Take It Easy

More road sense or lack of sense. The otherwise wise creation of crossing-points and islands now along the whole stretch of the carretera (main road) into Playa de Muro has nevertheless thrown up the potential hazard that comes from drivers having their views obscured. Always assuming people choose to use the crossing-points, as opposed to wandering across wherever the fancy takes them, the pedestrian access to several of these points is through gaps in the hedges along the sides of the road. Moreover, the parking that is available to either side of the road goes right up to the crossing-points. So what, you might think. Well, the so what is that the combination of parked vehicles and hedges means that pedestrians emerging to use the crossings can and do take you by surprise. It's bad if they are wearing dark clothes and at night; it's not so clever in daylight. The reaction of drivers, on getting a pedestrian suddenly appearing, can be to slam on the brakes; thanks very much, mate, you've smacked me up the back. Or maybe they don't react all. Of course, most pedestrians will not just simply walk across without stopping and looking. At least, you hope that would be the case. It just goes to emphasise that the speed limit of 50 is important to stick to; in summer it is, in truth, too high.


Manners. At the risk of falling into the trap of more cultural stereotyping, let it never be said that the Brits do not have an awful lot of courtesy, the like of which others tend not to. It's remarkable that the Brits ever get anywhere, the time they spend holding doors open, allowing others through or past and saying thank you or excuse me. I have been into a Brit-dominated hotel a couple of times over the past days - the Alcúdia Beach. This is not a hotel with doors that open at the command of a sensor or your weight on a trigger mechanism; it is a hotel with doors, as in those that have to be manually opened and closed. It is a hotel with doors designed with the British in mind. Used as one becomes to there not being a whole bunch of doors-being-held-open, to be plunged into a small part of Britain in Alcúdia comes as something of a surprise. "After you." "No, after you." It can take hours to get in and out of the place.

And with the Alcúdia Beach in mind, the image today shows someone not unassociated with the hotel. It's an image that you will have to get used to as it is part of the front cover of a well-known tourist guide in Alcúdia; in fact, the best known. Though no-one is recommending sitting on deckchairs on roundabouts, the Las Gaviotas sculpture does cry out for some special tourism promotion - and so here it is, with a fat bloke sitting on it, well sort of. It's a visual gag, if you like. And crisis, what crisis is what Jim Callaghan never actually said; it was "The Sun" what did it. The deckchair motif comes from Supertramp and their album with that title. And, as mentioned recently, "The Sun" surpassed itself with its front-page "at least it's sunny" and people sitting on deckchairs - that was what put this image firmly into my mind. The original photo with Minty had "The Sun", but I thought, ah no, let's play around; the "enjoy yourselves" thing is unashamedly borrowed from the excellent Tiberi restaurant in Puerto Pollensa. So there you are. You now know the references when some Mallorcan asks what the hell it's all about and reckons that covers of tourist guides should only ever have the same old boring photos of the Roman town, the walls and all the rest. Roundabout sculptures are far more interesting. And taking it easy, relaxing on your deckchair, reading your paper - oh, come on, that's what holiday's about; not all the rest.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Neil Diamond, and here he is with Barbra Streisand (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cG7_jheC8A). Today's title - American one-time longhairs.

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