Traffic held up in Lija as Michelle Muscat and friends pose for selfies near limo outside Villa Francia

A friend who lives in Hal Lija, where the village feast is on, has just rung me to say that when his guests came round this evening, they couldn’t find their way through the maze of one-way streets and barriers so he got into the car with them to show them the way out of the village and where best to park.

They reached Villa Francia, which has been commandeered by the Spouse of the Prime Minister, and a soldier ordered them to stop. They did so.

“An entourage of ladies in evening dresses came out, including Michelle Muscat and Claudette Abela Baldacchino, who was in a tacky black lace number,” my friend said. “They had a limo and chauffeur on standby, but before they climbed into it, they spent 20 minutes taking selfies and having their picture taken by a professional photographer alongside it while a queue of cars backed up behind ours. This was 15 minutes before the church procession began.”

“I could hear the people in the cars behind us swearing black and blue, haqq this and haqq that. ‘Dan kollu biex jiehdu ir-ritratti?’ The soldiers were genuinely embarrassed, politely telling us to wait while the Prime Minister’s wife and her chums took their selfies unbothered by all the people waiting in their cars for them to finish.

“Then they got into the limo and were chauffeured off, without thanking us for waiting or apologising for making us wait. And we re-joined the real world with normal people.”