Speed Awareness

The Obsessive Diary - 3rd June

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A speed awareness course and Jacobi texted, do you mean the drug? Ha ha. I’d hardly need a course in that. Back in the day we’d do a few lines and go and play squash. It was fun. But this was for doing 35 in 30 mile an hour zone, or probably that, I don’t remember, and it was online (ha ha). I’d forgotten what a rich seam it is for a writer, three hours on a Teams call with nine strangers; three hours for the dynamics of a group to play out, and play out they did.

Quickly the Class Clown was established although his everyday racism took a little longer to surface. A slur at the one hour mark met with a counter slur by the team host, all very British in plain sight yet unacknowledged in plain English: an explanation of language to a man clearly British but not if skin colour throws your view, met by a story of misunderstanding based on a Chinese name. Awkwardness in the air as we took a quiz on roadside hazards, and after the break a tacit apology that involved high praise of our leaders leading skills. How herd animals works.