Diverse Ramblings

Public Transport Association - bunch of thugs

Where I should be is at work.

Where I am is at home.

Why?

Because thugs in the Public Transport Association attacked vehicles providing the emergency bus service.

Just to make things clear, the Government has the ADT - the Malta Transport Authority - and they have a contract employing bus drivers (who are part of the ATP - the Public Transport Association) to provide public transport for people in Malta. The ATP is on strike over the liberalisation of hearses, and the ADT is doing what it can to help people left stranded without public transport. So the ADT, a Government entity, was providing an emergency bus service as from today.

Last night I printed off the list of emergency bus routes that were going to be provided, and intended to use them to get to work, which for me involves one bus ride to Marsa, and then making a connection with another bus route.

This morning I left the house half-an-hour earlier than usual, at 6:45am, to allow for possible inefficiencies in the emergency routes.

After I had been waiting on the bus stop for a few minutes, an older gentleman stopped his car to offer lifts. Another person accepted the offer and got in the passenger seat, and I felt safe enough to accept too and got in the back. He dropped me off in Marsa as requested, and I think he is a fantastic example of one human being helping another.

At the Marsa bus stop, just after 7am, I phoned the Malta Transport Authority freephone helpline (which actually wasn't free) to check whether the emergency service was in fact running. A very nice lady spoke to me and said that yes, the service was running, and the buses departed Valletta every half-an-hour.

Shortly after speaking to her, I saw one of the emergency buses drive past, it had just been through Cottonera and was heading back to Valletta. There was a sign in the windscreen listing the villages it passed through, there was someone with a walkie-talkie in the front passenger seat, and the back was full of people.

So, reassured that the service was indeed running and that I now knew what to look out for, I waited.

And waited.

And waited and waited and waited.

In the next forty-five minutes, I didn't see any other emergency buses heading back to Valletta, nor did I see the bus I was waiting for. I decided to talk to the nice lady at the Malta Transport Authority again to ask if I was in the right place, but all I got was an 'engaged' signal, which I thought was odd since before I was put on hold by an automatic system before my call was answered.

I thought that maybe I was standing on the wrong bus-stop, so I walked to another part of the intersection where my bus would certainly have to pass though, and waited there.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited and waited and waited.

Eventually the freephone line went back to the automatic system instead of the engaged signal, but I wasn't put through to an operator and was sent to an answering machine instead. I wanted to know if the service was still running, but given that in an hour and a half of standing in Marsa I had only seen one bus, it was pretty obvious that the service had been disrupted.

Incidentally, in that hour-and-a-half in Marsa, not one person stopped to offer a lift. I can understand that many people would not feel safe offering lifts to strangers, and I doubt that any of them would have been of much use to me, but in all that time I was the only person on the bus stops and it would have been nice to have seen a little solidarity.

As time wore on, I phoned work, first to tell them that I was stranded, and then to tell them that I wasn't coming in at all. I phoned my Dad to ask if he could check the news to see if there was anything about the emergency service, but there was nothing. I tried using WAP on my mobile to get the latest news, but there wasn't anything newer than yesterday evening.

Eventually, at 8:45am, two hours after leaving home, I gave up and headed back.

On foot.

In the mid-morning sun.

In July.

With no shade.

Uphill.

If you have any imagination at all, you should have a pretty good idea of how I feel about that.

It takes around an hour to walk home from Marsa, so I stopped off on the way to cool down a bit, which is where I heard on the radio that the emergency bus service had been suspended because some thugs had attacked the vehicles.

This is so unfair, why shouldn't I be allowed to go to work? I am already furious that the bus drivers have suspended the unreliable service that I rely on in order to get to and from work, but how dare the ATP attack the emergency bus service? How would they feel if someone else did the same thing to them?

As things currently stand, the Public Transport Association owes me

• A day of vacation leave (which I had to take today since I couldn't get to work)

• Half a litre of water for dehydration

• Seven centimetres of elastoplast for my four new blisters received while walking home

• About 500 Euro compensation for emotional trauma and mild heatstroke

• An apology

Since I am unlikely to get any of those things (the one I really, really want is the first one) I hope that the Government sticks up for me, the little guy, and really sticks it to the ATP where it hurts - in their pockets.

Austin Gatt, you are my hero because of the 60,000 Euro. I'm counting on you to do the right thing.

Do not read if you don't like strong language

This post contains obscenities, expletives and excessive amounts of vitriol. It will probably be edited or deleted later when I'm not feeling so furious.

It is not safe for reading at work or around children who can read four-letter words.

If you still want to read, click below.

Retraction - redirection of annoyance towards ministry

Last night I was annoyed and wrote some nasty things about WasteServ, and it has been brought to my attention that (at least some of) what I said was undeserved...

Apparently WasteServ have nothing to do with the 'waste separation at source' scheme, which is why there is nothing about it on their website. They are involved with the recycling of packaging waste, but not with how it gets from households to the plant. Sorry! Chris Ciantar, whose name is synonymous with WasteServ, has been involved with the scheme through his post as a director in the Ministry for the Environment (a couple of weeks ago he got made Permanent Secretary in the new ministry).

Also, while I still am not so impressed with how WasteServ has done some things, and didn't get such a great impression when I toured Sant' Antnin, on the other hand yes they did do some things right, so apologies for my sweeping generalisations.

So, all my annoyance has now been re-directed towards the ministry, and the ranting about the grey plastic bags, their unavailability, and the overall mismanagement of the implementation of the scheme still stands.

Hekk, mela.

Waste Separation At Source - another half-baked scheme

The 'waste separation at source' scheme should finally start next week - from what I can gather, this means that instead of taking plastic/metal/paper to the bring-in sites, we can leave them out for collection along with the usual domestic rubbish, in special grey bags.

WasteServ doesn't seem to have a very good track record so far. The bring-in sites, Magħtab, Sant' Antnin, nothing but problems and controversies. Now the waste separation at source is more of the same what with the disagreements with Local Councils over costs etc., the last-minute postponing of the scheme, and the lack of information available.

