iam.ollief1.com

Finding the time to write is a weird phenomonen. I do sincerely believe this magical thing we call time is located somehwere between Timbuktu and the Bermuda Triangle. Yes, yes, I am aware that both Timbuktu and the Bermuda Triangle are real places. It’s all in the science, trust me.

However, this place of magic called time is in all seriousness, mythical. Allow me to briefly explain.*

I once ran a successful Formula One website called BlogF1. At the same time (approximately ten years ago), I worked as an Area Manager, based on the UK south coast and probably exceeding 50 hours-a-week. I was young back then – in my early-twenties and able to stay up to whatever-hour of the morning researching and writing – and still be able to wake up at 7am as spritely as a… spritely thing… and get on with my day with energy and enthusiasm. It was never a problem to sit down and research an article, write, read, edit, publish and publicise until the sun started to appear over the horizon.

After a few years, as the website grew, I found it harder and harder to maintain the same level. I am a bit of a perfectionist, I must admit, but ultimately my life became more important and I made the incredibly difficult decision to allow BlogF1 to die. I did try to revive it once, but in my heart-of-hearts, I knew it wouldn’t work. And of course, it didn’t.

I allowed the domain to expire and I simply moved the body of work to a different domain to act as an archive. If you like, the library of nostalgia. And so it has sat there, untouched and unloved for give-or-take, a decade. The site doesn’t technically work; the links are outdated and images no longer display. But the words, they are still there. My writing, my thoughts, my processes, it’s still there. Unedited and just as unpolished as it ever was.

I do like writing though, it is something very important to me. And this is very relevant:

I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. Anne Frank

In those nine or ten years, I haven’t really written much. I maintain this personal site and do occasionally put fingers to keyboard, even Formula One related drivel. But generally speaking, I haven’t written properly in a long time. A very long time. I have found, as I have become older, that time is harder to come by.

A few months back, sometime in 2019, I came over all nostalgic one evening and typed my old personal site’s domain into a browser. Lo-and-behold to me, Prodrivel.com was available (another domain I allowed to expire). I immediately felt the urge to snap it up, even just for the sake of owning it again. And that is what happened.

And then in December, something came over me like a cold wind from the north, gripping my face and freezing me in my steps. I gingerly typed BlogF1.co.uk into a browser. It is still owned by someone who is doing nothing with it. To be honest, some kind of spam site, or just nothing. I don’t know. Either way, do-co-dot-uk is still owned by someone else.

I resigned myself to the understanding that I allowed the domain to expire and that the ‘BF1 chapter’ of my life is definitely no more. For kicks though, I typed dot-com into my browser. I always wanted to own the dot-com version of BlogF1 but it was always unavailable or way to pricey (because I had inflated the price by making dot-co-dot-uk so valuable). And it had always been a kind of spam site, or parking page or basically, sod all.

But there it was. Just like with Prodrivel, a splash-screen from a hosting company:

This domain has expired and is up for auction.

How could I not?

I mean, c’mon. Seriously.

It cost me thirty-quid, I ain’t ‘appy about that! And I am forced to locate the domain at the current hosting company for three bloomin’ months. But come February 2020 (I think late-February) I can move the domain to my usual hosting provider and do something with it.

Now – ladies and gentlemen – what to do with BlogF1.com…?

So long story short, if you own a property that is located somewhere between Timbuktu and the Bermuda Triangle, get in touch because I’m interested. Also, if you happen to own any time that you are willing to sell to an Area Manager (of a now different company) who does whay more than 50 hours-a-week, I’d be interested in that too.

Peace, love and merriment to all. Here’s to twenty-twenty. I love you all and I hope, hope, I can find some time to write about Formula One – even just once a month – at BlogF1.com. You’ll know when.

*I got sidetracked and didn’t really explain the ‘time thing’. Instead, I spoke about something else. It’s New Year’s Eve and I am me, what are you going to do?