Well, yes, I know – as I explained, that was my entire experience growing up. And that’s why I comment only (and generally only inwardly) when the business doesn’t match the lifestyle. Then you know one of two things: they’re living off the bank’s money while not paying their bills and the whole thing will eventually crash, or there’s another (illegitimate) business for which the legitimate business is a cover or front.

Thanks for understanding, Daphne. I apologise for being vociferous but members of my family have often been the subject of wagging tongues uttering the infamous “ma nafx minn fejn gabuhom” when I knew EXACTLY where the money came from…. hard work, sleepless nights, huge losses at times, the usual ups and downs of life in general.

Good for you, then. I mean it.

So far we’ve managed. As I said, I made my sacrifices earlier on in life so now I get to enjoy what I sowed. We don’t live beyond our means, we live modestly and manage to get at least two average holidays abroad per year. All in all, I’m just your average Joe.

You will never find a stingy, penny-pinching man with a happy wife, unless she is as stingy as he is or comes from a seriously deprived background over which almost anything is an improvement.

As for the rest of your comment, I grew up in a ‘narrow’ world in which almost all the adults I knew ran proper businesses (that is, not shops) – neighbours, family, friends, the lot.

That gives a person an amazing understanding of the correlation between business and lifestyle/attitude, and an ability to assess realistically how much money can be made from doing what.

Perhaps you will be surprised to know that the most cynical assessments of this particular person are made by those who have run Malta’s biggest (legimitate) businesses for years.

Oh, and by law-enforcers, too, which should tell you quite a bit.

Tinstema naqra bhal dawk in-nies li waqt li jkunu jitkelmu jsemmu l-kelma ‘jaqbilli/ma jaqbillix’ f’kull sentenza li jlissnu.