On seeing the pope

You've got to believe me, this was going to be a great photo; I had a good position and composition, then someone got in the way at the last second – unfortunately my crappy camera has like a two second shutter speed delay. Still, at least you can sort of see him in the mobile phone screen. Sort of.

After Open House weekend on Saturday, my boon companion and I set off across London for a visit to Fopp, only to stumble across an anti-pope demonstration along the way (where we were roughly manhandled by the police). We came across some great placards, including 'DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING' which James called 'fantastically vague' (and indeed, if the picture is replaced, it could easily be adapted to be used at any kind of protest).

James had mentioned earlier that if he was with me he was bound to see someone famous (I have a reputation for seeing the famous whenever I'm in London). I gave him the pope on a plate, but apparently this didn't count. His theory goes that to see a famous person it must be a random sighting. We knew the pope was going to be along the Mall, thus the random encounter aspect was void.

My friend Chas seeing the pope going round the Wandsworth one-way system the previous afternoon, however, does count as a famous person sighting as it was random, unplanned. Likewise, I cannot say I've seen Bob Dylan, as I paid money to be there (it was premeditated). However, seeing Roger Daltrey, Anthony Gormley and Bill Nighy at the Dylan concert does count as they were random, unpredicted sightings. His theory seems a bit churlish if you ask me.

FYI: I'm an atheist who just happens to like seeing famous people.