It was overcast and rain was threatening, but that did not matter in the slightest. We were having a brilliant time, absolutely brilliant.
Lizzie and Natalie were relaxing in the appropriately named 'relaxation pool' whilst Daniel took Wilf on the Children's Adventure Park. It was a rainforest theme and I was slightly jealous that I wasn't twenty years younger so I could slide into the tiger's mouth. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more terrifying the idea became. Why would you want to get eaten by a tiger?
I took a deep breath and looked around. The water park was surprisingly quiet, which had multiple benefits- each slide had a non-existent queue. Unfortunately, that did however result in a lot of step climbing. And some of them had a lot of steps.
Laughter and chatter filled the air around me as Daniel held Wilf on his lap and they both went down one of the mini slides. I don't think adults were intended to go on it but what the hell. Daniel was just a big kid and he splashed around more in the water than Wilfred.
A warm feeling engulfed me as the two of them laughed...and blew raspberries. Clearly, they were loving it. I could see their enormous grins from where I was standing, next to an impatient Paul who was trying to drag me on the biggest slide in the whole of Texas. I was skeptical to say the least.
"Saskia, you aren't going to die. We'll be in a ringo thing together," Paul huffed, dragging me by the arm towards the signs for the 'Turbo Charger'. Stupid, stupid name.
"Because that will save us as we plummet to our deaths..." I replied, my feet welded to the concrete. "Why can't we wait for Dan?"
"Look, I'm not waiting ages...and you need two people to go on this..."
"The things I do for you!" I shrugged him off and breathed in, uttering a silent prayer. "First one to the top has to go on the front!"
So then we both ran like loons, up several hundred steps higher and higher to the top of the tower. It was a lot windier up here and the sky looked a lot darker- menacing in fact.
Just as I was about to reach the top first, Paul grabbed my wrist to prohibit me from setting foot in the 'Ready to ride zone'. The utter bastard.
"I won!" Paul declared, smug as a smug thing on extra smug tablets. His hair had flopped in front of his eyes and I was surprised that he hadn't fallen head first down the Turbo Charger. Now I was looking at the mop of hair, whilst trying to catch my breath and not call him a very naughty name, it had a slight resemblance to Boris Johnson. Worrying. I must mention this to Dan to see if he agreed with me (I knew the likelihood would be that I would have to explain to the Australian who the Mayor of London and creator of the infamous Boris bikes is). There were two things Daniel didn't really get- geography and politics.
"You cheated," I answered and flipped Paul my middle finger in disgust.
"Looks like you're on the front. Have fun," he said as the person at the top gave us a ringo and told us what to do. I quickly became aware that this was some serious shit when we were having an actual briefing before being allowed to ride. This was no little flume at the local leisure centre. This tube plunged you down metres at a time with its sheer vertical drops.
"Okay, guys, ready," said man said more as a statement than question. "It will be fun?" This was said as more of a question than statement. Hahaha funny, I told myself as I struggled to laugh it off.
I sat in the ring first and immediately gripped onto the handles as the baboon positioned himself behind me. His legs were so long that they extended past mine.
An automated countdown began and I held on tighter. I would much rather have my fiance sat behind me instead of Captain Exercise, who was already whooping.
Water jets propelled us forward and instantly we were both screaming, Paul more so than me. Also more high pitched than me?
We shot into the darkness and embarked on twists and turns, sliding and then somehow climbing in the pitch black.
Soon my screams turned into laughter and Paul followed. It was actually fun, despite me gripping on so tight my knuckles were beginning to hurt.
All too quickly it was over and we plopped out the tube and into the pool at the bottom where Paul and I capsized out of our ringo because Rhodes had tried to dismount too rapidly.
When we came up coughing and spluttering, but still laughing. Daniel was stood by the edge of the pool with his arms folded.
"You went on it first without me?" he said, genuinely miffed. "I wanted to go on it with you first, Saskia."
"Sorry, I didn't..." I began but Dan just shrugged. "Where's Wilf?" I asked instead, not wanting him to be annoyed with me. It was only a slide, albeit a bloody brilliant piece of engineering.
"With his mum," was the flippant reply I got. Paul was tutting.
"Was my fault," Paul admitted, still tutting between words.
Then a crack of thunder cascaded around the water park, causing everything to go eerily silent. The heavens opened and it began to bucket it down.
The weather app on my phone had not forecasted this!
A flash of lightening lit up the car sky and I didn't feel so great about standing next to numerous pools of water.
"It is gonna be like this until Friday evening," Paul tutted one final time, walking away from Daniel and I.
"You aren't genuinely annoyed with me because Paul made me go on the turbo slide of death thing?" I asked, shivering. Hailstones!
Daniel smirked and exhaled before slowly shaking his head, "Nah," he settled. "I just had a bit of a racing driver moment. Toys out of my pram and all that..."
