I’ve run away with the circus…
Although only one month has passed since we returned to the Czech Republic, I feel like I've lived several lifetimes in that very space.
Without even unpacking our stuff (all those Tim Tams, sakata bickies, bushells tea, the phantom vegemite that was confiscated at Sydney airport because it was clearly a "liquid", and a bottle of full-bodied red), I was again packing a new bag and running for the next train to Dresden.
My first day on the job began on a Friday morning with my self-called initiation at the Sachsenring MotoGP. Within minutes of arriving at the hotel I was supposedly entertaining/hosting/spinning all sorts of local 'truths' to people who'd paid obscene amounts to hear this very stuff. (Ahh, my consulting skills were handy). And then our managing director announced to all the guests that they'd have to try hard to keep up with us guides - and any more than 3 hours of sleep a night is not cool. Great, I thought, no chance to sneak off and enjoy a cuppa bushells and catch up on the letters to the editor. The fact that the night ended with all our guests trying to fit as many beer coasters into their mouths in between tequila shots as their god-given jaws would allow was only testament to this madness.
Luckily motorsport was the winner on the day, as they say in rugby, and that guy called Rossi discovered that he had even more work to do at the next round in Laguna Seca. Oh, and guys - standing around all day drinking beer in the steaming sun whilst wearing your leathers is NOT cool - no matter how many times you've seen it on a Chiko Roll poster. (Gotta love the Germans).
I was pleased to get home at 11pm on Sunday night - having abandoned Maria since arriving back in our home away from home - and look forward to starting the desk phase of my new job at 8am the next day. Am I still trying to kid myself that this is what 'opportunity' looks like??
If that weren't enough motorsport and relationship suicide for one week, I was sent off to the Brno round of the world superbike championship the next weekend to host a bunch of Aussies (adorable) and again be the expert in a city I'd heard about from a Trivial Pursuit question, but not before I insisted on Maria coming with. Gotta put the foot down sometimes!
After working out a way to get Maria past the security guards and brolly dollys and into the VIP suites over the pits (with a lot of stealthy teamwork from some very helpful Aussies) we set off to find some riders and after a while found ourselves trying to avoid bumping into Troy Bayliss for the 17th time - we'd walk around a corner and found him strolling along: thongs, boardies, Ducati shirt and a cheesy grin that I'm sure he put in a safe place somewhere 5 minutes later when he was taking the last corner at 225km/h. The guy's pure salt of the earth.
Back in Prague again, my second full week began and I found myself approving ad campaigns, securing hotels for next year's recently announced Indianapolis round, researching the circuit in Motegi, Japan, emailing the Spanish guys and girls at MotoGP, planning a fundraising event in a brewery in Brno and finding out where the bathrooms are and how the coffee machine works. I started looking forward to the weekend until I realised that this job doesn't include weekends - it's all the same thing.
The MotoGP circus came to town this weekend in Brno - bringing with it 245,000 fans from all over the world, most of them from Poland, Germany, UK, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Romania, Croatia, and even Serbia and a young kid from Venezuela. Having invested many midnight hours at the office and even a 2am drive from Prague to Brno, we saw every measure of madness, chaos, dissapointment, utter happiness and many tears as our 22-member team were put through their paces (900 guests staying at 13 hotels, with buses, trackside parties and of course the pissup in the brewery!).
When the circus left town on Sunday afternoon, I scooted up to the track with a workmate to catch a squiz of the testing that the bike teams do before/after races. At that point in time I felt I'd never been closer to a circus tent in my life.
Just need to learn how to fly the trapeze!
Here's a quick sample...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKjcNPYS-o
