The suit was Saville Row and Clearly not Off the Shelf
It was around two o’clock on a sunny October afternoon. Summer has just started and the weather was glorious with hardly a breath of wind and clear blue skies as far as the eye can see. Beetlejuice, top software engineer and a recognised genius in his field – whatever that might be - consultant to private enterprise and governments from all over the world, was sitting at work, bored with multi tiered client server database connected web enabled projects and 128 bit encryption algorithms. He was holding the latest copy of a popular motorcycling magazine in his muscular, sun-bed tanned hands when his keen blue eyes caught a write-up on the Desert Run. Brushing a sun bleached lock from his hawk-like brow, Beetlejuice, a keen off-road rider of extraordinary talent and unlimited enthusiasm, sat up straighter, his slightly soft posterior making a soft farting sound as he moved it in the black leather chair to get comfortable. He read the article with interest, a master in the art of speed reading, his eyes skimming over the words at lightning speed without missing a thing. It was something he’d always wanted to do but somehow never found the time in his busy life of corporate ladder climbing and cocktail parties.
Beetlejuice
His sharp mind immediately wondered how much he’ll have to pay so he could go on such an extraordinary adventure, so off to the web-site he went, typing the www address with said tanned and muscular fingers without a single mistake, then pressing the enter key on his standard QWERTY keyboard. He lit a Marlboro, casually winking at his sexy secretary when she shot him a disapproving glance. Waiting for the requested data, puffing on his cigarette and ignoring the companies strict anti-smoking rules with his trade mark nonchalance and devil may care attitude.
In nanoseconds his Cray workstation send the request along the maze commonly known as the “Intarnet”, the extent of which only a genius like Beetlejuice can fully appreciate. After waiting for the DNS lookup to return an IP address, the machine connected at lightning speed to the required web server, downloading all the relevant information in 32 bit SVGS mode to the 17 inch cathode ray tube on his desk. There was a lot of information and after sifting through it in his usual efficient and analytical fashion he, sadly, found no entry details.
He reached for the telephone and a phone call later the brochures were in the mail. Once again he dialled a number, this time without having to look it up. His photographic memory only needed to see a telephone number once to commit it to long term memory, instantaneously available upon request.
Tags: Richtersveld Adventure
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