... and in the beginning of January 2001 nearly led to my demise...
2001 was the year that decided the "big gamble" for me :
Incident 1: Driving little VW Lupo to exhibition at NEC; Norbert Detressangle and his big red lorry decided he wanted to be in middle lane; I was already there, overtaking him. Lotus Esprit (S3 I think) doing nee-narr speed in outside lane. Hit brakes as hard as I could & read the makers name on the rear crash bar of ND lorry VERY close up
;
Incident 2: Driving VW to exhibition at NEC (theme developing here); Jonny Foreigner and his big not-red lorry decided he wanted to be in middle lane; I was already there (join in when you feel up to speed TM'ers) but this time slightly further forward; BMW something-fast in o/s lane. Hit brakes very hard and lent on horn. JF lorry swerved back into nearside lane AFTER collecting my passenger wing mirror
Incident 3: Two weeks later, in a warehouse in central London, went into MD's office. All secretaries bawling their eyes out. On TV : a loop of two planes being flown into Twin Towers. Text from
"COME HOME NOW, London's next"
That weekend, searched Internet, found "train drivers wanted" ad (the only other career I had ever wanted), applied, interviewed, interviewed again, offered, sworn at repeatedly by MD, took £ 26k pay CUT (for a year), hand shaken warmly by MD at leaving do - and have never looked back.
[It's ok, you can wake up now, I'm done
]
Jeremy
