Monday 2 March 2015

Is your journey really necessary?

You hear that sound? Yes, a small car engine being thrashed within an inch of its life. And that other sound? Yes, that's right, a small motorcycle which has had its exhaust modified to produce an ear-splitting noise.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of the Skopelos branch of the Pointless Driving Club going out on one of their daily runs. Members of the club - motto: Who cares as long as we're speeding - love to drive fast along the few tarmacked roads this island has.

The problem is that broadly speaking there's nowhere for them to go. They go up a road, reach a certain point and then turn round to go back the way they came. And all this at a time when the state of the Greek economy is such that you'd think drivers would be keen to conserve their precious petrol.

Where shall we go now?


I know, I know, I'm being a bit of a killjoy, particularly as I suspect that most of the drivers in question are young people with a lot more energy than me. But aimlessly driving around in the manner of a goldfish in a bowl will always be aimless driving.

And before you accuse me of picking on the Pointless Drivers of Skopelos, I should add that where I used to live in England has its own branch of the Pointless Driving Club. Keen members of this club used to perform what I am assured were known as "Twat Laps" - just going round and round, following the same circuit through the town.

Will they grow out of it? Will I become more tolerant? I think the former is more likely than the latter, and even that's not very likely. So until I do find hidden reserves of toleration I would just appeal to Pointless Drivers everywhere to ease off the throttle a bit and maybe even consider going for a walk. Just joking, lads...

Only one piece of music to go with this and that is Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads.


* Picture of car by Luftbildfotografie Von-Oben (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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