I will survive

A little over 41 years ago a young Greek man left his home and headed to the United Kingdom in order to pursue a dream. The young man, little over twenty three years of age, wanted to become a motor racing driver, a champion no less. He had his dream, was intent on pursuing it and was prepared to make any sacrifices as needed along the way.

You, observant and regular reader, have already spotted it - that was me, younger, hungrier, full of piss and vinegar. Boy, was I determined and prepared to suffer in order to reach my target, do what was necessary, get out of my comfort zone; getting to the dream was all that mattered. And, as luck would have it in about March or April of that year Gloria Gaynor appeared on stage at the London Palladium for an amazing concert that I was fortunate to witness, when her song 'I will survive' was at number 1 in the UK chart.  I didn't just go to see her and dance along to her rhythms, I listened to her words, took courage and belief that I could cope with my suffering, acquired new determination.

Suffer I did, in many ways, some of which seem almost amusing today, spending weeks sleeping in my car, with only the occasional friend's sofa bed  as a luxury break, little money for anything other than a quick bite at a fast food place, survival only important as it allowed continued dreaming, and the effort needed to achieve The Goal (spoiler alert, it never was, fully).

Of course I could never have managed even a fraction of what I did without the support of some wonderful people along the way:

1. My parents, despite their misgivings for my chosen goal were able to provide crumbs to help me stay alive.
2. DH and IM-H gave me a base in London and allowed me to help in their enterprise, learning about London and survival skills while meeting interesting people along the way.
3. My two volunteer mechanics of 1980, Graham and ... (apologies, I have forgotten), whose unpaid if unskilled support helped me race for pennies.
4. My wonderful friend Vic Holman, still a friend today, who trusted me when nobody else, including myself, had any reason to, and allowed me to race while owing him a not insubstantial amount of money.
5. All the people whose names I rarely knew who offered me their support every weekend, with kind words, smiles and encouragement, helping me believe in myself.
6. The great Bob Geeson, the best race engineer I have ever known, whose support, cynicism and humour - not to mention unrivalled technical ability - allowed me to seriously dream of the top, and to show my best colours.
7. All the other racing car manufacturers, engine builders and the financial supporters large or small who, in so many ways allowed me to spread my wings, show my potential and fly. And dream.

Some of the above are no longer with us and may never have known how grateful I have been for their support. Others know, or knew. The adventure took place, the result was not what was hope for though I did achieve quite a lot with very little, but I did survive.

I'm still surviving, Gloria, if only just, but instead of dreams I now have memories.

Food, passion and coronaviruses

You, dear regular reader, know that I am a person for whom food is extremely important - and not just as a means of survival or existence; I love good food and the culture that goes with it. But good food depends on passion, as every form of it, from wonderful fruits and vegetables to exquisite restaurant dishes, require hard work and sacrifices with relatively limited monetary return.

Passion for great food is rare, wonderful and always worth supporting. Through this we preserve food traditions that may be centuries-old or create new ones, make better foodstuffs of every description, help celebrate life by sharing little glories, help share joy and the life-giving qualities that food, decent food made with love, brings. To me there is no greater pleasure than breaking bread and drinking wine, all made with care and love, with people you care about.

I was recently looking at something on YouTube, where a young man was summarising why he has gone back to his small, unsexy, family food-smoking business to be the 6th generation involved: 'I did a lot of fancy things with a lot of fancy people' he said of his previous career in big business in a big city 'but there was no heart. So I came back' (I apologise if I have somehow paraphrased him). To many of us, you see, money is not everything, passion is, and those of us involved in food and wine use this passion to lead us to great products, great moments, great pleasure.

As a professional voyeur on the periphery I am constantly amazed and pleasantly surprised by the number of people who share this outlook, this feeling. Few, if any, are world-renowned and famous, other than within their field, and - do you know - they don't care one bit. The reason they work hard, lose sleep and sacrifice creature comforts is because they are passionate about their craft, their products, their chosen field; the appreciative nod of the knowledgable buyer is all they need. I am in awe of these people, in awe of their passion, grateful for their very existence.

Life is about passion, creativity, dreams, at least as much as it can be about comfort, luxury and material things. Life is about the little things that make it special, the ones that someone else's passion has brought about and allowed you to get to know and appreciate. Life, whether through our passion or someone else's, can be extraordinary, even if due to external circumstances (hello coronavirus!) we now have to put it on hold and wallow in boredom.

At least that's what I think, dear reader. Feel free to disagree...

Riding on Greek buses

With all the scary stuff about viruses I very much doubt that you guys will be out there, hurrying to catch a ride on a Greek bus in Athens. In a way it's a pity, as buses are one of the last great bargains, with rides costing as little as 90 eurocents for ninety minutes of bus/metro/tram hopping in the greater Athens area, allowing the user extraordinary freedom in getting arounf.

Alas this doesn't seem enough for many Athens residents, particularly the young, who choose to trade without validating their tickets. While it may be an exaggeration, or even a statistical aberration of when I happen to observe, but eight out of ten bus passengers appear not to either have tickets or to properly endorse them according to the rules, with the young being the chief miscreants. It seems that a large number of people think that they just don't need to pay for using public transport in Greece.

Does it matter? Is it a problem? Oh yes, it is a growing, painful problem, as the bus company just cannot afford to pay for spares for its buses and being forced to cannibalise older vehicles for spares to keep the fleet moving a much as is possible. This is a serious, massive problem, neither acknowledged nor discussed presently, as it is leading to an impending collapse of public transport in its present form. Yet we persist in this reckless abuse - only this evening I witnessed fewer than half the people boarding a bus validating a ticket or travel pass.

Why is this? Well, one of the reasons is that these days there are very few controls on public transport, with the few existing being on the underground railway - I have not seen a ticket inspector on a bus in years - so the people feel that there is a free for all. What is even more worrying is that the people doing this, whether they are greek citizens or immigrants, do not feel that they are doing anything wrong as so many of their fellow users are doing the same.

Yet what they are doing is not only wrong, it is outright theft! They are defrauding the Greek state of the small fare that it has determined should be charged, a cost far below most other European capitals, and are doing so cheerfully and without any scruples. It doesn't matter if they are using the buses for one stop or many; if they cannot afford the fare they should walk instead of the current underhand practice.

Some people I have heard blame the immigrants, but in my experience that is generally not the case, though some are copying indigenous behaviour and benefiting illegally. More often than not we Greeks are our own worst enemies, cheating ourselves to feel clever. Bliah!

We need to grow up! We need to understand that this is not a victimless crime, that the thousands of law-abiding, ticket-paying citizens are not fools subsidising our immature, illicit behaviour. We need to learn that inline you need to pay your way, properly and fairly, in order to live in a decent society.

And in order to reinforce it we need to reintroduce regular, strict checks, however unpopular they may be in the short term, so that the burden is shared by all users, with those who cannot conform being forced to walk. It may even help with the obesity crisis...