I don't know the reasoning behind making the waste separation bags available from the Local Councils. I have enough to do without traipsing off to my village's Local Council offices to get rubbish bags, forget it. In any case, we didn't get any mailshot or coupons so I can't get the bags anyway. I'll happily buy them when we go shopping, so put them in supermarkets please.

Also, come on, what is this grey bag business anyway? People are going to go to the trouble of separating their waste at home, then dump all the paper, plastic and metal in one grey bag, and then these bags have to be emptied and sorted at the plant. It makes much more sense to take advantage of having each household separate the waste and collect them separately.

The mind boggles.

I just went to the Wasteserv website, because so far everything I know about the 'separation at source' thing has come from the news, so I thought I'd get some info.

Hah.

There is nothing about the scheme, the grey bags, the coupons, or what exactly we're supposed to do.

So, overall, not impressed, waiting to see what happens.

A box on wheels - efficient, cheap and cute for preference

In the Times this morning there was an article quoting Tonio Grech Fenech, the Minister of Finance, as saying that there's no reason to postpone buying a car.

It's funny but last night that's exactly what Michael and I decided to do!

We've been meaning to buy a second car so that I can have my own wheels (plus the van is on its last legs after having been in a pretty bad accident a few months ago and so Mike doesn't want me driving it). In my girly heart of hearts, I would love to have a cute little car (pink, even), but in the cold light of day what really counts is the cost of the car, its mechanical soundness, and its efficiency. If I'm lucky, you never know, we might find a cute, efficient, cheap little car but so as to avoid disappointment I'm just picturing it as an ugly box on wheels. I'm sure I'll find ways to cutify it (is that a word?) even if it is really ugly.

It's about time we got around to buying this car, but we decided last night that it makes more sense to wait until the revisions in registration tax come into effect because we'd save money.

The minister is saying that anyone who buys a car now that would be affected by the revisions later this year, will be reimbursed the difference in one way or another.

However I'm not convinced - what if this does not in fact happen?

On the other hand... apparently the rest of Malta is doing the same thing and holding off on buying cars for now, and I suppose that once the revisions do come into force then the floodgates will open and it will be harder to find a decent second hand car to buy because they'll be snapped up - maybe if we buy one now we'll get a good price because dealers are getting so little custom.

I dunno, economics was never my strong suit. We'll see.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...

I have fulfilled my civic duty and exercised my right to vote.

There was a small but steady trickle of people heading in and out of the primary school just before 6pm, and things seemed quite calm. There was a small crowd of people clustered together across the road, I assume they were observers of some kind, and they seemed quite cheerful.

This year, Michael and I voted for opposing parties for the first time, which is what happens when you marry a floater I suppose. At first this put a strain on our relationship, but then we agreed to disagree and have spent the last few days having civilised discussions about politics and occasionally making good-natured jibes.

Mike is such a gentleman that he even offered to drive me to my post tal-votazzjoni this afternoon since it was raining - although on the way he tried to convince me that voting had been postponed until tomorrow, and that the correct way to write a "1" on the ballot paper was to make it look like a "7"...

Now, like the rest of the country, we wait for the results. It's going to be a long night at the counting hall tonight (even longer for those who have been up since the early hours of today). I imagine there will be lots of checking-of-mobile-phones during church tomorrow!

Either way, here's hoping that no-one does anything stupid and that no-one gets hurt.

Day of Reflection

So, by electoral law, today is a day of reflection prior to the general election tomorrow, which means that the media is not supposed to carry content that could influence someone's vote. Although (I suppose) blogs don't fall under this law, the bloggers are taking a break too. Well, most of them. Except the newest one, lol.

I used part of my day of reflection to prepare properly for tomorrow, you know, trying to be a good citizen and all that. I googled the candidates running in my district, decided on the order in which I wanted to vote for them, and looked up the location of my post tal-votazzjoni in the Maze. (I tried Google Maps but it didn't work).

So I'm all set.

Here's to a pleasant weekend :-)

Five days to go

The promises of yesterday are the taxes of today. William Lyon MacKenzie

There are Maltese bloggers with clever and interesting things to say about politics. I am not one of them. But, when politics spills over into my daily life, as it occasionally must, I too venture into the foray. (sorry, been listening to too much flowery rhetoric lately)

I am a floating voter - I am not loyal to any particular party and therefore my vote is up for grabs.

At every election, I make a decision about who to vote for, and this is based on past performance, the present situation, and promises for the future. I try to approach with an open mind.

I have a brain. I have been trained to think logically, to assess, compare and conclude. I am not impressed by the mass meetings (and the people honking their car horns on a Sunday afternoon make me want to curse whatever party they are honking for). I am not impressed by grown men calling each other names - would I really want to put such childish and immature people in a position where they make choices affecting me?

Neither am I impressed by clearly flawed proposals.

One that we have heard much about is the reception class idea. There are a whole slew of drawbacks and not a lot of pluses. But what really annoys me about this proposal is that, if anyone was really serious about improving the primary and secondary education in this country, then they would attack the real problem, which is the Junior Lyceum system. This is the cause of so much pressure and stress on young children that anyone who really cared would address this, not propose a reception class.

Another is the reduction of the surcharge. I feel insulted by this proposal. The price of oil is going UP and they want to reduce the surcharge? This is an attempt to manipulate the gullible, and I resent it. If the price of oil is going up, someone still has to pay for it. If the surcharge is reduced, the money is just going to come from somewhere else. And that somewhere else is going to lead straight back into my wallet. I would rather keep the surcharge (where I can keep an eye on it) than have, for instance, income tax raised again.

The Nationalist manifesto contains a lot of inspiring prose. A lot of it is just waffle, but at least it's available in English, unlike the Labour manifesto (do they just not want English-speaking votes?). I did download the Labour manifesto too, and started to read it with the best of intentions, but by page 21 my eyes started to cross so I stopped. Next time, if they want me to read it, they can provide me with an English translation. I did like the pretty pictures though, and I'm so glad they toned down their usual red to a nice soothing purple for the campaign. Clever marketing.

