Love your pet, unless you live in a flat

Come, sit with me. We have started the New Year, and hope to leave the bad of 2013 and welcome 2014 by being good Sallotians.  I would suggest starting by re-reading the RUBS rules, and possibly the list Francesca gave us, to help us  learn about exchanging goods- not only Christmas presents, and  knowing our rights as consumers. Perhaps it is also good to remind ourselves that before we go on a Facebook moan fest, and give previously good establishments a bad name; we should speak to the manager. Only if this is not resolved in a timely and decent manner can we come to these pages, which have become so precious to us.

Naturally, we closed on a strange note of complaints and arguments. A woman who, against rules of the block she lived in, was keeping a dog in her flat, wrote in. Many were stunned at the audacity of the person who wanted advice on how to fight her neighbour, a neighbour who filed many a police report about the said dog. Naturally, the animal lovers jumped to the pets rescue, although, truth be told, there were other animal lovers who didn’t think a flat was a good place to keep a dog. Each to his own. My Pointe Four has a large outdoor space to play in and I am with him all day. This way I know he doesn’t bark and annoy my neighbours, and  I hasten to add that I keep  his area clean , so there is no doggy  smell, nor  is there a doggy poo smell .  My advice to all, dog lovers or otherwise is to read their block’s Condominium Agreement, and abide by it. Rules are made to be kept, not broken. Were this not about a dog, I doubt there would have been such a furore.  To me, a dog lover and owner, it was a clear cut case. She knew she was wrong. Feathers (or was it fur?) flew. Rightly so!

One of our last laughs was thanks to Suzanne Gollcher, and her postman. Her post asking “what time does the postman come?” had many of us chuckling. Seems the postman where she lives does not ring twice, unlike the postman in the film, but whoever he is, he gave us a lot to laugh about. I propose we toast Suzanne’s post as not only did it make us laugh, but we all went to sleep that night smiling, knowing that there was actually a post where no one moaned, griped, or posted a negative comment.  Surely a record post.  If only most of the 2014 posts were like this in The Salott!

Whilst New Year’s Resolutions are all very well and good, I will, this year, do my best to follow the last instructions of Nirvana Azzopardi’s letter to the… well...letter. That’s my resolution. Many Sallotians had changed their profile pictures to   a yellow flower to show love and solidarity. This tells me you know the letter I am referring to.  A letter where she rightly points out that we need to live lives with less stress, lives which are healthier, lives which appreciate the people around us, the blessings we receive on a daily basis. Living the moment is a good way to start. Perhaps we will have less fighting and Facebook stresses. We might even help more, as we will be even more generous of spirit.  We Sallotians have always prided ourselves on being a community of altruistic people. We help. We must learn to help ourselves too. Charity begins at home. Look around you, put your Facebook pages away for a further half hour a day, and invest that half hour in yourself. Read a book, call a friend, visit a housebound neighbour, have a relaxing bath, or just dream a little dream…  ‘coz you’re worth it. We all are.