It’s a lovely peaceful early morning after what, I am sure, was a lively and fun night. I’ve not seen images of the concert yet, and I was well asleep before it started, but I am sure it was a great success. This morning, I was up at three and surprised to find the harbour below so quiet, not that it’s usually noisy at that time, although it can be.
Why? Well, in the summer, it’s not uncommon for visitors and locals alike to enjoy late-night dining and socialising. Who wants to be out drinking and partying at four in the afternoon when the temperature is nudging thirty-six or above? Better to do it in the cool of the late evening or early morning. Sometimes, I hear parties still going on at some of the late-night bars, or on the big cruisers that moor up. Other times I hear one of the kafeneion still in full swing or winding down around three, and, particularly in August, that’s nothing new. There are other sounds to be heard, as I’ve mentioned before. The screech of the owl, the chug of a fishing boat, the hum of nearby air conditioners, and the security ships that patrol or moor up with their generators running. Now and then, I might hear and see a lone motorbike climbing the hill, and it’s also possible to hear conversations when people are talking on the quayside, or riding home two abreast.
On which note, one of the vehicle rental places in Yialos is now renting our electric scooters and bikes so you can get around quietly and in an environmentally friendly way. If people would only wear crash helmets as they are obliged to, we’d all feel a lot safer, but the non-wearing of safety gear is what I call the Covid effect.
Say what? Well, it’s like this. After the lockdown, when tourism was starting again, we had a slew of visitors coming over from countries that were worse hit by the thing than we were. They saw themselves as coming to a safe country and arrived with a sense of relief that they were free of the thing for a while, with no sense that they might be bringing it to us. Selfish? Yes. Understandable? Yes. But the same mentality applies to the non-wearing of crash helmets.
It’s all to do with excuses. ‘Oh, no-one wears them on the island, so why should I?’ Because it could be you that gets your brains scraped out on the rocks you so admire. ‘It’s too hot to wear a helmet.’ It’s also too hot to rig a pop concert in the afternoon at 38 degrees but someone did it yesterday. ‘No-one checks up on you.’ Which is like saying, ‘Unless someone else takes responsibility for me, why should I take any for myself?’
It’s up to you if you want to risk your mental capacity, head, or life while dashing about on unfamiliar roads on a machine you’ve only just met, and it’s up to you if you want to ignore the hire company’s advice that you take and wear a crash helmet (the new electric hires come with free helmets, so no excuse there). If you want to break the law, then that, too is your own risk.
For my part, having driven a 500 CC around London for several years, I can’t even contemplate getting on a motorbike without full leathers and a helmet, so I don’t. I wouldn’t go unprotected in any other country so why go unprotected here? Because you can. It’s not my place to point out the failings or not of the authorities, but there is something to be said for the ‘they don’t check’ argument because it’s often true. Often, but not always. There are spot checks now and then, so, be warned. But when our island’s great and good don’t even bother to wear one, ‘Because we don’t on the islands’, well, to me, that rather smacks of not good enough.
I have no idea where that all came from or why I write it aloud. I’d only been standing on the balcony in silence, watching the lights and listening to nothing, when I thought I’d post today’s photo – something with a face, and somehow, I ended up here.
Ah well, it’s nearly five now, and I must get to work.