Reading through the Nationalist manifesto leaves me thinking, if they're removing/reducing all these taxes and increasing spending in so many areas, then where is the money going to come from? There are two possible ways - one is outside investment, and the other is to decrease wasteful spending. When are we going to see the civil service (the very expensive civil service) become accountable? When are the Government departments going to become efficient? Nationalist or Labour, I suppose it doesn't matter. There are too many voters in the civil service.

Not only am I not impressed with most of the proposals (especially since many would not be implemented anyway), I also don't see what I want. Jacques says he would vote for anyone who would reform the electoral system. I'm more self-centred, I'll vote for anyone who will give me what I really want - to be able to get to work consistently on time and with dry feet. For this to happen, I need a reliable bus service and proper water drainage for the roads. As it is, the realisation of my daily dream depends on whether the octogenarian is driving the bus today (if, indeed, a bus comes AT ALL), and of course on the amount of rainfall. In many streets all over Malta, we end up with rivers three, four or even five feet wide running along the pavements. I'm no athlete, and widths greater than four feet usually leave me spending the day with wet feet and a foul temper.

Alternattiva Demokratika, as part of their electoral campaign, have called for "the liberalisation of the bus service". Aha, but as a Maltese citizen over the age of seven, I am not to be won over so easily. I don't want a liberalised bus service. I want a reliable bus service. The latter will not necessarily follow from the former.

To be dry and on time, do I ask too much? Sadly, many of the noble proposals in the manifestos will not be realised. Those that are attempted will be hampered by corruption, inefficiency and just plain incompetence. Such is the reality of politics. I sigh a world-weary sigh: *sigh*. (oh no, I think I'm getting all dramatic again)

It's disappointing how hard it is to have a civilised conversation about politics in this country. So many otherwise-rational people quickly fall back on name-calling and generalisations when I dare to disagree with them. I have had friends with whom I very much disagree with about fundamental issues but we could still get together for fun and value eachother as people notwithstanding differences of opinion. Funnily enough, these people tend to be foreigners.

I think that besides the name-callers (with whom it is impossible to have a proper discussion) I find myself most frustrated with those who disagree with a party's policies (or, worse, don't even know what the policies are), but still say that they will vote for that party "because I always have, just like my parents always have, and I always will, because it's my party". I can understand people being loyal to a party, but I do think that they should at least have one reason for it. One of my best friends is extremely loyal to one party, but I can respect that because he can give you a list as long as his arm as to why he supports that party, and a list as long as his other arm as to why he will never vote for the other.

I am so fed up of this electoral campaign, things are just degenerating the longer it goes on. I feel embarrassed for Malta as a whole given some of the behaviour we are seeing from our potential leaders and their followers. Roll on Saturday, I just want to get this over with.

One more electoral campaign gimmick?

I found out via Sandro that Lawrence Gonzi has started his own blog, as has his wife. Jacques also posted about this today, but since I wrote this post in my head on the way to work, I thought I'd go ahead with it anyway...

This news comes shortly after Blogs of Malta was invaded by Alternattiva Demokratika blogs, and I have had to create a Politika folder in my aggregator for all these politicians.

It remains to be seen whether or not the new blogs will be worth reading - especially since in most cases I have to wade through Maltese text (English-speaking Maltese citizens can vote too, people!). At least the Gonzis' blogs use Maltese characters (I refuse, on principle, to read Maltese text that doesn't use them) but on the other hand, they don't really qualify as blogs after all. When blogs were still new, there was a lot of debate about various definitions, and as far as I am concerned, blog = updated content + comments. As Sandro pointed out, the Gonzis don't permit comments, and therefore I don't consider them proper blogs. Journals, sure, but not blogs.

Nice to see another woman on the scene though (Hi Mrs. Gonzi!) and I'm hoping her blog journal will be an interesting read. You know, maybe something other than boring politics all the time. I wonder if they have a cat? And what is it like being married to a politician? And what does she do for supper when they both get home late after a long tiring day?

Any bets on when Sant will follow Gonzi and Cassola and get his own blog? Wordpress or Blogger? And will there be a plug-in playing The Only Way Is Up, Labour?

One Woman, One Vote

It's amazing what an education you can pick up along the way if you read a lot of books, although it might take a few years to sink in.

Around the age of eleven, I had read all the Enid Blyton books available to me, and felt ready for something else. So my father got me started on his vast collection of science fiction books, mostly Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, and some Arthur C. Clarke. I loved those stories!

Many of the books operated on, say, three levels - the first level was entertainment (characters and plot), the second level was exploring the possibilities of science (mostly in the future, in space or on another planet), and the third level was socio-political commentary. At the time, I was clueless as to the third level, but now as I remember the books I realise that there was a lot in there that was over my head.

In Starship Troopers, citizenship, or the right to vote, has to be earned through military service. If you don't volunteer for this military service, then you still live in society but you don't have the right to vote.

This is similar to Athenian Democracy in that, besides fulfilling the other qualifications necessary (such as not being a slave or a woman, for example), an adult male also had to have completed his military training.

On the other hand, I grew up knowing that the only requirement for me to vote was to be at least eighteen years old - I didn't have to earn it. So maybe I didn't think of it as a privilege, which I'm sure I would have had I grown up in ancient Athens, or in not-so-ancient Europe before women were emancipated.

My religion teacher in Form 3 told us that it was our duty to vote.

I don't know if I would say it was a duty - but if you can vote and you don't, then you have thrown away your right to have a say in the running of your country. And that means that for the rest of that electoral term, you don't have a right to complain about all the things that the Government is doing wrong (the state of the roads, the level of income tax, waste of taxpayers' money, etc etc).

Because if you vote a political party into power, you can grumble (imbasta they promised us everything), and if the party you didn't vote for won the election, then you can grumble with even more righteous indignation.

But if you didn't vote, then you didn't every try.

I'm fed up of hearing people giving their predictions as to when the general elections will be called - so much speculation as to whether it will be the 8th of March (but then maybe local council elections will have to be postponed) or maybe it will be March 15th (but that's right after Duluri) and so on and so forth...

Mind you, once the date is announced then people will just talk about it even more.

