When you come to think of it, the Maltese people are a stubborn, sturdy and funny bunch.  One the one hand our tempers can fly easily and on the other we lie like lions in the sun whilst the world falls around us.

We are knocked about, talked about and forgotten about. We drive on the left but mainly use the middle of the road.  We are friends with many but trust few.  Our family binds us, shapes us and frustrates us.  Church on Sunday but would rather be on the beach slugging mojitos.  Weddings, festi, fireworks and an early start to the weekend, shut-down and Summer holidays.  Football, waterpolo, beach and BBQ under a full moon.

Into the middle of this cultural reverie, out of the blue and into the deep, comes an early election.  After an initial grumble about how it will affect several of the above-mentioned happenings, we enter into the fray with gusto on all sides.  The pent-up energy from those days stuck at the desk suddenly finds release and everyone is rearing to go. 

All the observations we had made but let pass us by are now re-focused by this election fever and begin to take on a body of thought and analysis.  We are bombarded on social media, print and this time round, quite a significant amount of foreign coverage of events or issues.  Suddenly our name is all over the place, Malta. Malta in the Mediterranean sea, Malta and the EU Presidency, Malta this way and Malta that way.  The future and the past colliding.  The present is too squeezed in to allow us to breathe normally. 

But we are not easily discouraged.  We take another deep breath and push on to the next meeting.   Pollsters are the latest attraction but fail to impress and are now falling from grace. 

At the eleventh hour, the candles come out and no-one is going to say no to a little help from the Madonna who has always been there for our islands in its gravest hour of need.

The truth is that as we are a small island with a population of 430,000 and an occupancy of 460,000 on 316 square kilometres so our passions drive us stir crazy at times.  We are reminded, though, at how many of us are connected.  Our parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa, in-laws on one side and work-mates, neighbours, teachers, nurses and doctors, team-mates, close friends and party friends on the other.  We do not go far without running into some or all of those.  Our lives are a mosaic of all that we wish for and less of what we avoid. 

Which brings us to where we are today.  What will we avoid and what will we embrace?  Champions league or ballot boxes on buses?  Pizza or Burgers?  Maybe some fancy sushi.

Many mothers will be feeding their children who are home for 24 hours so the likely winner will be food, glorious food.  On that we can all agree.  It’s a start.