Small World #637...

One cool thing about the big trade shows is that I get to see friends from my old companies. The pro audio world is actually very small, and the same group of engineers seem to circulate around the different companies. There are people at four or five different companies that I stop by to visit when the trade show circus comes to town.

Last Saturday, Heather and I were out in London. We were doing some shopping, visited a museum, and took a walk though Hyde Park. As we were heading back to the nearest tube station, I heard my name called from the crowd. At first I did not recognise the person, since he had lost his pony tail and also lost some weight since I had last seem him. Eventually it dawned on me that it was one of my old bosses from SLC. He had just arrived in London for the trade show and was out for a walk trying to stay awake. The chances of running into someone you know in London are very slim, even if you both live in the city, but to run into someone who is visiting from another country is really bizarre.

It reminded me of when we were on our “honeymoon road-trip”. We were in the gift shop at Mount Rushmore and we ran into Heather’s sister in law. We had no idea that she was going to be there. It was definitely a strange place to run into someone you know.

The interesting thing about that kind of meeting is how long it takes to recognise a person out of context. When you take someone that you know well in one place and you put them in another place, it somehow seems to distort their features. It’s like the places we live, work and reside are an integral part of who we are, and when we move to another different location, we are changing part of ourselves. Enough rambling…

JE