The Nationalist Party seemed to have kicked off an unofficial campaign a couple of weeks ago, first with billboards pointing out some of the consequences of Sant's suggestion to devalue the Lira just before Euro conversion, and then more recently with pictures of an awkward-looking Gonzi explaining to disinterested citizens that everything will be fine. Now all pretence has been abandoned, and new billboard advertisments include words like agħżel (Labour Party) and the blatant ivvota (Azzjoni Nazzjonali).

I hope that (a) the date is announced soon and (b) that the electoral campaign is SHORT, because I don't know how much of the campaigning I can take...

I will, incidentally, be rude to anyone who, under orders from Party headquarters, phones me up to either remind me to vote or ask me who I voted for. The answers are, I'll do it in my own good time, and none of your business.

In the meantime, The Malta Chronicle is an interesting place to read about the Malta Elections 2008, hooray for the internet and free speech.

The Employment Gender Gap - not necessarily a bad thing

There was an article in The Times today (as there periodically is) about how Malta is "improving" with regards to the level of female employment.

I don't see why we keep hearing this touted as an improvement.

I know plenty of women who work, (I am one myself, hahaha) but I think the shift in the "Employment Gender Gap" is caused mostly by mothers of young children going back to work much earlier than our own mothers used to (if they did at all).

It used to be that most mothers would, if they wanted to, work part-time in the mornings once their youngest kid was old enough to go to school, and possibly go back to full-time employment once the kids could take care of themselves after school. But now women are back working full time shortly after having a baby, leaving their newborn with Grandma, because it's almost impossible for a family to live on one paycheque these days.

Have you seen the property prices in the last few years? I'm not talking about the villas in Madliena that we all sigh over in the Owner's Best, I'm talking about nondescript flats in nondescript villages that still cost more than a bank will lend a single person with a decent job. High property prices mean high mortgage payments which mean that there's less money left at the end of the month to pay the other bills with.

New mothers aren't going to work to get a sense of self-fulfillment - all the ones I talk to say that they are watching the clock and waiting for the hour when they can leave to get back to their kids - they're working because it's not enough to have one wage-earner in the family any more.

So really all that these articles celebrate is that mothers can't afford to stay home and raise their children any more.

Wonderful.

Malta Song For Europe 2008

So Malta's entry for the Eurovision 2008 has been chosen - it's Vodka, sung by Morena.

I am annoyed because it's the one song I didn't like for its message. As usual, most of the songs had sloppy lyrics, little musical merit, and were further disadvantaged by the singers' over-acted, American-accented-but-still-no-"th"s interpretations.

But besides all that, I didn't like that this song was called Vodka, so I looked up the lyrics (because it's not like you can understand half of the words given the lack of consonant pronunciation), and apparently they go like this:

The hunt is still on
Here in Gorki Park
I'm in a Danger Zone
Everywhere is pitch dark

I'm running away
To a blanket of snow
"Spy 1 to Spy 4
I've deciphered the code"

(CHORUS)
"VODKA"
That's the secret word
"VODKA"
And they want it so bad
"VODKA"
I've deciphered the code
Got a rush in the head
"VODKA"
A transparent word

Cold blood drums within
They breathe down my neck
"Spy 1 to Spy 4
We just have to connect"

Their footsteps are near
Closing in for the kill
My pulse has gone dead
With a heart-racing chill

(CHORUS)

So the song isn't really about vodka the drink (you know, the one that looks and tastes like surgical spirit), but really, if I had to Google to find this out, most people aren't going to know, are they?

I have nothing against vodka as such - I even drink it occasionally (mixed with orange juice please). The reason I'm annoyed is that the Maltese entry for the Eurovision is always memorised by Maltese seven-year-old girls.

Don't ask me why, but every year, without fail, I hear lots of these little girls singing away in playgrounds and balconies, belting out their (invariably misunderstood) variation of the lyrics at the tops of their lungs. They just like singing, I suppose, and have little discrimination.

But all these little girls, when they ask their mummies what vodka is, and she shows them the bottle in the drinks cupboard, are going to walk away with the notion that vodka is cool, and to be honest, I wouldn't want my pre-teen kid thinking that - it's bad enough that there are so many teenagers going out and regularly getting plastered with it in Paceville.

Morena could have chosen any word at all to be her "code word", any word, and there are around a million of them in the English language. So really, why did she choose "vodka"? Because drinking it is cool?

Anyway, enough of that. I'm sure we're all going to get heartily sick of hearing the song by the time May rolls around.

This year, videos of all the songs were available on YouTube. Clever.

But I was really tickled by a user's response - on realising that one of the songs (Go, sung by Klinsmann) sounded very similar to "Air Hostess" by Busted, someone constructed a video mash-up of the two songs, and posted it also on YouTube, which I think is hilarious.

To be fair, when you're writing a song and building progressions from the three major and two minor chords, it's very easy to accidentally sound like a pre-existing song, or to be influenced by one that's already in your head without realising it. The person who posted the mash-up went out of his way to say he wasn't accusing anyone of copying. But really, the two songs do sound very similar.

I don't like Klinsmann as a performer because, as Michael (who plays lead guitar) pointed out, it looks Klinsmann has the magical ability to keep playing the lead line even with both hands in the air... lol...

OK, I'm off, and I will do my best to avoid hearing "Vodka" today, although since I'm going to be riding a couple of buses, it might be difficult.

The Euro is coming! The Euro is coming!

In three days' time, the Euro becomes Malta's official currency, and I'm not looking forward to it because I'm quite happy with my Lira Maltija, thank-you very much.

I've used Euros before when travelling, and I didn't mind the coins, but they look like play money when compared with our more substantial muniti.

I haven't bothered to go get any Euro starter kits because have you seen the queues at the bank? Not worth it. My mother-in-law showed me a couple that she picked up, and Michael's little sister helped him familiarise himself with the coins.

I prefer the ones that Santa brought us.

It seems that every few days we get another leaflet in the letterbox about the Euro. I have been a good citizen and read most of them, so I know that the Euro isn't legal tender until the first of January, and the Lira Maltija can still be used until February (but change will be given in Euros), I've memorised the security features on the Euro banknotes, and I even know how to use my old chequebook to write cheques in Euros.

