Trying To Drive Me Mad

So, that by-law about street drinking. The one that was intended to put an end to the botellón on weekend nights in Puerto Alcúdia, the street drinking event that occurs by the Magic roundabout, with car boots opened in order to disgorge the contents of entire drinks cabinets or more likely cheap booze stores. A package of measures was announced back in the autumn (26 September: Did You Have To Pay That Fine?) which was designed to rid the streets not just of the public displays of getting rat-arsed but also street selling. There is a tendency here to believe that things are announced and that nothing much will in fact change or happen. I wonder why some might think like that.

Saturday night. By the go karting. Cars are pulled up. So much so that they take some negotiating by other cars in order to pass. There is a big bloke going home. Ex-army. Not one normally prone to be concerned about going back along the streets late at night. He was looking over his shoulder. Even he found the situation intimidating. Lord alone knows what anyone else might think. Tourists for example.

This has got to stop. The town hall have put the measures in place. It's to the police to effect them. It probably isn't a Guardia matter as, being a local law, it falls to the local police to deal with. But God knows, this all happens just down the road from the Guardia station. The town hall has said, in the past, that there are adequate police to cope with the likes of the street selling along The Mile. In which case, one would think there would be adequate numbers to put an end to the drinking.

Before anyone suggests that this is just an issue in Alcúdia, it is not. And it just goes to emphasise that this nonsensically romanticised view that in Mediterranean climes (well Mallorca at any rate) there is no such thing as the youth getting pissed is way wide of the mark.


And other intimidation. The driving sort. The speed restriction along the carretera through Puerto Alcúdia and the islands that have now sprung up along its length into Playa de Muro have been a good thing, especially in the season. Yet there are still those who don't want to play the game. It happens not infrequently, like yesterday afternoon. You can be doing 50 or more like 60 in truth and there will be someone up your arse, moving wide, not with the intention of overtaking because that really is foolhardy but with the puerile notion of seeking to intimidate, or maybe to be simply a complete prat. I knew full well what would occur. At the fish hook roundabout entering Playa de Muro, the road goes into two lanes. He went into the left one and looked to overtake on the roundabout. I should know better myself, but there are times when you just think what is your problem. So I put my foot down and he had to give way. Stupid, but there you go.

The road layout is now such that it has reinforced the danger that the roundabouts can pose. Then there is the I'm going to use the side road in order to overtake mentality. Someone nips off, hares down the side road and looks to come out in front at the next mini or main roundabout. It's dangerous, not least as the side roads now start to get littered with tourists wandering all over the place. Why is it so damn important? The answer is that it is not.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Pearls Before Swine (aka Tom Rapp). Today's title - line from? They reckon it was the one when the writer had just about finally flipped.

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