I shall try to get into the spirit of Christmas and will not give my views as to who has more credibility Lou Bondì or John Dalli. Did you see both letters in the other paper? With admirable lack of hyperbole Mr Bondì asked readers to decide who has more credibility, him or Mr Dalli.

In an interview in the other paper, Mr Dalli named names – of those who conspired against him until he had to resign. I get the impression that Mr Dalli is totally unamused by all this and does not really believe that he is the prime minister’s new best friend but it suits him – for the time being, to pretend he is. Everyone seems to be contesting Sliema, including Mr Dalli. It is going to be interesting to see who will be elected in my home town.

And since it is Christmas let us not delve too deeply into the LM72, 398 contract given to WE last January for a national educational campaign regarding the use of sustainable energy. Has the money been paid to them? Where did the campaign take place? On Mars perhaps, as it was certainly not evident in the media here? Fly on the wall hacks have been asking these questions in Kulhadd but we have as yet to get any answers from WE or from the Malta Resources Authority.

And again, Mr Bondì’s programme was questioned by the PBS editorial board. I did not stay to watch even a part of it last Monday but it was an interview with Mr Evarist Saliba. The veteran diplomat has now written his memoirs: No, Honorable Minister, in which some ludicrous piece of fantasy dreamed up by goodness knows who was made that in 1996 the Labour Party won the election with the help of the CIA. Election time is almost here so Where’s Everybody are going to pull out all the stops to help with the campaign for where will it leave them if the party which gives them tenders, contracts, peak airtime and bagsfull of money is no longer in power? Ah! But who knows. Maybe the CIA will have a hand in Labour winning this election too, this time round!

Mischievous Loo is allowed to do precisely what he likes at PBS. In fact, Professor Dominic Fenech, chairman of the beleagured PBS editorial board did not make any supportive noises and, on the contrary, said the Board wanted to dissociate itself from last Monday’s programme. There are several people who have nothing to fear from the hard-hitting, er, investigative techniques of Loo’s giurnalismu ta’ veru.Those are the members of the cabinet. They get sycophantic interviews and opportunities to appear on PBS and have no fear that the questions to which the man in the street would like some answers will ever be asked. At least half the programmes of WE are little more than puff-sheets promoting the government.

And so PBS rumbles on. When will someone lose their temper and fortified by Dutch courage – or now that it’s Christmastime, a double dose of spirits, square up to the management of PBS with a battery of four-letter words and two-fingered gestures and get them to do that which is fair and unbiased and act like a responsible national station and not a godfather to some.

So on to something more frivolous. Some friends came to supper and the night before I was determined to inject as much Christmas spirit as possible into the evening and so put up my big tree. I downgraded the little snowy one I had bought some two years ago, when I was tired of trundling up and down from the wash room on the 5th floor carting boxes of Christmas stuff and a too big a tree down to the flat. The snowy one is now in the living room shedding its snow all over the place. It looks somewhat dull as the hanging of lights or decorations on it is impossible. It also refuses to stand up straight and looks as if it has indulged in too much alcohol. It lurches to the left. Perhaps it was born that way, like me. I tried propping it up with different material but after a while is it lop-sided again and I’ve given up.

One of my friends wanted to know how I had already managed to put up my Christmas tree inspite of deadlines and the general chaos pervading this time of year. Well, I was determined to do it and stayed up until four in the morning. Bringing it all down again is going to be another business altogether. I shall try and put it away before Easter Sunday.

I went to Rachel Vella’s launch of her new outlet Inglot, at the Strand in Sliema. The place was packed inside and out when I arrived on 8 December at around 3pm. Lovely canapés were served by Corinthia staff, some amuse guele were served on chess boards which was a novel idea. There was wine aplenty and Mr Inglot himself, who is Polish, said how much he had liked Malta on his first visit and thought that his brand would work here.

Rachel was looking resplendent in black and wearing Inglot makeup. The variety of colours is extraordinary and clients are encouraged to combine their own palette. Rachel’s brother Simon, told us about his enthusiasm for cars and his red Ferrari or was it a Lancia perhaps it was, was parked outside. When I asked Rachel about Tista Tkun Int she did not pronounce herself. Andrea Cassar told me that PBS had asked for such high fees for her popular programme Liquorice that she had to drop it. She had already put a deposit on some 10 flights and members of her team had taken their inoculations to be able to travel and all that had been for nothing for Liquorice has disappeared from this schedule. They should have been warned of the new extraordinarily expensive – for some – fees well ahead but weren’t. Yet another black mark against PBS.

The Quadro Restaurant at the Westin Dragonara Resort launched its special winter dinner and some six of us were invited for a convivial lunch. These set menus are being offered at just Lm10 (Euro 23.29) and the price includes a three course meal, a glass of Quadro wine and water. I loved my Bouillabaisse which I had not eaten for a long time. It is a meal in itself and I should have stopped there but didn’t upon sighting the Beef and Kidney Pot au Feu, another beautifully cooked dish. The desserts were heavenly especially the Chocolate and Almond Tart and the Chocolate, Prune and Armagnac tart. Jonathan Vella, the Quadro Chef who seems far too young to be able to make such lovely food, came to sit with us at the end of the meal. I quizzed him about the Bouillabaisse. I could taste the Rouille in it. Where did they purchase it from? I have never seen it on sale here. In fact as Camille and family were travelling overland from London to Malta through France some months ago, I plagued them to bring me back some, which they did in between messaging me with news of Harry: “We are now in Provence and Harry is eating his first grape.”

Jonathan assured me that he makes his own Rouille ‘with plenty of garlic’ and it does not come from a tin. After being in the kitchen all day when he gets home he enjoys his wife’s food and is not normally critical of what she produces he told me.

I visited the elegant and discreet Sandro Azzopardi Gioelleria in one corner of Tower Road, which I pass by frequently on my way to work. I was invited there to have a look round and to meet Yasmin Modi who is designing bespoke jewellery for Sandro’s clients. I liked Yasmin’s paintings, which also hang in parts of the shop. They are very vivid and she is influenced by her Indian half, for she is part Indian and part Maltese. She designs pieces of jewellery for clients and these one-off pieces are then executed by members of Sandro’s talented team.

Maria showed me round as did Sandro. I particularly liked the brown/beige stones whose name I have forgotten. Sandro pointed out his first creation which he executed when he was very young. It is a harp, which is delicate and certainly wearable as a brooch. There are lovely rings and necklaces and a new consignment of Bulgari pieces is due to arrive in the next few days.

There were many slim, blonde ladies in black choosing their pieces and also Kirsty, Gianni’s pretty girl friend, who is also slim and blonde and was also wearing black.

Malta is small and one meets the same people often around the social circuit. So for those who can afford it and like to be different, a bespoke piece of jewellery certainly makes good sense. You will not see another piece like it anywhere you go and it will be made especially to suit you. And forget about cosmetic surgery. There is nothing like a necklace with a few gems to ‘lift’ the face. I think the elegant and soft-spoken Sandro Azzopardi, whose family have been in business for years, is on to a good thing.

A Happy Christmas to you all!