Well, some sort of write-up has been due, and now I have a bit of free time...

Rjlov (Richard), Hugo, Claire and I met up at my house on Tuesday the 11th. Richard managed to get to my place easily, but I think Hugo copped the worst of Melbourne peak-hour traffic coming in and then decided to get a tram from their hotel to my place. Fortunately the wonders of modern mobile phones made this a less painful experience than it could have been.

I will apologise to all of them publicly here and now for being on call from work that night - this meant that I got interrupted several times with phone-calls before finally deciding to make it silent and ignore it. If there's one thing I hate it's people interrupting your conversation to talk on their phones; so I have to damn myself by my own rules. Sorry.

After finding that the Russian restaurant that I'd planned to go to no longer existed (moral: never trust phone books alone), we decided on an Indian restaurant that I frequented. The dinner was delicious, and while Claire sampled the (questionable) delights of VB, Hugo and I shared a bottle of wine.

We talked about all sorts of stuff, and it all generally reinforced my belief that the people you meet online are also compatible face-to-face. It was a very good night, though the haze of alcohol prevents me from remembering the last half too clearly. Finally, after walking back to my place and chatting for a bit more, we all said goodnight and Richard drove the Britons to their flat.

Overall: a really good time. Sorry I spoiled it