Britons urged to travel to Greece this summer

[filippos]

Frying pan next to the door in case a burglar calls! Bob.

Quick trip to a sports shop and buy a baseball bat.
With a frying pan you have to get fairly close to someone who may be quite agile. You may not land a good blow or they manage to grab your arm and wrench the pan away. Also, if you do land a good blow and happen to hit their head you could kill them; then you're in trouble.
A baseball bat gives you a much longer reach and it's recommended that one swings hard at, or below, waist level. It's more difficult to avoid such a blow and a good solid thump anywhere on a leg is almost certain to be disabling without being lethal. Even if you only get a good hit on an arm, or even just a hand, that will probably be enough of a deterrent
Knees are an especially good target without much padding but anywhere from the hip down should but your burglar on the floor or at least hopping. On second thoughts it would be easier and cheaper to pop into a builders' merchant or garden shop and buy a pickaxe handle. If you don't have room for a roundhouse swing try a cover drive. There's a fair bit of soft tissue as well as bone in the target area of that shot.

[ros21m]

Frying pans, baseball bats!!!!! Really? Crete has the highest ratio in Eurpoe of guns to the population, I've been offered so many guns, since I've lived here, single female, you must have a gun, just in case of a burglar! I have a dog, not the biggest, but a Cretan hound, he lives in the house, he barks his head off whenever anyone comes anywhere near my gate. Better than any alarm!

[Kilkis]

... If you don't have room for a roundhouse swing try a cover drive. There's a fair bit of soft tissue as well as bone in the target area of that shot.

Or a straight thrust to the solar plexus? Hardly any room needed at all.

Warwick

[Kookla]

Ros 21- re guns...In the early 1990s I rented a small place in a small village. I was quite remote. A foreign man rented the place next to me. I was constantly ‘bothered’ by his attention to me and very lewd remarks. I tried to alter my times of arrival and departure, but he always appeared, barely dressed and made comments. He was a large man and I would not have been able to do much to help myself. It became a very uncomfortable situation and I began to fear for my safety. (This takes some doing, I had travelled extensively throughout the 80s on my own, north Israel and other ‘dangerous’ places with no such fear)
One afternoon, I went to another village and met two Greek male friends at a cafe and explained to them what the foreign man had said and suggested he wanted to do to me. Both friends, in the blink of an eye, pulled out their pistols; which I had no idea they were carrying, placed them on the cafe table and said “take this”. This shocked me even more!
Then one of the two Greek friends came with me to my place, knocked on the door of the man and bumped the man’s chest with his chest and said “If you mess with her, you mess with me too” Greek friend also told his friends in my village to look out for me. Not long after foreign man left.

[bobscott]

Ros 21- re guns...In the early 1990s I rented a small place in a small village. I was quite remote. A foreign man rented the place next to me. I was constantly ‘bothered’ by his attention to me and very lewd remarks. I tried to alter my times of arrival and departure, but he always appeared, barely dressed and made comments. He was a large man and I would not have been able to do much to help myself. It became a very uncomfortable situation and I began to fear for my safety. (This takes some doing, I had travelled extensively throughout the 80s on my own, north Israel and other ‘dangerous’ places with no such fear)
One afternoon, I went to another village and met two Greek male friends at a cafe and explained to them what the foreign man had said and suggested he wanted to do to me. Both friends, in the blink of an eye, pulled out their pistols; which I had no idea they were carrying, placed them on the cafe table and said “take this”. This shocked me even more!
Then one of the two Greek friends came with me to my place, knocked on the door of the man and bumped the man’s chest with his chest and said “If you mess with her, you mess with me too” Greek friend also told his friends in my village to look out for me. Not long after foreign man left.

Great story! Bob.

[Kamisiana]

This thread seems to have slipped in to sounding like several other recent threads with contradicting comments with "quotes of the crime level is low and leave it to the authorities or police, to arming yourself with various weapons and taking the law into your own hands and describing graphic forms of violence or threats!!! double standards or what from the elders

[Kilkis]

Personally I have no weapons of any sort nor any intention of acquiring any. If someone wants to burgle my house they are welcome to do so. If they expect to get rich then they will be sadly disappointed since I have nothing of any significant value worth stealing. From what I can gather burglars in Crete seem to have little interest in stealing things like TV's. They want cash and jewellery and I have neither. I checked my wallet before posting and there is about €70 in it so I am not going to fight anybody over that.

For clarity, my comment about a thrust to the solar plexus was simply a practical example of how a weapon like a baseball bat or pick axe handle could best be used in a confined space. It was not a recommendation to use such a weapon.

Are you struggling to find things to find fault with, Kamisiana?

Warwick

[Kamisiana]

Personally I have no weapons of any sort nor any intention of acquiring any. If someone wants to burgle my house they are welcome to do so. If they expect to get rich then they will be sadly disappointed since I have nothing of any significant value worth stealing. From what I can gather burglars in Crete seem to have little interest in stealing things like TV's. They want cash and jewellery and I have neither. I checked my wallet before posting and there is about €70 in it so I am not going to fight anybody over that.

For clarity, my comment about a thrust to the solar plexus was simply a practical example of how a weapon like a baseball bat or pick axe handle could best be used in a confined space. It was not a recommendation to use such a weapon.

Are you struggling to find things to find fault with, Kamisiana?

Warwick

No just observing the old boys network, do as I say not as I do.

[filippos]

... If you don't have room for a roundhouse swing try a cover drive. There's a fair bit of soft tissue as well as bone in the target area of that shot.

Or a straight thrust to the solar plexus? Hardly any room needed at all.

Warwick

That will work with a rolled up newspaper (provided you don't have to roll it up at the time it's needed). The cover drive could crack a kneecap en route for a very tender body part.

[filippos]

Frying pans, baseball bats!!!!! Really? Crete has the highest ratio in Eurpoe of guns to the population, I've been offered so many guns, since I've lived here, single female, you must have a gun, just in case of a burglar! I have a dog, not the biggest, but a Cretan hound, he lives in the house, he barks his head off whenever anyone comes anywhere near my gate. Better than any alarm!

Twenty years ago a (Greek) friend told me that there are approximately 2½ guns for every man, woman and child in Crete. My wife and I are still trying to find out who has our five. I've asked friends a couple of times if they could get me a gun if I needed one. Neither said 'yes' or 'no' they just asked, 'what sort; handgun, shotgun or rifle?'

Can't have a dog. It would be unkind to keep one in an apartment with no outside space. I grew up surrounded by dogs but we always had big gardens where they could run free (and occasionally break free, returning 2-3 days later looking kn*****ed.

[ros21m]

Ok, I have been offered guns, plural, because I live on my own, single female. I have delclined them. I have a reasonably large dog, with a very large bark. My house is in the middle of a very small village, overlooked by neighbours, in front, to the side & behind. IF I lived outside the village, I probably would have taken up someones offer!

[Yin&Yang]

Owning a gun and actually HAVING it in your hand ready to use are two completely different things. It reminds me of when I always had a personal alarm in my bag when I worked in London. Fortunately I never had to use it but I often wondered if a would-be attacker would wait for me to open my bag, rummage inside it for my alarm and then pause while I sorted out which way up it was and then finally press the trigger.

Lynn

[YoMo2]

Just a tiny bit of thread drift here?

Andrew

[Yin&Yang]