The following are some notes tapped out while on the way home from a business trip to the US. They are as typed on the flight. The original title was "Clarity", I haven't reviewed them so that may or may not be appropriate, hence the qualifier above...
It’s 4am at home. Where I set off from, it’s 8pm. So far as I’m concerned, I’ve no idea what
time it is. The Virgin Upper cabin is
darkened, all the blinds are shut and the lights are down. There is a purple light off to one corner,
mood lighting for the bar. My
complimentary headphones are channelling Daft Punk to my ears – Aerodynamic.
I lifted the blind slightly and
twisted round on my seat to peek outside.
Greenland was below us, and the sun is either just setting or just
rising. I genuinely have no idea. I’ll look again later, that should tell me
which it was. If I think about it, I can
probably work it out as we’re heading East towards the rising sun, but my head
is hurting and I don’t want to.
I push the blind back down and
settle into the seat again. The purple
light creates a pattern on the inside wall of the cabin where it ripples in and
out between the windows that no-one can look out of without pulling a muscle. The no-smoking signs are points of light on
the roof, creating a regular pattern ruined by the chap to my right with his
light on. His face is lit up white –
like me, he’s tapping away on a laptop.
The cabin crew keep asking me if
I want a drink, and there was a nice single malt on the menu. But I don’t need the warm glow of the Scots
coast, I have my own inner glow. I’m
going home.
Harder, Better, Faster
Stronger.
Ever. After. Work Is Over.
Home.
My work is international – one of
the most international professions that there is. We deal with many more countries than most professions,
probably by an order of magnitude or so.
My bank manager admitted to me that I’m the client who regularly sets
off all his compliance alarms thanks to the amount of money I send out and the
sheer range of countries that I send it to.
We deal with the highest common factor - all the countries that figure
on the plans of any of our clients. And
from time to time, that means going to say hello, shake hands, secure those
relationships.
(They’ve turned the purple light off.
Now I just have the no smoking signs – I’m guessing they can never ever
go off. The bar looks as if it has shut,
maybe that’s why they kept asking me.
Suddenly I fancy that single malt…)
My hobby is all about
movement. I’ve loved driving cars since
my 17th birthday, when an instructor turned up at 10am in a white
Mk2 Escort to take me for my first ever lesson – a total surprise. An hour later I was gliding along the A452 at
40mph and loving it. I started ordering
nice cars the first chance I had, and my present to myself on getting into a
paid-up partnership was a 325hp, 177mph, open-top, manual-gearbox example of
the finest German engineering. That took
me into track days – I soon realised that its abilities were way beyond mine,
and that if I tried to learn to use them on the road then the choice was
between hospital and prison. From there
I started racing – not in my precious 911, but in a more (shall we say) disposable
repairable car. And repair it I have,
several times.
And yet in that moment of inner
warmth, I sense what is most important.
Home.
I’m going home now.
