So Friday was the day I was going to meet up with my friend Gary, very talented in the audiovisual arts. He's worked with everyone from Sting to Starsailor, but you might be wondering why (or how, rather) I became friends with him. It was actually his company, Deepvisual, and his work in particular on Duran Duran (a band I was very much into from 2000-2002, and I still love today, even though I don't really follow them that much anymore), as well as the Devils (a Duran Duran off-shoot/side project starring keyboardist Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran and Duran Duran's original lead singer before they hit it big, Stephen Duffy, who I usedta sorta know). Gary has met a ton of people who *are* famous or who have become famous as a result of being a superfan of Duran. I like to think of myself as a real friend of Gary's - unlike a lot of sycophantic slag hangers-on who think he can get them backstage - as I've known him for about 5 years now, and even though he lives over 3000 miles away, he's always concerned about my health (which, as you can imagine, is not exactly something most people obsessive about music even care about for one minute when it comes to their "friends"). For my birthday 3 years ago, he sent me totally out of the blue something that most Duran fans would give their right arm for (I nearly would have myself I think), and he'd sent that to cheer me up because he knew I had been going through a rough time with chemotherapy. I'd made this grandiose plan to go to Paris to see Morrissey at the Zenith the week before my birthday, and I ended up nixxing that idea because I was just too sick. I was totally bummed. But then this package came in the mail, out of the blue, and it really made my year. It's really what they say, it's the thought that counts.

Gary is often called away on a moment's notice to do audiovisual stuff for a band on tour, so I was in luck when he told me he was going to be in town the week I'd be in London, could I see him? So we decided to meet up that Friday. Not knowing too much about the city on foot, he said he'd come from work, meet me at my hotel and we'd go from there. The day before, I called him to croak that I needed him to stop by a grocery on the way over to my hotel for a bottle of honey (to put in my English tea, of course!) because my throat hurt. He was off working I think and I told him to call me the next morning, which he did, but I had overslept and hadn't gotten up until 9:30 (oops) so he woke me up. He met me around 11 in the lobby, telling me that he'd gotten together all his spare change and was thankful he'd had a reason to use up all his coins to buy the honey (haha) and also gave me a great Birmingham City themed Duran Duran t-shirt. (Note to all who might be giving me a present OR is just a bloke trying to impress me: I *lurve* v-necks. And ringed tees. This had both so I was in heaven. I also like them on my boys ;)

So we started off by walking over the Jubilee bridge and we walked a bit through the Covent Garden area on the way to the British Museum. Gary told me a trip to London wasn't complete without a trip there. It is a massive, massive museum and I think you could probably get yourself lost for 2 weeks in there if you took time to check out every nook and cranny, but as it was, we only really looked at the Egyptian room (I'm not sure what the real name was, but it was where all these sarcophagi were standing, all lined up). My own mother gets weirded out with the idea of looking at someone's sarcophagus, probably because she knows that the mummified remains of someone once living used to be inside of there. However, I've always been fascinated with archeology - at one time, way before I found out that I was photosensitive and couldn't be in the desert, under the sun all day, all I wanted to do was be an archeologist and conduct digs around the Valley of the Kings. There's a decent exhibit of Egyptian finds in the Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., my favorite museum at home, but I don't think that collection could hold a candle to this one particular room we viewed.

the outside of the British museum, and a photo of me and Gary (taken by a Japanese tourist girl)

Poor Gary. He was being pestered by work and clients on his mobile. I can't imagine having his life, being always on-call and ready to go away to work whenever, wherever. He is looked upon very favorably by everyone he's worked with, so he obviously doing a good job for his clients. But we both bemoan the fact that we don't have a person to come home to. I got the feeling when we first got to be email penpals several years ago that he fancied me, which at the time was and right now still really makes me blush, because I never considered myself to be a creature to be fancied! But now we're friends, and that's what we shall stay, and I prefer it that way, as I'm a awkward mess around boys I like.

After the British Museum, we walked back in the direction of Soho and had a dim sum lunch at Chinatown, my treat. I forget what the place was called, I want to say New Asia or something, but maybe I'm confusing that with a local Chinese grocery store here. Gary joked that had he known I was treating, he would have insisted on having our meal at Sketch (the overpriced boutique restaurant, complete with pod toilets, that the Durans are famous for frequenting). We spent quite a long time there talking and having tea. It reminded me how much I really wanted to move to London, as I have so many friends in town that I would just love to have a chat with over a cuppa.

The afternoon went too fast, and Gary had to say goodbye, so he gave me a hug and left to go back to work. I snapped the following picture of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on that grayish Friday afternoon.

(4b)

posted 11/25/06
London photojournal index

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