"Jesus, these drivers, hey!" I folded my arms and Daniel immediately unfolded them to kiss me. Cheeky bugger.
"Inside, before we both get electrocuted. I'll be pissed then..." the Aussie remarked softly, leading me in the direction of the changing rooms.
The weather wasn't the only thing that was going to be wild.
Welcome to Texas, take two.
---
The track itself was like a ghost town, the tarmac dominated by standing water. I was certain I had seen a family of ducks at one point, swimming happily through Turn 3 and 4.
Whilst the circuit was saturated, the hospitality units were jam-packed. I had never seen them so busy in my time in the Formula 1 paddock. Presenters, cameramen, drivers, the mechanics, technicians and sponsors- you name it, they were all huddled in our area. Qualifying had been postponed for the third time on the Saturday and the more the rain kept merrily falling, the more unlikely it looked to take place.
I think we all knew that the cars weren't going to run anymore today- it was far too dangerous. We did not want another incident like Japan again.
"Gonna check the weather," Daniel said, race suit tied around his waist.
"I think it's still raining," Dany Kvyat replied, taking a sip of his drink. I was expecting the boys to be restless, but they were in very good spirits considering qualifying was about to be moved to the Sunday morning.
"No shit?" Dan chuckled, signalling for me to venture outside with him. Josh and Lizzie too followed before the TV cameras caught on and joined us.
I put up my hood and pulled the strings tighter whilst Josh got his phone ready. The two men were planning something- I just didn't know what.
Daniil and Daniel ventured further out into the pitlane as they quietly conversed. Then they flashed the small crowd their famous contagious grins.
They began to dance...a rain dance.
Our Red Bull lot fell around laughing and cheering as more media stations scrambled out in the wet to see what the commotion was.
Not a bird, not a plane, just two teammates waltzing.
"Bromance!" Lizzie tugged my arm in absolute stitches. The sponsors would be rubbing their hands together with this air time. It was probably the most we'd had all season (other than then one of the power units blew, which unfortunately was quite frequent).
I pulled out my phone from my pocket, took a few photos before watching the reaction unfold on Social Media. It wasn't long before Bridget was on the blower, wanting an update.
"Saskia, what is this foolery that is making us very popular?" Bridget barked softly. She was chewing a pen, there was no doubt about it. She was as bad as Daniel at pen-chewing, not that Daniel really ever wrote- only to sign his name. Which could be thousands of times a day, unfortunately for the Australian. It was best to leave him to get on with it when he was squiggling away, although I often had to end up bribing him with various things. A game on the Wii was one of the non-sexual ones.
Daniel and Dany bounced back over to our Red Bull cluster, laughing away and joking around. It was nice to see that their morale was high, despite not being out in the car.
"They were dancing," I replied, gesturing for the boys to follow me through the crowd. Thus far the weekend had consisted of TOYFPR- otherwise known as 'thinking on your feet public relations'. It was different compared to how we usually planned for Grand Prix's weeks in advance, but it was fun and exciting. Deffo spiced up our life. Which demonstrates how sad us lot in the Comms Team are :)
"I can see that," Bridget replied, still pen-chewing. "Tell them well done from me. Bye."
Because that was really worth a ten-second call to the other side of the bloody planet? I think not.
"Is Bridget losing it?" Lizzie asked, tucking a label in on Dany's rain jacket. "She's really losing it."
"She's going through a lot," I said regretfully and steered Ricciardo in the direction of Sky after Rachel Brookes was waving frantically at me. I heard from Josh behind me that officially qualifying had been moved to the Sunday morning.
"Tomorrow is gonna be tasty!" Daniel said, holding his hand out for a 'fist bump'. I gave him one and his mouth curled into a smile, "don't you need your dictaphone thing, Sas?"
I whipped it out of my pocket and gave him a triumphant look.
I love my job.
---
From an impressive third on the grid, the race was a disappointment. Daniel crossed the line tenth, barely in the points. It was extremely disheartening after such a promising session earlier on that day. However, a podium, or good result even, just wasn't meant to be.
Daniel sat opposite me as we went out as a team, admittedly stuffing our faces after working our little socks off for the past fourteen hours.
"These ribs are the best things I have ever tasted," Daniel exclaimed between taking another bite of his meal. It was humongous and I was really wondering where the skinny man was going to put it all. I could understand Sam and Joe polishing it off between them, but not Daniel alone- regardless the fact he ate a lot. "Can I have your onion ring?'
I chuckled and he forked the horrid piece of food and popped it straight in his mouth, flashing me a cheeky grin. Onion rings were work of the Devil. Grim things.
"How is your burger?" Kay, the Sponsorship Manager, asked me. "Looks amazing."
"It is," I confirmed, in heaven as I proceeded to take another bite. I loved food in America. "How is yours?'
