Catholic Malta will tonight celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ. Many of us will just take the opportunity to spend another night out with relatives and friends. It is the start of a period of festivities that will come to an end when the New Year starts. One word of caution – do not mix drinking with driving. You might live to regret it.

There are some areas that have been beautifully decorated. The streets have been lit up and they are themselves an attraction to visitors. The other side of the coin is San Gwann – although it has grown to become an important commercial centre, its main street is shorn of Christmas decorations except for three or four strings of bulbs across the road. We are sure that San Gwann businessmen could come up with something better.

Christmas holidays in some schools seem to be growing longer each year. There are some schools which finished on 19 December, nearly a full week before Christmas, while others will be starting on 8 January (not even on Monday 7 January). Some schools will nearly have three full weeks of holidays. Isn’t it an exaggeration?

St Trophimus Street in Sliema is in a dire need of resurfacing. A trench was recently dug midway through the road and it has not been patched up well. Drivers struggle to control their car and, considering that the road is rather narrow and cars are parked on the right hand side, driving becomes even more difficult. When is the local council going to finish the job?

Finally, the Mater Dei parking prices have been revised. Yesterday, it was announced that the prices – the subject of so much controversy ever since the hospital started functioning – have been slashed, almost by half. This is a positive outcome because, let’s face it, the prices were too high particularly for those people who unfortunately have to visit hospital quite often.

An advert in the heart of Paceville – in the open square – still promotes the Bryan Adams music concert that was held in June this year. It is rather misleading for the many tourists who visit the area, and who might think that the Canadian singer is still to perform in Malta. It should be removed immediately.

It took a driver more than one hour to travel from Cospicua to St Julian’s last Friday morning – and it was not raining. Yet a slight crash in front of the petrol station in the road leading to the traffic lights intersection meant that the traffic jam started at Ghajn Dwieli, and then there were other traffic jams at Santa Venera and Kappara. No wonder people get so frustrated if it takes them an hour to travel seven or eight kilometres when they could have flown to Rome in that time.

Some of the carpets showing the different euro coins that we will start using as from 1 January were removed last Friday because they got torn. This happened just one week after they were laid in Republic Street, Valletta. This column last week remarked that the idea was good, but at the same time wondered how long it would have taken for the carpets to be damaged considering the hundreds of people stepping over them. Well, now we know the answer.