Serious greening

The sound of the electric motor always precedes the movement of the barrier bar by about a second, before it starts lifting up. It’s a reassuring sound, because it means that the guards inside the guards’ room have actually seen me, circling in front of the security cameras – because a guy on a bike doesn’t get as much attention on their little screens, as the usual 4x4s that most other embassy staff drive. Well and of course: I’m the first employee that ever cycled to work. I keep telling my colleagues that the Ambassador in Amsterdam actually cycles to work, too… but all I get in response is big eyes and the thought “He’s mad!” spinning in their shaking heads. One of my colleagues has the habit of kissing her car whenever she returns from abroad, especially from places, where she had to use public transport – Jordan has definitely made a quick transition from a donkey to a car culture!! Which is why me and the “Green Team” (staff volunteers who help me making the embassy greener) have decided that “encouraging employees to car-pool on their way to work” would be one of the last actions we’d implement from the brand-new Action Plan I just drafted – its “doability” rating has been set at “low”. In addition to that, my manager said to me: “The absolute goal – but mind you, it’s probably impossible – would be to get one other person to cycle to work!”
These words often go through my mind in the seconds after I passed through under the barrier and wait in front of the massive metal gate. Once the barrier has closed again behind me, the big blue gate will set itself in motion, moving slowly to the side – the slowness only emphasising its thick, bulky heaviness. There I often think what a waste of energy it is to move that large piece of metal four metres to a side and back only for me – barely half a metre wide – to pass through on my bike… and how ridiculous it must look for anyone passing by on the street next to the embassy, when I shoot through just as it opens, casually waving at the guards before clicking into a higher gear and speeding off.
And then, as I cycle home, I usually listen to the BBC One World or the NPR Environment News podcasts on my little mp3 player and think to myself: maybe you’re taking it all a bit too serious...