Although I haven't received a Euro converter *sob* I have to say that I've been impressed by the massive effort that's been made to educate the great unwashed about the changeover. Even to the extent of excruciatingly over-acted clips on TV where characters go on about "Did you know that the price of a carton of milk will be blah blah blah Euro cents?". You have to give the NECC points for trying, the sheer number of different schemes they've implemented is quite impressive.

By the way, I think the terminology is annoying - saying something costs twenty Euro instead of twenty Euros sounds cool, but saying fifty cent instead of fifty cents is just wrong, so I shall use whatever trips off the tongue at the time.

I've noticed with interest some of the coping strategies used by shops.

The local stationer's has never been the most accomodating of shops - you have to pay 2 (Maltese) cents for plastic bags, and they won't even sell you a plastic bag if you only buy a newspaper, it's The Rules. They've stuck up a sign by the till which very handily gives the Lm-Euro prices of all the newspapers, but also says that from 1st January, customers Will Not Be Served if they do not tender Exact Change for newspapers. Is that even legal?

PAVI (our favourite supermarket) has stuck up signs saying that Liri Maltin won't be accepted at the checkout counters during January, but they are offering an exchange bureau on the premises. Is that legal too? I mean, not accepting a legal currency at the checkout? I don't know what the laws are concerning currency and retail.

Oh well, roll on Tuesday. I'm going to make sure I have enough Liri Maltin to tide me over in case the Lm-Euro changeovers of the ATMs don't go as planned. I wonder how many people are going to go out and buy stuff just as an excuse to use their shiny new Euros?

Usually I only use a wallet for my cards (ATM cards, ID card, phone card etc) and carry my cash in my pockets. My personal Lm-Euro changeover strategy will be to keep my Liri cash in the left-hand pocket of my jeans, and my Euro cash in the right-hand pocket.

I am tempted to go over to the stationer's on January 2nd and use a Lm10 note to buy a packet of Maltesers, but I can just imagine the string of invective...

Kinnie in a can

A couple of days ago, Mike and I went to Pavi to restock the pantry cupboard, and while there I was dazzled by the display of Kinnie and other softdrinks in plastic bottles and cans.

Hooray for the European Union, the removal of barriers to trade, and the destruction of the Maltese environment.

Mind The Gap

I got the bus to Qormi this morning, and I saw something interesting on the bus stop, rather reminiscent of this. And suspiciously close to this.

Now all I need is for the buses to actually run when the signs say they will.

O tempora! O mores!

On the radio in a shop yesterday, I heard an advert in which a man brightly informed Maltese potential parents that they could choose the gender of their baby.

I find this rather disturbing.

Especially since I just read Next by Michael Crichton (one of my favourite authors), a novel about genetic engineering and its ramifications. Recommend to anyone who likes sci-fi thrillers.

I *heart* my fleece

Why is it so COLD?

*sob*

And how did we survive before fleece?

St. Patrick's Day (see point #3)

Things that go well together:

1. Nutella and Morning Coffee biscuits

2. Chicken risotto and blue cheese

3. Guinness and pastizzi

And it's Olivia Lewis to represent Malta

I had forgotten that tonight was the final of the 2007 Malta Song For Europe competition, the selection of the song that will represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest. (I refuse to link to the Eurovision website because its objectionable code crashed my browser and obliterated the previous version of this post).

I was reminded about the final when Wired Temples popped up in my aggregator just now, which sent me to World of Chig's blow-by-blow account of Thursday's dismal semi-final.

So, I trundled over to ogħdos.com to get the results and was pleased to see that Olivia Lewis has finally, deservedly, won the MSFE on her 11th try. Toni will be thrilled!

I haven't heard Olivia's song for this year, but in previous editions she's had better songs than most, and in any case she deserves points for sheer perseverance. And when I saw by what margin she won by - slightly more than four times the second place - and I laughed out loud.

Go Olivia!

Notte Shoulder-to-shoulder

The Times ran an article today about the Notte Magica (held on the 6th of January 07) as compared to Notte Bianca (14th of October 06).

I went to both, albeit briefly, and I wasn't impressed; Republic Street was the same as usual but with (a) people jammed shoulder to shoulder and (b) half of the shops shut. If I want to buy something from a shop in Valletta, I'll go during the week after work or on a Saturday and not have to take three minutes just to cross from one side of the street to the other. Also, the restaurants CANNOT COPE with that volume of people. For Notte Bianca I was eating with friends in St. James and we had a reservation - lucky because the corridors were lined with people waiting for a table and the waiters had to use a notebook to keep track. For Notte Magica, Michael and I saw that the restaurants were very crowded and when we went to one that is a bit off the beaten track, we were told that we'd have to wait an hour for a table for two (so we left Valletta).

What was nice about Notte Bianca was that there were LOADS of events, and lots of things going on in the streets, such as a roving group of għannejja complete with guitars, and the artists working outside VeeBeeGee. From what I could tell, there was a lot less at Notte Magica, and the good turnout was partly because the evening of the 6th was very mild, there was no rain and it wasn't that cold.

I think that, rather than occasional huge events, what we need is for Valletta to become more like what the Waterfront has become.

I know that every evening, there are restaurants open at the Waterfront, there is a bookshop, there is a toyshop, and I can go any day for a pleasant evening. If every Saturday night was a Notte Magica in Valletta (although somewhat scaled down) then I would know that I could go any Saturday and enjoy the atmosphere, have a meal and catch a show - without running into another 50,000 people clogging the streets, because they would be spread out over different Saturdays.

It's difficult to make a living in the arts here in Malta, but we have plenty of talented performers - surely a regular programme would work out well all round? For example every Saturday night there would be rock music at location A, a dance performance at location B, a play at location C, classical music at location D, and the schedules will be available to the public a month or two in advance. Restaurants would be open as usual, shops would stay open if they wished, and places like the Upper Barrakka Gardens and museums could stay open till midnight.

Anyway, we'll see...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you and yours!

