It's All Greek To Me - A Bus Driver Returns From The Writer's Graveyard

Life is upside down.

Not just mine. But most people I speak to seem to be in one quandary or another.

The world seems to be upside down.

Shakespeare was centuries ahead of the game, when Casca said:

'...but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for my own part, it was Greek to me.'
 (Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2).

My mind was thrown in this odd direction when I drove past a new Greek restaurant in Whitley Bay, appropriately named It's All Greek 2 Me. As I drove past the commentator on Radio 5 was discussing the Greek bail-out and what the Greek government were up to, so it all came together nicely, in a coincidental sort of way.

Aren't you just fed up with all the doom and gloom spouted by the media? It is as if they are willing the financial world to teeter over the edge so that there will be something gritty to write about in the future.

So now seems as good a time as any to launch my own personal brand of 'Blue Sky Thinking'. Not the dreaded corporate motivational kind, but more how to buck yourself up when there is so much dour speak around. Even though my own personal life has taken a temporary downward turn, it pays to look on the bright side.

Take the Greeks, for example. My everlasting memory of Greek behaviour is of the day I rolled up in  Cyprus in the 1980's. I was collected on a showery day by a blue-bereted UN soldier in a mini-bus. Little more than twenty minutes into the journey, we were standing in the rain arguing with the Greek we had ran into the back of, neither understanding what the other was saying, but by the increasingly animated hand gestures and arm movements, it became apparent that the situation was escalating to a dangerously high level. The wretched soldier had come round the corner to find a car on the same side of the road reversing. With the roads being greasy, there was no option but to let the Toyota minibus skid into the back of the car.

There was a lot of noise and some bruised pride, but no injuries.

What saved the situation was a crash on the opposite carriageway. This was caused by another Greek motorist who had stopped his car in the middle of the road, got out of his car and was watching the heated argument out of curiosity, when another car slammed into the back of him. This momentarily diverted the attention away from our crash and in the chaos when our victim rushed over to the other side of the road, we were able to sneak away and drive off. We watched an increasing amount of motorists gather in a circle and look as if they were soon to come to blows.

In this Eurozone financial crisis, the way forward may be suspiciously like the Cypriot car crash. The world may crash. Everything might become volatile for a while. But then it will all settle down again.

Quite similar to this blog really.

I'm back again. This time there will be more writings. Now either you will feel this is a good event or you will have the Tremoloes hit from the sixties - 'Silence is golden, golden' ringing inside your head. And as for the Greeks ... well, I can just hear them muttering ...

... 'either dance well or quit the ballroom.'