I often wonder why I don’t see as many famous people as you’d really expect, what with living in London and all. I wonder if maybe it’s just that I’m either not really paying attention to the people around me, or don’t think that anyone I might have seen is really who I think they might be. I can claim to have spotted Richard E. Grant in Richmond, for example, only because someone I was with shouted “look! there’s Richard E. Grant!” [I think maybe he heard us, because he promptly turned down a side street and skipped off into the distance. Then again, maybe he’s just a bit odd.]

The only “famous” person I can guarantee having seen without someone else’s assistance wasn’t actually very famous at all [that would be Lauren out of Neighbours, who was on the same Picadilly line train as me one day shortly after I moved to London–I can only say for certain that it was her because she was talking loudly on her mobile about the shabby British student “comedy” film she had just been in. Don’t worry, you won’t have heard of that either.]

So I can only tell you that we shared a bar at Heathrow airport on Saturday evening with former Olympic runner Cathy Freeman (and her boyfriend, Joel Edgerton), because Sal (who’s flight we were waiting for) said: “oh did you see Cathy Freeman over there?”. Even then, I didn’t believe her at first, but given that they were watching the Aussie Rules exhibition match at the Oval the other week, it’s probably a fairly safe bet.

Maybe in the future I should have someone with me at all times to point out things that I would otherwise miss.