"Bliss," she said, eyes enlarging. American's could make damn good pizza too! "Oh hi, Nico!"
Out of nowhere Hulk appeared and put his arms around Kay and I. Daniel grinned and then offered him a rib, which was extremely generous for Mr Gutsy.
"Dan, Sas, wanna come to my hotel tonight...having a bit of a...coffee night," Nico said, then half inviting Kay out of politeness. Kay wasn't the type for parties- she liked to be tucked up in bed reading the latest horror novel, as nice a she was.
"Does the hotel know you're going to have a piss up?" Dan asked, weary.
"No but it'll be fine." Nico rolled his eyes, "well, are you in?"
"In not in," Kay giggled, blushing. "But Saskia and Dan are coming."
"Your loss hunny, starts at eleven anyway. Sas, bring Sam and Joe and that lot, there's plenty of room for everyone. Can you bring some toilet rolls too?"
Toilet rolls? None of us bothered asking why but I kept the request in mind- toilet rolls would probably be needed. People would be wrong to think that people would be having a civilised drink, chatting about politics. Oh no, oh no- there was a likelihood of drinking games in store and a game of drunken pool or something stupid.
Toilet rolls were as essential as baby wipes, paracetamol and water.
---
It was official, Dan and I were the only sober ones and we were having to try and keep Nico's hotel apartment as clean as possible whilst stopping people from vomiting in the middle of the once beautiful living room. I have told you time and time again that Formula 1 isn't classy!
One of the mechanics from Force India had just dropped a crystal glass on the cream carpet and the majority of people were too out of it to notice that there was very sharp fragments of glass on the floor.
"It's okay people, I'm here to tidy up," Nico strode in, attempted to put his beer down on the side but missed, as he ploughed right into the middle of the shards of...death. "FUCK!"
"Oh bollocks," Dan moaned, grabbing a chair and plonking Nico down on it. "Stay there."
Insert moaning from Nico.
I called a guy Ben over, who was semi-sober, and told him to clean up the glass.
I knelt down to take a look at Nico's sock to find glass sticking out from it- and blood.
"Saskia?" Dan asked as most of the room carried on dancing and chatting. "Let's take him to the bedroom and go from there."
"Bedroom with you two?" I said, unintentionally making it sound like something else.
"Now is not the time," Daniel winked.
"Guys, I have a fucking wine glass in my fucking foot," Nico wailed, clutching onto my arm rather tightly.
"Can you walk?" Daniel asked before smacking his palm on his forehead. "Right, don't tell me, you have glass in your foot."
"I'll walk to my room," Nico said quietly and stood up, putting the full weight of his body on his newly decorated foot. "AHHHH!"
Daniel and I hurriedly picked him up and darted to the bedroom, shutting the door behind us so we wouldn't be disturbed.
"Sas, what the hell do we do?" Daniel exhaled and reassured the wailing German. "Do we pull the glass out?"
No!" I screamed just in case he decided to do anything rash. "We'll make sure he's okay and take him to the nearest hospital. This is beyond my two-day first aid course..."
"Shit, blood is getting on the carpet..." The Australian made sure Nico kept talking as I dialled the only person I could think of at 2 a.m.: my parents.
"Mum, what do you do when someone has stepped on quite a lot of glass and it's sticking out of their foot but blood is also dripping and..."
"Go to the bloody hospital, Saskia!" my parents replied in unison. "Is Dan alright, does this mean we aren't going to have grandchildren?"
Glass. Foot. No grandchildren. WHAT?
"Mum, it's Nico, the good looking German one...yes, him," I said, grabbing a jumper for Nico. "Dan, call a taxi."
"Oh that's a relief," Mum said and tried to something else. Unfortunately, as Nico made a squeaking sound, I put the phone down and grabbed him a jumper whilst Dan secured a taxi.
"Two minutes," he said, wiping his brow. "Let's go."
And so with that, we went with Nico in the lift, through the lobby and out to the waiting taxi. God knows what that driver thought of us- an Englishwoman, Australian and a German bundling into the car with one of us having a plastic bag attached to his foot to stop the blood from escaping on the leather.
"Hospital, the nearest one, whether the hell that is," Daniel said, attempting to sound calm.
"Five minutes," the cabbie replied, trying to reassure us.
"Make it four and we can still be friends," Nico muttered before wailing much, much louder.
---
The cab driver turned out to be a wonderful human being and helped us manoeuvre Nico from the taxi to the hospital where a kind doctor met us and lead us away from the rest of the general public.
Once Nico was 'settled' with the medical staff and Daniel, I went off in search of some much needed signal to contact the relevant personnel at Force India.
I pulled out my phone ready to do some explaining but stopped as I spotted Paul with a protective arm around someone. That someone was Lizzie, and she was shuffling, hunched over.
A nurse darted towards them with a wheelchair and Lizzie was lowered into it, crying.