originally written by Dian, formatted by Mark
Never meet your idol they say, they also say everything happens for a reason and so it would seem as Valentino Rossi’s number one fan was once again reunited with her idol through a series of events. Here she talks about the events leading up to, and meeting, none other than Valentino Rossi:
I arrived at the airport at 3.20pm, about 40 minutes later than I had originally planned. The reason I was late was because I’d met an old woman visiting Kuala Lumpur for the first time and she needed help with her luggage.
This delayed me by around 40 – 45 minutes; little did I know how much this meeting would shape my destiny in the hours to come.
After I’d helped the woman, and her son had come to pick her up I went to the coffee shop, purchased some food for the journey back to my hotel in Kaula Lumpur, a short train journey.
The train was nice and quiet, most likely because the express train journeys can be quite expensive, and so there were only a few people on.
I sat alone on my seat, just my bag for company. In the bag was my gift to Valentino Rossi which I had prepared the night before should I be lucky enough to meet him as I have done previously.
The reason for my doubt this time was that I didn’t have a paddock pass, just a grandstand ticket, which meant viewing my idol from a distance, something not conducive to giving presents.
So I sat on the train, my bag for company and read my book which was a collection of my blog posts.
As I was busy with my own thoughts I looked up to see an unexpected group of people walk pass me…it was none other than Valentino Rossi and some of the Ducati team.
As he walked past me he noticed me, I was mouthing the words “OMG, Valentino Rossi”, I couldn’t believe what was happening.
Rossi saw me and with a humble smile said “oh wow…you’re everywhere”. I think we we’re both surprised to meet like this.
As the doors closed and the train moved off I was still sat in my seat before I eventually mustered up the courage to walk to the next carriage where the team were sat.
The first person I saw was Roberto Brivio, I walked over to him.
Me: “Could you help me please to give this book and present to Valentino Rossi?”
Brivio: [smile] “Why me? You don’t want to give it to him yourself?”
Me: “I want to, but I’m scared he would be annoyed because he is trying to relax on this trip”
Brivio: [laughs] “No, come on”
Brivio took me by the and led me to the seat of Rossi.
Brivio : “Vale, you have a fan who wants to meet you”
Uccio was there and he stood up from his seat next to Rossi to allow me to sit next to him.
It was an incredible moment, me and Valentino Rossi on public transport on the same seat!
I spoke to Rossi for a while about Indonesian fans and fans around the world and how they will always support him no-matter what and with no doubts and he just smiled and said “thank you…thank you”.
I gave him my book and he read a few of the pages, he looked at me and said “It’s funny, you are always with me, thank you for that”, I felt as if I had won the lottery!
Me: “May I take a picture with you and with my book too?”
Rossi: “Yes of course”
Me: “But who will take the picture, this is my camera?”
Rossi: “Don’t worry, lots of my friends here”
Rossi called one of his friends over and pass him the camera, and then he stood up and embraced me, just like he always does with all his fans.
After taking the picture I decided to leave him and give him the privacy he wanted, I took my gift from my bag and gave it to him.
He opened it with a curious face and he was very surprised to see my gift, it was a photo of him and me.
Rossi: “When did we take the picture?”
Me: “Last February when you were doing the testing here”
Rossi: “Ok, thank you, and you want to take a picture with this gift also?”
Me: “Yes of course”
So, we took a picture again and after that I asked him “May I take a picture with my phone I want to update my twitter” he smiled and said “Ok you can do that”.
All the team behind him laughed and teased him, you could feel a deep kinship and familiarity between them.
“Please keep your humble Vale, Please always lovely with all your fans, We all know how hard your situation in this season, how tired you to trying tame the bike, but we’re here to support you, and with togetherness we can make it more lighter to make you more confident day by day with the bike and make MOTOGP keep interesting with lot of battle from you. Thank you Valentino Rossi, we all proud to have an Idol like you.”
