Funny. After all this time online, I've only once met an online friend in-person. At that time, I'd seen a photo, so I pretty much knew what to expect, but yesterday was a whirl of meeting online folks in London with no idea of what they would look like. Preconceptions are funny things, but I half expected everyone to be sort of quintessential nerdy types. I'm not sure why - I guess it's because I'm stuck in some timewarp where only geeky people spend their time online. I'm clearly wrong.

First stop was a meeting with the very lovely Joe Bloggs at the Tate Modern. We sat in the cafe and chatted about this and that - mostly the difference between Japan and the UK and bringing up kids in the two countries. It was a real shame we didn't have more time, but I was off to Highbury for the Arsenal/Rotherham match and had to run off. Nevertheless, we did see the giant sun hanging in the Turbine hall. I had, incredibly, not heard about it, but it was hugely impressive and quite awe-inspiring and I'm planning on going back to spend some more time there soon.

The Arsenal match was courtesy of a group of very nice and often terribly silly Arseblog folk and a good 15 or so turned up. It was a huge laugh and a nicer group of people you'll never meet. I didn't have any picture in my mind about people's appearance perse, but everyone seemed strangely familiar on the one hand and not like I expected on the other. Like I said, I expected geekier but was happily proven wrong. Quite wrong.

It was, by the way, my first match at "The Home of Football" and whilst warned that it was bound to be dishwater dull, it turned out quite exciting and was somewhat of a record with nearly 14,056 penalty kicks at the end. OK, maybe it was only 17. Still.

I was, however, threatened with dismemberment if I brought my camera, so there are no photos of the events. Soz!