THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Seeing the movie The Social Network with its scenes of the Henley Regatta in the UK reminded of a surreal personal experience way back in 1998 . I was in the UK driving back to Heathrow Airport from Birmingham in the Midlands late morning. My flight back to Australia departed early evening and I had time to kill so I drove cross country and I came to Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire.It was Regatta week and the town was buzzing .I found a car park , picked up my Leica and a couple of lenses and headed down to the river bank . It was as if I had stepped back in time . There were all these adult people dressed as if they were in a scene in a Merchant Ivory film - grown men in schoolboy caps and car boot picnics with Pimms and Moet . Extraordinary.