IT WAS in 1986 that I first fell in love, I was nine years old and still at primary school, but I knew from that day that it would be my destiny to drive that car.
No it wasn’t someone in my class but the Porsche 911 a car that defined the 1980s, everything else about the decade could be easily detested if you came from a working class family, Thatcher preached greed while miners in Yorkshire and Wales were kicked out of their jobs in the name of progress, but the Porsche 911 was the car that made every man, woman and child want it, not need it just want it.
A few people would go onto own their own 911, the rest of us just had to sit back look at it with envious eyes and just dream about what could be.
It was partly because of the Porsche 911 that I wanted to become a journalist, I was asked to write a school report about the job I wanted to do when I grew up, I decided then and there I wanted to be a motoring journalist so I could drive my own 911. It kind of happened for a short while, I worked on a local newspaper in Devon before joining the prison service as an admin officer, but I have never really given up the dream and would still jump at the chance even now.
But one man in particular has been living the dream of the motoring journalist, someone I am truly envious of.
On Wednesday, Top Gear Presenter, Richard Hammond was involved in an accident which can only be described as horrendous, how he survived we will never know, however he did and he’s now recovering in Leeds General Infirmary. The Hamster as he has become known is the kind of motoring journalist who isn’t afraid to push the limits of what mankind can do in a car, in the past he has been zapped by millions of volts of lightening energy with only the safety of a VW to sit in, he has driven around race tracks at speeds which most of us would see that the colour of adrenalin is actually brown, this is a man who is living his dream and nearly paid with his life.
It’s people like The Hamster that push mankind forward, without people like him we would still be stuck in the stone age looking like Clarkson thinking ‘Ooooh it’s comfortable in here’, the Hamster on the other hand thought: ‘Hmmm I wonder what’s over that hill and how fast I can get there?’ he is willing to take the risks most of us would shrink from, me included.
But was the accident on Wednesday a step out of the cave too far? And have we as the human race gone as far as we can without pressing the self destruct button?
Questions which really only people like the Hamster can answer, the rest of us just have to continue living in our caves envious at people like Richard who dare to push the boundaries.
I’m still envious of the job Richard has, so if there is anyone there from the BBC who may just need a stand in presenter who like Richard is a bit on the short side then give me a call because I still have 12 days leave owing and I don’t think the Prison Service will mind!
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Remember if it hadn't have been for the emergency services and especially the North Yorkshire Air Ambulance on the day our Hamster wouldn't be here now so help make a diffrence and donate anything you can spare to the North Yorkshire Air Ambulance
