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My 'Binladin Connection'
So here's the story: my brother (and former racing driver) Mario was once sponsored by the Saudi Binladin construction firm, for a couple of races back in 1986. How did this happen, you may ask? Well, maybe a little foreword is needed here: Mario's childhood dream of becoming a racing driver had one major obstacle, from the word go: to work up the ladder of the very expensive world of motorsport, you need money. Mario had none (and my father certainly couldn't/and wasn't going to help him) so he soon became a bit of a wizard-sponsorship-hunter; in fact, 95% of his time was spent chasing sponsorship deals - and barely 5% driving racing cars... Sadly, I've not been in talking terms with Mario for a long time (for unpleasant family reasons I will spare you) so I can't ask him to fill me in with all the details of just how he bumped into Yeslam Binladin in London. Anyways, he struck a deal to carry the 'Binladin' logo for a few races that year. I believe Mario struck perhaps a hundred such deals during his career, most of them involving small sums of money. In the motor racing world, I remember, people cracked jokes at the unending changes of stickers on his racing cars, a continuously shifting patchwork which made his mechanics go mad: I think the poor lads spent more time re-decorating his cars - than tending to their engines, set up and performance!
You may well imagine my stupor/horror when, a few years ago, I flipped through my hundreds of motor racing photographs from the late 80's - and bumped into one depicting Mario's car with the 'Binladin' logo! (I had of course seen it back in 1986 - but it didn't quite stick in my mind). The stupor/horror soon turned into uncontainable laughter, as I said to myself:
"wait til I post THIS on the September Clues forum!" However, for a number of reasons (including friends opining that "that would be madness") I eventually didn't - and in hindsight, I guess that was one of the silliest mistakes I've ever made. Undoubtedly, the spooks and trolls will dance in circles to have beat me to this 'damning revelation'. So please go ahead and call me stoopid - or suspect me of being a covert Binladin family member. But ultimately, I hope you'll laugh as loud as me at this droll and rather surreal...uh...life synchronicity!