My New Year's Eve was uneventful, which is fine by me. Like last year, Mike and I spent the evening with friends at church, but unlike last year, I did not eat walnuts by mistake and did not end up in hospital asking for antihistamine... (I had some in my handbag this time, see, I learn).

I gave down with a cold on Friday afternoon, so I've spent the weekend up and down with panadol and Cirrus - today my throat is very sore but my little sister has got me sorted:

Enjoy the rest of today, I'm certainly going to do my best to, especially since today's the last day of my holidays.

Mistletoe and Wine! (only I've not got any mistletoe. or wine. but you know what I mean.)

Aaaaah, Christmas, my favourite time of year!

Lots of people tell me that they don't like Christmas because it's so stressful, but I love it.

I enjoy doing all the things that have always meant Christmas - putting up the tree, decorating, wrapping presents - but mostly I enjoy spending more time with my family. I mean, yes, ok, more time around family often means more arguments, heheheh, but it's worth it ;-)

This year I am especially enjoying a week off work, aaaah. Mum and I have bonded by watching the entire first season of Lost in four days *grin*.

And is there anything nicer than sprawling on the sofa in your pyjamas on Christmas morning, eating the chocolates that Santa left in your stocking, and watching Love Actually? Except, perhaps, doing the same thing that night too? (But possibly minus the chocolates, because you'll have put in an entire day's worth of gluttony in the interim.)

And then, getting up on Boxing Day... and doing it again! Ah, I could get used to this...

I hope you had a peaceful Christmas time, and have a good weekend.

Oh, and please drink responsibly, cos remember that the nurses at Casualty are people too and you wouldn't want to give them extra work on New Year's Eve, now would you?

Hip Hip, Hooray!!!

Congratulations to Middle Sis and the rest of this year's fresh crop of graduates!

May you find interesting jobs with good pay, and may the first cheque make the last four years' stress worthwhile *grin*

Bridezilla Cometh

I'm in full Weddings Mode, I'm carrying around wedding magazines in my bag and working my way through wedding planners and website guides.

Our visits to the Weddings Fair this week are being planned with military precision, to the extent of auxiliary troops visiting on the days when Michael and I can't make it, and reporting back to me.

A plan of attack has been discussed, routes through the fair debated, and we're ready go; comfortable shoes, a camera, some paper and a pencil, a map of the grounds, we're all set.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Videos!

The night of the infamous Notte Bianca, I met up with G at a dinner in Valletta (a very bad night for it, given the circumstances).

Like others, she too had been stuck in traffic on a bus surrounded by... well... watch for yourself...

G demonstrates what her fellow passengers sounded like (.asf file, 3MB)

I'd been in Valletta earlier that day, and watched one of the military bands perform. It was a drum and fife band, mostly teenage girls looked like. The fifes weren't that impressive, but I enjoyed the drums.

Impressive really (.asf file, 5.5MB)

Selling blood

The commission heard that in 2003 regulations were drawn up to regulate the price of blood and blood products sold by the National Blood Donation Centre to private clinics and hospitals. In terms of these regulations, only private clinics and hospitals had to pay for the blood supplied to them. State hospitals and clinics were supplied with blood free of charge.

Prior to 2003, the service offered by the centre was free of charge to all.

The Times, October 11 2006

Ah, so I donate my blood to the National Blood Transfusion Centre for free, and then they can sell the processed result? I never knew that.

I agree that they should get back the money spent in processing the blood, but I object if they are making a profit...

Is this test (a) confusing, (b) silly, or (c) just plain sad. (choose one).

Today I went in for my Driving Theory Test at the Testing Centre in Gwardamangia.

The testing is only held on weekday mornings, or early on Wednesday afternoons, there are no evening sessions and no weekend sessions... so people with a job, like me, have to take a few hours' leave for a 10-minute test.

But anyway.

Little Sis took the test a few weeks ago (and has since got her license!) and this morning she sent me an SMS on the lines of, don't bother reading the Highway Code, the questions in the theory test aren't on the Code, they're just common sense.

And this little message struck fear into my heart, because, as any of my nearest and dearest will tell you, I have never been much of a one for common sense.

Oh well, nothing for it...

The test centre was, surprisingly, quite nice. There's a waiting room with chairs, I think it was airconditioned, and the staff were all quietly professional and efficient. Isn't it sad that I am really impressed when I get decent service in this country?

Anyway, the procedure is that you show up with your paid-in-advance ticket, they take a photo of you using a webcam, and give you a little cardboard token with a number on it. When it's time for your test session, they call you all in one by one according to the cardboard tokens, explain the test, and let you at it.

There are ten or twelve cubicles in the testing room, with a computer and a touch-screen in each. I found the touch-screen to be maddening because it was a free-standing flat-screen, and every time I touched the screen to choose an answer, the whole thing wobbled like crazy and just kept on wobbling... so I did most of the test with my left hand clutching the monitor to keep it still.

The test turned out to be 35 questions in 45 minutes, multiple choice, mostly 4-choose-1 with the occasional 4-choose-2 and one notable 6-choose-3. You read a question, select the answer/s by touching the screen, and then move on to the next one. You can also go back to check your answers, which is nice.

The interface is pretty basic - grey, grey, grey, with the multiple choice answers in boring old Times New Roman size 8 or 10. The program itself doesn't look too fancy either - from comparing notes with Little Sis, it sounds like the program picks questions for you from a pool of possible questions, and then also has a pool of possible answers for each questions, so although she and I had some of the same questions, we had different bogus answers.

However as with any program, you have the age old garbage-in-garbage-out rule. Some of the questions, ok, were legitimate, but on some of them had clearly been written by someone who was either bored, underpaid, or had had their imagination surgically removed.

I don't know how often tire pressure is supposed to be checked. The Highway Code didn't say. Is there a book somewhere I missed? How am I supposed to know? Eh? The options were something like: (a) every time the car is serviced, (b) when the car has an MOT, (c) once a month, (d) once a week.

I picked once a month, which Michael tells me is wrong, it should be once a week.

Oh well. Yes, fine, legitimate question, but usually when someone gives me an exam THEY TELL ME WHERE TO STUDY THE ANSWERS FROM FIRST.

