These guys I’m working for… They are very serious. They have a full on legal team. Joe is writing his dissertation about them and he had to “check in with the legal team”about his dissertation which, inevitably, gets me curious. I’m thinking I need to find out who to talk to and talk to them so I can stop being vague. I feel free here, but there will be humans in an office who, given the messiest context, will be terrified about what this wildcard fixer-driver is capable of.
I don’t feel mired in bureacracy with this. I feel free. Everybody is lovely. I’ve experienced the opposite. When I worked on the river I was advised : “Don’t go to the office, it’s poison.” I went to the office. It was poison. I no longer work on the river. Because the office was poison.
With these guys there’s no such poison. None at all. Bad – Ego has completely left the building for the team that I’m exposed to… It is rare and it is wonderful. It’s a huge talentspread. The Excel spreadsheet-humans jump into the sea at the end of the day, alongside the dust-humans and the vehicle-humans. And the Excel humans can BE the dust humans who can BE the vehicle humans who can BE the Excel humans. And so we band together to make a wonderful thing that is trying to make a difference in a racing industry that is ready to embrace change. And somehow I’m part of it.
But… I gotta be careful. Legal teams etc. These people have become my friends by recognising my competence. I bring something slightly different to the mix. I fit by not fitting. But I can’t blog it firmly without permission and I always forget to ask for permission until I start writing. Because I write the contents of my head. And that’s mostly “aaargh”, as you all know.
The medic called me cos he needed a lift to the airport. He’s blown two of his tires and is swapping for a lighter vehicle. “It’s nothing to do with the way I’m driving on the dirt track,” he assures me multiple times. I’m a driver, to him, before anything else. He’s doing drivertalk. I get it a lot. “The tyres are too weak. That’s why I got two punctures in two days. They put bad tyres on the rental vehicle…”
I’ve driven a two ton 4×4 down that cow-haunted track too many times, up and down, and I’ve done it on two wheel drive setting when I was in the 4×4 because I forgot there’s another option. The 4×4 was terrifyingly new – less than 100km, so … Good tyres and admittedly I was being extremely alert. But… Big rocks are visible!! You anticipate your tyre track, no? Through the medium of “eyes” you can tell if you’re gonna scupper yourself on a spiky rock.
Lou could tell you about a rained out track we drove in Sao Miguel. If I wasn’t watching tyre tracks we would still be stuck there in a ditch.
Anyway. Yeah, I want to write about this job but I don’t identify as being important enough to be called an “influencer” and if you try that shit with me I will rebuke you. I mostly avoided detail in Saudi until it was all official… I might try and talk to the PR team. Because this is going to be my existence for the next few weeks. If I have to be careful of “the legal team” then you’re going to get a lot of blogs about insects. It is much more interesting to be able to talk about the way in which this race is all made.”
So yeah, I’m gonna do some research about who I am allowed to talk to. I’ve got the hands on experience of being part of the build of something that is powerful. A race about gender equality and sustainability? Why the hell is this not the most important thing on everybody’s calendar?
AlBarclay 