Adam Lambert in London (Part 2) - Calm Before the Storm

One thing I find quite remarkable is how that calm followed me all the way into London. I was travelling to see Adam Lambert in the flesh. That man who I’ve watched on my computer continuously for the past year (pretty long for one of my interests), for whom I feel an overwhelming sense of giddy pride and inescapable excitement any time he’s actually made it onto British TV. And now, I was off to see him in person! And here I was, calm as if I were travelling to school.

It was complete opposites- my behaviour at home, and on the train. I was so laid back, I barely even checked my google map I had so precisely printed off- much to the annoyance of my father; it’s highlighted six minute route consisting of only one turn during the trip between station to where Adam would eventually be. I barely gave it a glance twenty minutes before arriving at my station, then walked the entire journey in relative ease without so much of a cursory glance at it.

That was, until the last road- the one after my only turn. I’d followed it down, looking for the building entrance I’d seen on Google, yet it wasn’t there- and it felt like I had walked the whole road. It looked like the street came to it’s end up ahead, and from what I could see of the buildings to my side, they weren’t it.

Ordinarily- or, one year previously, I would have begun to panic. To stop, look around and wonder about a few metres in each direction in panic. To stop, look around in confusion and anxiety, too ashamed to approach someone in the midst of a lost-in-central-London panic attack.

I did no such thing. I just continued walking, and after another bend in the road, there; past Lost Planet (which I really should have stopped at and paid some attention to) was the building entrance facade I recognised from my research, and a half a dozen people waiting expectantly outside. I knew who they’d be- one woman had a ‘60’s style braid across her forehead with feathers attached at the temple, and a few t-shirts that, thought I didn’t study them, had a ‘merchandise-y’ feel. Sure enough, I approached them with a warm shy smile and said,

“So, I assume you’re here waiting for…”

“Adam Lambert, yeah.”