Come next May and this Republic – I nearly mentioned the fruit, but I have respect for bananas – will celebrate its first birthday as part of this great “One Europe. We’ve done really well, so much so that “Maltese top SMS use in EU”.

Your front-page headline (TMID 5 February), not that anyone cares, filled me with pride… excellent! To top it all, it was the first day of carnival!

Amid all this excitement I hardly noticed the day go by.

Back to reality. Sunday lunch has to be cooked (steak and kidney pie), 10 minutes into cooking and the gas flame went “plop” – no gas, no replacement! Panic? Not me. This tranquil village hasn’t seen a delivery man since 20 January (some did for 15 minutes).

The replacement gas cylinder I put out went missing within an hour. Some good Samaritan took it upon himself that since the gas man is nowhere to be seen, he’ll do his duty as a good citizen and clear my street and a few others of these unsightly objects… so there!

The pie? The beautiful felines in my beautiful garden had a field-day, not that I ever neglect them.

So now what? Apart from penning this letter my thoughts were: a take-away? I hate pizza.

Beefburgers? Bad for your health! Sandwiches will have to do.

As luck would have it, we do have the luxury of an electric kettle and a desalination water system. No chlorinated/salty water in this household.

A joke is a joke… but please sit down and pause, this is Malta in the 21st century, an equal partner in this great One European Empire, where one will find an administration that doesn’t give a damn. An opposition that has its focus on other fields.

I say this because, on Saturday, 5 February, I phoned their news desk to highlight this gas cylinders matter to be bluntly told “we’re all in the same boat” or words to that effect.

The gentleman would not give his name… and life goes on, if one calls this living.

Investigative reporters my foot. In this land no one dares to tread on anyone’s toes in case they get into their bad books, no one gives a damn and apart from being robbed, the citizens will go on suffering – a great shame!

Enemalta Gas Division is in shambles, in total chaos – and do you know what? No one is accountable for the balls-ups and despicable performance into which this entity has sunk itself.

I do sincerely hope that the members of Parliament and the management of this entity are not in the same predicament that I, my family and thousands of others are in today, on this cold and sunny carnival day.

Laurence Schembri

GUDJA