One
of the key moments in the day is no more: our applause for the health and front
line workers has now been terminated. It
changed the dynamic of the day, or at least the ‘start’ of the evening and, instead
of departing immediately after the couple of minutes clap I set off a little
later for my bike ride.
The number of bikes seems to be increasing
and we obviously outnumber the number of car drivers. Who knows if this enthusiasm for the bike
will last? At the moment there is no
real prospect for an early return to anything like normality, so the reign of
the bike looks to continue for some months yet.
As we are now in the majority it is easier
to evaluate the behaviour of bike riders now that our numbers have increased so
markedly. Pedestrians are the worst road
users by far and show a shocking lack of consideration, but cyclists are a
close second.
I suppose that the way in which cycles are ridden are functions of
the fact that you do not need any licence to ride a bike and you have immediate
access to busy roads with no training or knowledge – and it shows!
‘Professional’ bikers, i.e. those with the
unflattering clothing, are the least likely to stop for pedestrians on zebra
crossings or obey traffic lights if they think they can get away with it.
But the key irritation is those bikers who
ignore bike lanes, as though bike lanes are for the lesser breeds. This is especially irritating when there are
two bike lanes separated from a pedestrian path and yet some bike riders insist
on weaving their way among the pedestrians.
Of course, the same thing is just as irritating when the pedestrians
decide to invade the bike lanes!
My pet peeve with cycles though, is the
use of lights. On cycling home this evening
out of over 160 bikes that passed me, only 8 had lights on, whereas all the
cars had their lights on.
There
were only two Viral Assassins (kids) blatantly out of their time zone, but many
more bike gangs of teenagers who must be desperate after weeks of isolation to
get back to the usual social intercourse of youth!
As far as I can understand the latest
instructions of the government, many parts of the country will be advanced to Level
1 from Level Zero, but Barcelona will still stay at Level 0. It is my understanding that it covers not
only the city of Barcelona, but also the province of Barcelona, in which case
my city of Castelldefels will also be included in the highest state of
lockdown.
The President is trying to get an
extension of the State of Alarm for another month when this one comes to an
end. As is usual, the PP and the fascist
party are trying to get it truncated. It
will be interesting to see what happens – though I am prepared to do my own
sensible thing if I feel that my safety is not being considered (when has it
ever) by government!
The
Catalan video lesson was ok, with one or two problems with the picture
freezing, but I was the only student in the class again. I have told the other members of the class
about these video lessons, but the response has not been there. I have been given homework and the next
lesson is next week. Who knows how long
this term is going to last? But I think
that the next lesson might well be the last.
We shall see!
