17. Not PC and No PCs. Carnival time!

The past weekend has seen the beginning of Lent and we have had a full weekend of celebrations. Only the Greeks could celebrate 40 days of fasting! Yes, I know it's mainly symbolic nowadays, but it must have been adhered to years ago. Anyway the country as a whole stages festivals, carnivals, music events etc., etc., and around here was no exception.

The "party" started on Friday night and on Saturday the carnival took place on Parga seafront.

The parade was due to start at 3.30pm, but of course, the time was arbitrary, and festivities kicked off at 4.15pm, by which time the sun had disappeared behind the clouds.

The carnival is a fancy dress procession with carte blanche as to what you want to do. It involves all ages and there was a wide variety of themes. Some topical, some nautical (obviously) and a couple of historical attempts.

But, as ex-pats from the UK, the one that really stood out was entitled "Zulu".

This consisted of a pick up, roughly dressed to resemble jungle, with an unfortunate stuffed dummy (missionary?) dangling from a spit into a pot. Nothing wrong with that, you might say.

However, the accompanying marchers were dressed as "Zulus" with BLACKED UP FACES!!!!!!!!

Can you imagine them getting one step on their way in the UK before being swamped by an army of hysterical council officials or senior Police Officers, desperate to be seen to be doing the "right" thing? I think, no I KNOW, not.

Is this racial abuse? Not here. Here it's called having a good time!

Now the letters PC, many years before the nanny state, were immediately recognisable as an abbreviation for Police Constable. And this brings me to the second most striking difference between Greece and the UK, as far as this type of event is concerned.

Amongst all the confetti and streamer throwing, crazy foam spraying, the crowd pushing forward for a better look and the deafening music from a dozen loud speakers, there was NOT A GREEK COPPER TO BE SEEN!!!!! ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nor was there an ambulance and fire engine on standby! And the only local officials on hand were the Mayor and his deputy, ON the stage with the MC!!

And were the emergency services needed?

Of course they weren't!

Anyone misbehaving, injured or setting fire to themselves would simply have been "sorted" by family or friends, the way they were when I was a "nipper".

Litter...........we'll clean it up tomorrow or the wind will blow it away!

Crowd control........why bother? They're enjoying themselves, not rioting!

Loud music.........we're getting the sound level right for Mondays' traditional music session!!

Don't you wish that you could still organise an event such as this in England, without applying for permissions, getting insurance and policing etc., etc.,etc?

If you could, life might be as much fun as it is here!