and/or derogatory remark that these people dredge up or cobble together about DCG, there seems to be a comprehensive and fact-laden response that shoots both the authors of the story and the story itself down in flames.

To be charitable with these guys, the best you can say about them is that they just don’t get it, not by the longest of long chalks.

In fact, not getting it is a hallmark of many members of the commentariat (what a convenient word, it’s way more accurate than bloggers, which they’re not and they’re not commentators, either)

Either because they don’t have a grasp of the language, or because they have no sense of humour, these people just seem to take things just that little bit too literally or seriously. To make matters worse, they then pull themselves up to what they imagine is a great height and try to cross swords with people like me or DCG who, with all humility, have been at this game longer than them and have way more space at our disposal to counter their feeble sallies.

That’s if we don’t choose to treat them with the contempt some of them deserve, of course.

Because I love language and I respect those who use it well, allow me to end with an “attaboy” to Mark Camilleri for his novel “Prima Facie”, which I polished off in less than a day. It’s a short book in the “police procedural” style (of which I am a fan) and it’s written in real Maltese (even the irritation of “mobile” spelt “mowbajl” is overcome eventually) and set in real Malta. Read it.