Ailsa dragged Leon and I along to the awards bash in London last week. Being very much out of the loop, I had no idea what it was all about and only realised the evening related to a competition when I met Leon for a coffee beforehand. My first question was, "So did you enter then?" to which The Druid's reply was, "Yes I did, but I didn't hear back from anyone and I think my prints may have got lost in the post because I was just about to miss the deadline and had to call the office to get the address and I'm not sure I sent it to the right place." (or words to that effect).
Having located Ailsa, we arrived at the Leica gallery space a short while later and were greeted very warmly by Liz and her staff whereupon she told Leon that not only had his prints arrived safely, but he'd come 5th....out of over 6000 entries! Nice. The lad done good. It was fascinating seeing the look on his face as two opposing thoughts battled for supremecy:
- Wow! I came 5th. I had no idea. That's amazing!
- (Looking around critically at the prints on the walls) Hmmm, so how come these photographers placed higher than I did?
(
Leon: correct me if any of this misrepresents you)
The icing on the cake was seeing Colin and his wife because we'd been told they weren't coming. It was a wonderful evening. Free booze all evening followed by an extended session in the pub with Colin, his wife, Leon and I catching up on this and that....if it hadn't been for my son waking me up at 5.45AM the next day it would have been a perfect night out. A totally unexpected pleasure that was well worth the hangover the next day.
Thanks to Ailsa for inviting us and for BWP for hosting such a great event.
