Missed It By That Much...

It's probably the Beatles' fault, maybe 007's, but I have long be fascinated by England. Not so much the history, but more their place in music and pop culture history. MI5, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, all as mysterious and a gazillion miles away as the Empire State Building must be to someone from another country watching King Kong.

I have almost been to England several times. ALMOST.

First up was in High School when I was going to spend the summer with a girl I was crazy about. She dumped me, so that pretty much put an end to that. Strike One.

The next several attempts were while I was at MTV. I had planned on coming over on several different shoots over the years. The Reading Festival etc. Each one was either cancelled at the last minute or an old boss that will go nameless decided it was best if I stayed home at the 11th hour. Strikes Two through Five.

So here I am Tuesday, in my town car on the way to LAX, gazing out the window thinking, "At last. I am finally going to get to England."

Cut to 1 hour later when the Virgin Atlantic ticket agent at LAX turned to me and said, "You know this passport is expired, right?"

WHAT?

That's right. The passport I have been staring at and double checking for months now expired in June of '06, NOT June '07 like I thought. How did I look at the thing over and over again and not notice that? How did my staff that took my passport weeks ago to fill out forms and visas in advance TO MAKE THINGS EASIER not notice either?

So there I stood watching my entire staff, Gene and the whole family board the plane - laughing at my stupidity the whole way. Strike Six.

Once again England slipped thru my fingers.

Luckily, I was able to get it renewed the next morning and less than 20 hours later I was on a flight to Heathrow. I have been here about 5 hours. I am zombie (with the 9 hour time difference).

My car did not have an ejector seat.

I have yet to see one Beatle.

Hopefully there is still time for both.