I really am not one of those people whose favourite sport falls under the header of Arriva-bashing. I can see, of course, a multitude of shortcomings. Weird routes, a number of drivers who treat the road like it’s the track at Monza, and buses that are just impractical for our narrow roads are only the start of it. Watching a bendy bus trying to navigate one of the pseudo ‘roundabouts’ that are like a painted bullseye on the ground is hilarious.

Despite all this, I’d really rather not do the whole “Arriva is the evil bogeyman” thing. Even reports of last Saturday’s legendary furnace got filed under my ‘things that can occasionally happen’ drawer.

Then I woke up this morning to an onslaught of memes on Facebook about the second – and equally impressive – fire. A beautiful blaze that would put any arsonist to shame. Really, an Arriva bus should be guest of honour at any Maltese BBQ, I found myself thinking.

But the two back-to-back incidents piqued my curiosity enough to chat about it. Which is how I received this link: http://bendybusesonfire.tumblr.com/page/2. Apparently, the sight of a bendy bus going all Sauron and invoking the furnaces of hell is a common enough occurence that there’s actually a Tumblr blog about it.

Going through it provided the first laughs of the week. I mean, really, when you read quotes like “Six bus routes were on diversion and roads were in chaos after a bendy bus caught fire in Stamford hill this morning.” (Hackney Gazette,2011); “The buses were dubbed ‘Ken’s chariots of fire’.”(London Evening Standard, 2007); and the even more worrying “Bendy-buses in London have been taken out of service following three separate fires on the vehicles.” (BBC, 2004)... the first instinct is to snigger away.

Well, we did know that the buses had been decommissioned – but we didn’t actually realise that it’s because they tend to throw a bitch fit by doing an impressive impression of Dante’s seventh circle.

Now we know. The question is, what are we going to do about it? Because when you see the images on the Tumblr blog, it’s not really that funny is it? And pretty please, let us keep partisan politics out of it and just focus on a solution.

I can’t close without quoting musician Roger Tirazona’s hilarious quote on Facebook this morning: “This is a Bendy Bus mass suicide. The buses themselves know it's wrong that they are roaming Maltese streets, so like the samurai, they take the honourable route and kill themselves.” (The status was on a public setting, so I know he will forgive me.)

Cue the sniggers once again.