Who's Gonna Drive You Home?

"Cyclists, blah, blah, cyclists all over the road, blah, blah, cyclists going the wrong way, blah, blah." It didn't actually say this, but a letter to "The Bulletin" was along these lines. Crikey, never heard of this problem before. But not that I will disagree. I have said as much myself here on many an occasion. Someone said to me the other day that cyclists "play games". Pretty dangerous games, taking on a Mallorcan car driver, or indeed a car driver of any nationality. Cyclists here are untouchables. You touch them, or rather your car touches them, and you are at fault, even if they have ridden straight at you on the wrong side of the road. It's an uneven playing-field or open road if you prefer.

There are certain stretches of road that tempt both cyclists and drivers into ever more dangerous games. Take the road going from Can Picafort to Son Serra. Much of it is nice and straight and relatively quiet. The local Alonsos hack along as though it were the Mulsanne straight and the cyclists treat both lanes as their own personal fiefdom. Like many other stretches of road, it is an accident in the making.

I'm not here to defend drivers. There are enough arseholes here who defy defence, but many a cyclist might well be defined with an abbreviation - F.T. I'll leave it to you to fathom out what F.T. stands for. Maybe there is some mathematical equation that measures the level of F.T. It is related to the size of the brain that determines awareness of and courtesy towards others. F.T. = X (brain) divided by A + C. Or something like that.

While on roads, the bit of the carretera going towards Can Picafort from Playa de Muro, newly laid out with chicanes and whatever, is to be a 50kph zone between the months of April and October. Fair enough I suppose. But some bits of road at 50kph do seem especially slow. I had some practice today. Behind a driver of exceptionally advanced years. Still, 50 it will be, so you have been warned.


But so much for the joys of roads. Never let it be said that I do not respond to being corrected. Someone emailed me about the number of "relax houses" in Alcúdia. Apparently, there are seven, not four. How about that? Seven knocking shops in little old Alcúdia. You don't get this sort of information in your average brochure you know.


QUIZ
Last time - "Woodstock", Joni Mitchell. Today's title - Who did it? And what made it particularly and rather oddly famous?

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