Warming Up

Thursday 1st December 2005

I was walking through Notting Hill when I saw someone I thought I knew approaching me. She was only about five metres from me and I recognised her immediately. She didn't seem to notice me, so as I got close to her I waved vigorously in front of her and pulled a funny face. This certainly attracted her attention, but she gave me a disdainful look which communicated the facts that she thought I was a lunatic and that she didn't know me.
"But you must remember me," I immeidately thought, considering doing the wave again to prove it. By now she had passed me and I looked round, surprised at the unexpected snub. She too was looking round at me, possibly afraid that I was a mental who was about to attack her. The fear in her eye certainly suggested this.
Only now did I realise it wasn't the person I knew, but just someone else who shared a similar face. It's a good job I didn't resemble someone she vaguely knew or we might have stopped and had a chat before gradually realising we didn't actually know each other.
It might have got to the point where one of us realised the mistake and the other didn't and then was too embarrassed to explain at this late stage and be forced to go along with it.
Instead, upon realising my error I was forced to attempt to regain my composure, having encroached on a stranger's life and made the kind of mistake that an old person would make. Is this a sign of my approaching senility? I do hope so.