May I be allowed a little gripe with those who force their Halloween revelry on unwilling neighbours. They are perfectly entitled to think of some of us as being neighbourhood ogres. What they may think of us does not bother me in the least; however, their children do.

If they think that on Halloween night children would be children and that is enough of a licence to bother neighbours, then be well informed that not all of us are amused.

We don’t appreciate having to inconvenience ourselves to answer the door every time some twerps in costume ring the doorbell. We do not relish having to hobble down the stairs to open the door to unsolicited callers with no purpose. We do not like partaking of childish games. We definitely resent having our private lives disrupted and our property abused by mindless teens with an awful upbringing.

To think that perfectly Maltese parents would be willing to condone all this would urge one to give their offspring a piece of one’s mind in that sort of idiomatic vernacular.

What a sorry lot to encourage their young to mimic alien customs simply because they can see them in the foreign media. Monkey see, monkey do and some people will think that doing so is trendy.

By all means let them ring the doorbell if they desperately need assistance, let them come up all the way to our door if they need neighbourly comfort. In such circumstances they are welcome to consider me as part of their community but they should not send their children around to be a nuisance.

Some of them may have hardly told their young about borża ta’ San Martin but they feel snugly to unleash them on us on Halloween. Like them, most of us do watch some TV but not all of us are suckers for other people’s lifestyles.