How about this one: "Care should be taken when refueling with diesel because when it is split it is (a) clear, (b) odourless, (c) slippery, (d) sticky".

Issa jien naf? What does diesel look like? I have no idea. Petrol, I know, diesel I don't. All I know is what I learnt in engineering about the inner workings of different engines, e.g. petrol versus diesel (diesel can be combusted simply using pressure, doesn't need spark plugs), but we never did a practical in which the lecturer said, look, petrol, look, diesel.

Why would it being clear be a problem? Or odourless if it is odourless? (Little Sis tells me it smells like petrol, but I didn't know at the time). I mean, would that be dangerous because, oops, diesel on the floor and someone might not realise because they can't see it or smell it and accidentally drop a match and go up in flames? BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE MATCHES NEAR FUEL PUMPS, OK?

So I decided that the first two were just stupid, and given the choice between slippery and sticky, decided that diesel was slippery because you hear about accidents caused by motorcyles skidding in diesel spilt by tankers on the roads.

By the way, this question had the only spelling mistake I caught, which was "when diesel is SPLIT". Split? You wanna talk combustion? Eh? Lol.

There might have been more mistakes, but I had horrible stomach cramps at the time and didn't really care.

Here another stumper: CHOOSE ONLY ONE ANSWER - You should switch on your hazard lights if (a) you are reversing into a side street, (b) your car is faulty and you are driving slowly, (c) your car has broken down and is causing an obstruction, or (d) you are being towed.

OK, my common sense said that (a) is unlikely, but then it could decide between the next three.

I picked (c), and have since been told that (d) is OK and possibly (b). But I think it's unfair to say "Pick one" when more than one are correct, because the question implies that only one is correct and how am I supposed to choose?

"You have stopped at a zebra crossing because there were people waiting to cross, but they have not started to cross. You should (a) wait patiently, (b) drive on, (c) honk your horn, (d) wave them across."

My common sense said, let's pick the most lame and unrealistic of these responses, so I went for (a).

Here's a good one:

"You are driving a slow-moving car down a narrow lane. You should (a) driving well out to prevent other drivers from overtaking, (b) wave other drivers on if you think they can overtake quickly, (c) pull over when you can do so safely to allow drivers behind you to overtake."

Eh?

IT'S A NARROW LANE, THERE WILL BE NO OVERTAKING. AT ALL.

Some of them were really a case of "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo", hah.

And NOW my sister tells me that there is actually a CD with about 700 of these questions on it that I could have read... but she also claims that just two of them actually came out in her test.

Oh well, at least there were a few questions based on the Highway Code - I had to identify the meanings of the signs for "Pedestrians Ahead", "No Waiting", "Speed Limit 40km" and also state whether the closest I could park to a road junction was 5, 10, 15 or 20 metres.

I did pass, by the way. When you're finished (anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes) then they ask you to wait in the waiting room and within a couple of minutes will say something on the lines of "You've passed, here's your certificate with a really crappy photo of you printed on it, tell your instructor you can go up for the practical test". Or else they will tell you, as they did to another candidate, "You've passed, but our system is a bit unstable and some of the certificates don't print, and yours didn't print, so give me your particulars and we'll mail you one after a technician has beaten the system into submission".

And anyone who actually fails this test, well, what can I say, I recommend "eenie meenie", it worked for me, but maybe you should be re-thinking whether you should be behind the wheel of a vehicle at all...

Aaaggrrrhhh...

My cunning plan to stop Italy from winning the World Cup didn't work, possibly because I was watching Mary Poppins instead of the game, or maybe because I wasn't up to painting my sunburnt face.

*sigh*

The yobs haven't hit the streets around here yet, so far it's just fireworks and shouting from nearby houses. Just as well I have a set of earplugs.

*mutter*

Italy is going to lose the World Cup

I don't want Italy to win... especially since some of its supporters live on my street and think that it is acceptable behaviour to wake up other people at 11:30pm on a weeknight with sirens and car alarms.

So now I get my revenge - I'm supporting Italy. I'm even going to paint my face.

Going down, suckas...

Uuuuff xi dwejjaq

Let me tell you what happened... I really wanted England to win, so actually I was cheering for them... which is why Portugal won.

*sigh*

Oh, what a surprise.

*sigh*

Here we go again

Brazil - Ghana, three - nil.

*sigh*

At work this morning I heard someone mention Ukraine, and I thought to myself, hmmm, I'll adopt them if Ghana doesn't make it.

And THEN I found out that Ukraine's next match is against... Italy.

Ukraine, Italy, Ukraine, Italy... oooh, I wonder who will win...

*wanders off to consider new colour scheme*

Ghana it is...

So, Italy beat Australia 1-0, but on penalties, so the Aussies did quite well really :-)

I went to Stagecoach wearing a T-shirt with kangaroos on it, and a koala bear on a lanyard around my neck, and come to think of it omitting the facepaint was a smart move.

Turns out that Miss Emma, our dance teacher, was also supporting Australia (when not supporting England). So after our defeat I consulted her as to what team we should now switch our allegiance to.

She suggested Ghana, because it's their first time in the Werld Kapp and they're very much the underdogs, so Ghana it is. Their flag is also much less complicated than Australia's *grin*

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 17.00 Ghana play Brazil... let's see how many blog templates I get through before the 9th of July... the only team I won't be supporting is Brazil, because that's who Michael's supporting, and watching a match with someone who's on the other side is SO much fun!

Go Aussies!

I decided to support Australia in the Werld Kapp, but I'm a lousy fan. I remembered about their 9pm match the other day at 8:53pm, and then promptly forgot again and didn't actually follow the match at all.

Australia did get enough points in that match to advance to the next round, and all thanks to me of course.

However I think that I'll have to pick another team quite soon, because the team that they have to beat to advance to the quarter-finals is... Italy.

Heh.

The match is tomorrow (Monday the 26th) at 5pm, and Stagecoach starts at 7pm, so I'll probably have to bribe one of my sisters to update me by SMS. Be nice to know how many goals we lose by... ;-)

GO AUSSIES!!!

