Please let me enter the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.
How many times did I write that email? The answer was no. In that case there was nothing for it but to go and argue in person, so I looked for an event the organisers were running.
With no contacts and nobody to give me information, I spent days searching on nothing but the internet. I found a one-day event — with a study session attached.
I barely went to school, so my English is nowhere near adequate. Never mind: force a way through.
Right, right — I look as though I am following it and I understand nothing at all.
But the purpose was the face-to-face appeal, so I hunted for the organiser. And to say what I felt I first had to take part, so I hired a car and started the one-day rally.
The purpose was not the competition but the negotiation
The point was to say that I wanted to enter the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, whatever it took.
The car and the result were beside the point. But it was my first average rally and reading the map took everything I had. Falling back on being able to talk to people, I got the method from other entrants and finished.
We know about you
The organiser laughed out loud at the pair who had never stopped sending emails, and at the fact that I had come all the way to England to make this case.
And I was told they would consider it.
A complete success.
One step through.
This was in 2019. From there the situation changed at roller-coaster speed.
I will not forget the view I saw then.
England has a rooted culture of looking after old things.
The energy I saw there excited me.
