Forks and the life they lead

I woke up this morning, feeling a bit adventurous, and thought, “What the hell, I’ll head out to the local golf club to go to the driving range for a little while, you know, hit some balls and get ready for the round of golf I’m playing tomorrow.” It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, a perfect way to unwind and get some practice in.

As fate would have it, a friend of mine is the VLM (venue logistics manager) for the golf club, and she was just getting things set up as I arrived. It felt like serendipity, so I decided to stop by and see how things were going. Plus, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if she wanted to grab lunch later.

But as soon as I stepped out onto the grounds, I saw trouble looming in the form of the forklift driver – the same kid I had to send packing from my venue a couple of months ago for wreaking havoc. He greeted me with a friendly “hi,” and without missing a beat, I turned to my friend and quipped, “Watch out for this guy; he’s damage on wheels.”

True to form, within 10 minutes, he managed to get the forklift stuck in some sand, as well as high-centered on a cable ramp. It was a comedy of errors, with him trying and failing for a good 30 minutes to extricate the fork from its sandy trap. In contrast, it took me a mere 5 minutes, a pallet of water, and some strategically placed bits of wood to free the forklift and get it back on track. All the while, the sky decided to open up, and rain started to pour – a rare occurrence in Doha, and the first rain I’d seen since my days in Thailand back in July.

Now, you’d think that after such a spectacle, the forklift driver would learn his lesson, right? Wrong. Less than two hours later, he managed to get the forklift stuck in the exact same spot, yet again. Another 30 minutes of futile attempts followed, until I stepped in and, with a few well-placed rocks and some rocking back and forth, got the forklift back on solid ground in no time.

What a day it turned out to be – a supposed day off turned into a series of forklift rescue missions. But hey, at least I got to feel the rain on my face, even if it was just for a brief moment. Ah, the joys of unexpected adventures!