Because violence is never justified

Busted!

di-ve.com just ran a story on an outbreak of hepatitis A at a primary school in Senglea.

The picture they used on their main page (not in the actual article's page) showed a child's hand with blisters on it, and I was alarmed because I know a kid who recently complained of something similar on her arms.

So I sloped off to Google Images, and searched for "Hepatitis A".

And ta-daaaaa... up came the same photo that di-ve.com used on their main page (without attribution). Also they didn't do their research properly because that photo is actually an illustration for a fact sheet on "Hand, foot and mouth disease", not Hepatitis A.

*sigh*

An Open Letter to my Local Council

Dear new Local Councillors,

Congratulations on your recent election!

I didn't vote for a single one of you - when I left the house with my voting document just after 6pm, the heavens opened and it began to pour rain. I was already prepared to walk (uphill of course) to the polling station on the other side of the village in order to vote before getting the bus to Valletta to go and see a play, but when I saw the rain, I changed my mind.

Not that I'm afraid of rain, I don't mind it really. But what I do mind is that whenever it rains anything more than a light drizzle, our streets become veritable rivers - the flowing water can be so deep that it spills up onto the pavement, and crossing the streets neccessitates stepping in it. I didn't fancy spending the rest of my evening with soaking wet shoes, so I didn't go to vote.

Have you ever noticed that in places on the main road, the "river" can be over eight feet wide, as it was last night? Fancy stepping in that in order to get on the bus? Ever walked around a whole block, trying to find a place to cross the road without soaking your socks? Ever had to make the choice between going to school but having to sit through the day's lectures with wet shoes and jeans, or staying home to be dry?

Politicians are notorious for making and breaking promises, but here's one that I, as a voter, am prepared to make and keep (and I take my promises very seriously): if you, the new Councillors, do what your predecessors did not, and fix it so that I can cross the two streets between my house and the bus stop, in pouring rain, without having to step in any water more than 1cm deep, then I will vote for any and all responsible in the next Local Council Elections.

You might as well write "Steal Me!" on the back

The interactive postcard is a cool idea, I've seen them in shops and they look like fun, but the first thought that came into my head was... they are SO going to get nicked!

A couple of years ago someone (i.e. a postal worker or someone who has access to the post) even stole a CD of holiday photographs that we sent to a friend in France, securely wrapped up and inside a large envelope - let alone when you have a little disk just sitting there on a piece of card.

You'd have to send the postcard inside an envelope, which kind of defeats the whole "postcard" thing. Oh well.

This was today's rambling thought.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

Ho hum.

*wanders off*

;-)

On the joys of living in Malta

This evening after work, I met Mum and Middle Sis in Valletta to go shopping for clothes for me to wear to the Graduation Żiblata Party next week. (joke!)

The first thing I noticed upon entering the city is that the middle of Republic Street has been enclosed by a line of barriers running down either side of it - presumably this is so that the dignitaries who will shortly be inconveniencing gracing us with their presence will be able to proceed down the street in their chauffeured cars without being hampered by the rabble.

And these aren't your ordinary run-of-the-mill invisible-under-street-light-while-you're-driving steel barriers, oh no. These ones have been sprayed bright silver. These are VIP barriers.

They extend at least down to the Cathedral (with breaks at the street intersections), and one found them rather a nuisance when one was trying to do her shopping on both sides of the main road of one's capital city, but one understands that the safety of one's Government's guests must of course take precedence over the ability of one to conduct her life, even if one's taxes are paying for part of the whole shebang.

*one sings 'Viva Malta'*

While I was hanging around City Gate waiting for the ladies to arrive (because I cannot be trusted to purchase garments unsupervised), the people in the jeweller's shop next to the arcade housing Burger King were hanging up flags over their entrance - a British flag, a Maltese flag, and a European Union flag (I suppose they didn't have a Commonwealth flag, or perhaps they confused the EU with the Commonwealth, or maybe they had bought the flag for previous festivities and want to get their money's worth).

While they were fiddling around with bits of string, a passing bloke yelled out to them "Waħħlu wieħed tal-Lejber!" and I thought that was rather funny :-)

If I hear the word CHOGM just ONE more time...

This afternoon I had some time to kill in Valletta between work and church.

So I decided to trot along to St. James Cavalier to mosey around the exhibition gallery upstairs - there's generally some really good stuff up there, I've spent many happy hours quietly looking.

Well, this time there wasn't an exhibition. I asked one of the staff and she said sorry, but we'll have a CHOGM exhibition next week. And another after that. And probably CHOGM all the way through to February.

Then I asked about the lecture that was about to start in the Music Room, thinking I could fill an hour with that, and guess what, it's a CHOGM lecture.

Thoroughly disgusted, I went off to church to spend some time practising lead on Mike's electric guitar, and I got there by walking down the road between Castille and Floriana.

Which is currently closed to traffic.

Because it's being re-tarmacked, just in time for, say it with me now, CHOGM.

This after they spent a while not so long ago re-doing the pavements in that stretch of road. The pavements are now quite nice, if rather uneven, and are already stained in several places by what looks like motor oil, and the side-stones have been chipped, probably a result of having the tarmacking going on.

*sigh*

This being Malta, there was an idiot who decided that the concrete barriers closing off the road from the Castille side weren't going to deter him, so he got onto the road by driving the wrong way onto it, and toodled down on the fresh tarmac. I was rather hoping that he would get stuck or blocked in, serve him right, but there was enough space between the heavy machinery at the Floriana side of the road for him to get out. Oh well.

The Government has been doing so much renovating lately to make everything look nice for CHOGM that I had a thought - to make it perfect they just need to get rid of the Maltese now, heheheh. I wonder what they will do, and how much of Valletta/St. Julians etc. will be closed off to us? And also I was wondering how many people/groups will use this opportunity to stage protests?

Congratulations, Pierre!

I'd like to join Sharon and Jacques in congratulating our fellow blogger Pierre J. Meilak on winning this year's e-journalism award in the 15th edition of the Malta Journalism Awards.

Congratulations, Pierre!!!