AI 06: A Horror Story
Jason Plato is a well respected driver in the British Touring Car Championship. He drives for Seat, and he wins sometimes. He also presents Fifth Gear on Channel Five with Vicky Butler Henderson. It’s basically a cheaper version of Top Gear, but still really, really good. Jason Plato was at Autosport International on Saturday.
We rounded the corner and were confronted with a giant Seat stand. There were a couple of the cars and the normal propoganda that you expect. I was trying to explain to “me” who Jason Plato was and how he should know him, but he was struggling to remember. I searched around for a picture of Jason because I knew there would be one somewhere. The stand also seemed to have a little alcove where selected people, probably official Seat types were sipping tea and coffee. Behind their heads, a picture was tacked on the wall of Jason and some other people celebrating a race win with a trophy. I grabbed “me”’s arm and pointed excitedly, happy to have found a picture.
“me” studied it for a while and realised he did know who it was. I was looking at the people standing under the photo. They were talking and had noticed that I was pointing at them. I turned to “me” and said “Oops, that man thinks I’m pointing at him.” Imagine my horror, when I realised it actually was Jason Plato - the man himself! He had spotted me pointing, he watched as realisation dawned and he saw when I ran away, mortified. “me” had sense enough to take a picture, but I was miles away by then.
Later on, after we had giggled way too much over the embarrassment, we found ourselves at the stand again. There was a mini stage there, and a man with a very dodgy beard was introducing… guess who… on stage. We stood and listened for a while. “me” went to take a picture. Jason Plato posed. “me” realised that he hadn’t actually switched the camera on yet. Embarrassment, yet again. Running away, yet again.
I’m quite annoyed really, because we had planned to go to some BTCC races this year, but I don’t want Plato to think we’re stalking him - which he inevitably does!
