Actually Bir id-deheb is in Zejtun – on the very outskirts bordering the neighbouring village of Hal Ghaxaq.

On Thursday, I needed to go to Zejtun and I boarded the bus and politely asked the driver where Bir id-Deheb was, and whether it was close to the Zejtun square.

He replied very, very rudely and in a raised voice, he told me: “Mela ma tafx fejn iz-**** qieghed iz-Zejtun u Bir id-Deheb?”

I said: “Le, ma nafx fejn qieghed Bir id-Deheb ghax kieku ma kontx nistaqsik, u frankament ma nippretendix illi nitla’ fuq karozza tal-linja u x-xufier ikellimni hekk. Kemm inti pastaz.” I left the bus, while, in a string of expletives, he told me that Bir id-Deheb is not in Zejtun.

As I left, he just snapped back to his trained self and called after me “Sinjura, Sinjura” and began to beg me (literally) not to report him.

He told me “Skuzani, skuzani, I’ve had a rough day and hundreds ask me that question during the day. Please do not report me PLEASE. Qeghdin fuqna bhal isqra.”

I was so surprised that he actually apologised that I did not even reply and he said “Please, please tkunx kattiva”.

When I finally realised that this was an apology of sorts, I told him not to worry because all of us have bad days. But it does not give us the right to snap at people, a statement which elicited agreement.

I do agree that the driver should not have behaved in that manner, but how strange is that: being actually apologised to by the driver.

Now that is a clear improvement.

[Daphne – It wasn’t an apology, Lomax. An apology means you are sorry for what you have done because you have offended the other person. Here, he was sorry for what he did because it meant you would report him and he’d get into trouble. This was not an apology but an attempt at avoiding trouble for himself. If there were no threat of trouble, he wouldn’t have regretted his behaviour and the insults and worse would have followed you off the bus. Clearly, this driver still doesn’t understand why he shouldn’t swear at passengers. He thinks it’s just to avoid being disciplined.]

At about 2 million first-time tourist arrivals per year. We can piss off all of them each year and still have a tourist industry that will last 200 years.
(Labour thug/driver thinking–those who think–maybe ten?)

X’misthija. I wonder if this creep got a job with Arriva and is still practising his impeccable vocabulary of bilingual swear words.

I suppose once they had accepted Greece …..