@ Silvio

Partit tal-haddiema wkoll. X’rispett, Alla jbierek.

Issa li kieku kellhom johorguh nhar Hadd il-Ghid? Jitilghu b’girja bih it-telgha tal-Addolorata….Mhux Salvatur?

You must know me, Qahbu. My father, both grandfathers and several uncles all worked at C & W.

I can vouch for every word you said. Only, you left out the bit about Mintoff compensating C & W for the equipment with the workers’ pension fund – proof, if ever it was needed, that Mintoff never gave a stuff about workers’ rights or workers’ welfare.

It was never about social welfare, it was all about power. And today’s (M)LP is absolutely no different.

Silvio, when we have workmen around the house, we always offer them hot or cold drinks, depending on the weather, and sandwiches/biscuits /cake, and (in summer) ice cream.

It is basic good manners and courtesy.

Most mornings an African immigrant, rain or shine, trundles a garbage wheelbarrow collecting street refuse in our area, and yes, he is a perspiring human-being grateful to be supplied with a cooling drink or a bar of chocolate.

You are right, Silvio. My good wife is not burdening the household budget too much because nowadays a bar of good chocolate is cheaply available openly on our grocer’s shelves and it does not have to be smuggled through customs as in Mintoff’s “not so golden” days.

Why does that surprise you?

Silvio, when we had workers, and no kitchen, we used to offer coffee, water etc and go out and buy them from the bar around the corner. The workers used to do the same and offer us when they went to the bar. It’s called good manners and respect and not handouts.

I must admit I am no match for you. I try but you always come out the winner.

Keep it up, you make my day.

Dear Daphne, I assure you that I am always willing to take out my silver tea set for my guest and friends,b ut why should I pamper those who make me pay through the nose for something that should cost a few Euro?

Just see that they get what was agreed and end of story.

I remember the days when my employees gave us presents at Xmas – how times change. They now receive bonuses and employers are left with just a bigger overdraft.

[Daphne – You do it because it’s civil and polite, Silvio, and not because you owe them anything. That’s why it was Mrs Mintoff, the half of the couple raised with proper manners, who insisted on offering the policeman something to drink, while her spouse, who reasoned in terms of ‘owing’ and ‘why should I’, reasoned as you do here.]

He can down a hill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpxCfI1a9Hs

[Daphne – Well, all that virile swimming and riding and prunes for breakfast really served him well, I must say, if he ended up in a wheelchair at 94. My grandmother who sat about and ate what she pleased was pulling her shopping-cart up the hill to the supermarket at 96.]

Not on a wheelchair, for sure.