First Meeting
After spending a week in France, Tom, my hubby, and I arrived in London on a Friday to some bad news. Everything David Soul had been scheduled to do during our visit had been canceled or postponed. Even worse, it was not clear that David was even in London. "Ughh," I thought, "I can’t believe I traveled from the States to London to see him, and now I won’t."
I tried not to concentrate on that. "Who knows what will happen," I thought. Tom and I met Sylvie and Sarah Cook for lunch and went sight seeing. It was so great being with people who knew where they were going. It took Tom and I a couple of days to get comfortable with getting around on the tube.
On Monday, Sarah informed us that she heard that David was going to be on a radio show the following Friday. Sylvie checked it out and it seemed true. "Great," I thought, "we are leaving Friday morning!" It didn’t take long for Tom and I to decide to postpone our departure till Saturday. I mean, how many opportunities am I likely to have to meet David Soul?
By late Tuesday, it was pretty clear that the Friday gig was not going to happen. Now, I was getting frustrated and afraid. "Am I really going to go home empty handed?" I so wanted to have great stories to bring with me to Zebra Con at the end of the month.
Wednesday morning, Tom and I were awakened abruptly at 10:00 am by a phone call from Sylvie. Tom answered, I couldn’t hear what she said but Tom looked at me and said, "Get ready, quick!" I popped out of bed and got ready in 10 short minutes. "David is on the radio, right now," Tom relayed to me. "It might be live or it might be just a tape, Sylvie is not sure. But we’re going to try to meet him at the radio station."
We caught a cab and promptly got stuck in traffic. To make matters worse the radio in the cab was broken, so we couldn’t even listen in. Finally, we got to the BBS1 building Sylvie had directed us to and were told by the security that we had the wrong place. They directed us to another building about a half a mile away.
We ran to the second building. Upon arrival we were told that Mr. Soul was not there. Discouraged, we decided to go back to the first building and wait for Sylvie. When she arrived she said that the first building was the right building. But still, no David. Not knowing if it had been live or a tape we, were still not sure he was in London.
From there Tom went to the auto-show and I went with Sylvie to her place to see her David Soul videos. What a collection!! While I watched the videos, Sylvie prepared a letter to fax to David. She explained our situation and the effort we had gone through to meet him and asked if he would meet us for a drink.
We took the letter to a print shop and faxed it to David. We could hear him answer the phone before switching it to the fax. "Oh good, he’s there." we sighed in relief.
Sylvie and I went on to lunch at an outdoor pizzeria. Within ten minutes of our fax, Sylvie’s phone rang. She answered it and looked at me excitedly, "It’s him," she mouthed to me. "Oh my god," I felt a shiver run down my spine. "I’m sitting next to someone who is talking on the phone to David Soul!!!!"
David informed Sylvie that he received the fax, but couldn’t read it. So she explained our plight once again and casually asked if he would join us for a drink. Simply, he said, "Yes, how about 6 o’clock?"
I had to run back to the hotel. After all, I had only 10 minutes of preparation that morning. I couldn’t believe that I was going to meet David one on one. I picked up Tom at the hotel, slapped on a little make-up and went out to catch the tube.
I can remember sitting on the tube on pins and needles. "David Soul. I’m going to meet David Soul!" my mind was reeling. I couldn’t help but reflect upon the countless hours I spent as a young teen dreaming that I could meet him, if only for a moment. Finally, that 13 year-old girl’s dream was going to come true.
When we arrived at the pub, I was relieved to see that Sylvie was already there. She and David were sitting in the first cubbie of the bar area. I walked into the area and was staring right at David. It was hard to act casual, but Sylvie helped us through the introductions.
We ordered a round of drinks and settled in. I had no idea what to expect. I thought David would probably only have time for one beer. That would have been more than I ever dreamed of. But instead, the four of us sat around chatting about various topics: his album, his plans for the future, politics, and our pets for two hours. Tom enjoyed sharing his two new toys with David. David was interested in learning all about both the digital camera and the electronic day-timer. This was fun, because it gave Sylvie and I time to gawk without having to try to sound intelligent.
After about two hours had passed, David called to see if Alexa had gotten home yet. He recommended a couple of restaurants in the immediate neighborhood to us, as we were all hungry. We invited him to be our guest for dinner. He seemed genuinely flattered and surprised. How endearing. He said he would check with Alexa.
As we stood to leave he shook hands with Tom and extended his hand to me. I looked into his eyes and said, "Sorry, I’m going for the hug," which I did. Very nice. I floated out of the bar and down the street to the restaurant. Did I mention that his eyes are gorgeous?
While we sat at the restaurant David called twice to give us an update. The first was to say that Alexa was still not home. The second was to say that she had gotten home and brought dinner with her. I was touched that David went out of his way, twice, so that we were not just sitting there waiting.
Needless to say, I had very pleasant dreams that night.
Thank you so much Sylvie and thank you, David. This wonderful gift will stay with me for the rest of my life.