Close encounter of the famous kind....!!!

Guess who I saw?????

None other than Christian O'Connell!

It was a very surreal experience, because although I've woken up to the sound of his voice every morning for the past 3(?!) years, I never expected to actually come face to face with him.

And the weird thing is, it was kind of more than a coincidence that I saw him:

I was in HMV, looking for birthday presents for people, and it was really difficult, because all my friends have loads of music, so I had to try and think of CDs they definitely wouldn't have...highly complicated...

For some reason, I went to the soundtrack section at the back. I never go to the soundtrack section, because

a) It's right at the back

b) You have to walk through either Jazz & Blues, or Classical to get there, which are highly embarrassing places to be seen in, and

c) Because there aren't many sound tracks worth getting, except Bridget Jones, A Knight's Tale and other rare films like that.

So anyway, you get the idea.... it was already quite strange that I was there...

I jogged through classical, hoping nobody would see me there, and nearly ran straight into a man who was looking at the books at the back (you know...where they put stuff like Johnny Depp's Biography, and a book of the stories behind every Beatles song etc.).

I managed to stop in time, and I had to walk in front of the man to get around to the soundtracks.

As I walked in front of him, I looked up, can't remember why... probably to sort of smile apologetically coz I was blocking his view or something . When I saw his face, I froze in front of him and stood there staring at him.

I believe the expression is, 'like a bunny in the headlights'.

I don't know how much time passed before I un-froze, possibly several minutes, and then I realised that I was still blocking his view of whatever book he'd been looking at.

So I mumbled something like, 'Uhhh.....sorry.....' and moved out of the way. He kind of watched me walk past, in a way that a semi-famous person might watch someone who they thought had recognised them.

I still wasn't sure if it was actually him.

I stood in the soundtrack section staring at his back, trying to figure out whether it was him or not. Every so often he glanced around at me, which was a bit embarrassing, because then he knew I was staring. Though he probably felt my eyes boring into the back of his head.

I just looked at the Virgin Radio website, and I'm pretty sure it was him.

The only thing that makes me think it might not have been him is his bag.

I know I have a thing about bags, but the bag he was carrying was not at all stylish. Not even in a kitsch way.

I txted Em, who replied before I'd even put my phone down and told me to get his autograph.

But how could I, after I'd disturbed his quiet browse of the shelves at the back of HMV, and then stared at him for hours on end?