Well, I've finally got a bit of time to do a proper write-up of the weekend (though no data cable yet, so no pics)...

Where to start? What a great weekend. Glorious weather, a good turnout...

I woke around 04:30am to get showered and dressed and head out in time to get my bus at 06:17. I have to say, the cats were most alarmed to discover me up and awake at such an unsociable hour. I drove to the town I get the bus from, got parked up then walked the 15 minutes to get the bus... by this time, I'm tired already and want nothing more than to sleep! I set some music going on my phone, jammed the earphones in and slept for probably 2 hours straight.

Just short of 3.5 hours later, my bus pulled into London Victoria and tried to make my way to Gloucester Road, where the hotel was. Knowing the Circle Line was closed, I'd assumed I'd be able to board a District Line tube instead and travel straight there. I was wrong. On discovering the District Line was closed from that station, I panicked.
All my careful planning... for nothing. *Shit*, I cursed to myself under my breath. Though apparently not quietly enough - an elderly woman shot me a really dirty look at that moment. I thought the elderly were meant to be hard of hearing? I wonder if she was in disguise...!
After advice by text message and some careful re-planning, I managed to get to Gloucester Road without further incident, other than it taking an absolute age to get a travel card. London on a saturday in midsummer=tourists.

Once I got there, even then 20 minutes later than expected, I called upJames who headed over to meet me. After dumping stuff (and also my phone, d'oh) at the hotel, we leisurely made our way in the general Eye direction.
Next thing, there's a Union Jack flag heading towards us worn by idocreating "A Newgrounds shirt, thank god. Been here ages, haven't found anyone!" :) Heading further beneath the Eye, though, we discovered a fast growing little group of people wearing varying shirts, ranging from the UK Newgrounds shirt to Pico to Madness. I was the one in the grey/purple striped top (and, increasingly so as the day/evening went on, shoeless).
Met up with Coop83 who it was nice to see again, and got to meet his lovely missus Bex for the first time! If you're reading this, I enjoyed meeting you and hope you come along next time :) Was surprised to see that Dean showed up, as he's just bought a house and is working on it so was unsure he'd have the time nor money to make an appearance. Glad you did, though - wouldn't have been the same without you there.

: Getting bored of linking usernames now, if I mention you and you're not tagged, please don't be offended!

Once everyone had assembled, we headed round the corner where it was a little quieter and had group photos taken in varying poses of silliness. I was crouched, which was absolutely killing my knees.... getting too old for that malarkey! Then everyone made their way into Namco. And promptly stopped right by the escalators leading down into the main games area upon discovering Guitar Hero in arcade form.
After getting downstairs and speaking with a few people there, I headed down to the sub-level for a drink and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, except when we all went up to drive (if that's the right word for it) the bumper cars into each other. Great fun, very violent. I remember getting into a head-on crash with at leave three different users and being forced across the seat by the impact. I can only imagine what it did to anyone with longer legs than myself.

I also managed to come *very* last at bowling... which wasn't helped by the ball launched not-so-neatly airwards then down into the gutter... hm. It had got stuck on my fingers, though. I haven't the first clue on selecting the right ball and I don't bowl often. Which is no excuse, I know, but I'm in two minds on this. Do I go bowling more in the optimistic hope I improve slightly in time for the next meet, or do I just accept my fate as a crap bowler and just make it more entertaining for next time? Coop was a legend at bowling and had a clear lead over the other three in the game (myself, James and I don't remember your username, but were you Stephen?). After this was the bumper cars then another drink.
I did a lot of sitting that day, but if you'd seen the mess my shoes have made of my feet, you'd understand :) By the time we got to Namco, they were getting rather sore. By the time we got in, it was painful to keep the shoes on for longer than a few minutes! See what making an effort does for me? I'll stick to my trainers next time...

Anyway, as time passed by it became time to move on. As the weather had been so good, about half the group started heading towards Hyde Park for football, food and summer laziness. On the tube, Coop, Bex, Dean and I watched Kirk's tube hair in wonder. I believe a picture of this has now been added to the main thread - everyone in the carriage was amused by it. The other half of the group stayed behind to finish up any games/activities and were herded in the right direction by James a little later.

Hyde Park - A group of 12 of the guys got together for 6-a-side football (soccer to you Americans), neatly positioning one of the goals alongside the rest of the group (d'oh), meaning whenever a goal was scored we were at risk of getting hit by flying balls. Not nearly as hot as it sounds. The rest of us sat to eat, drink and chat. Then Bezman had an idea for a panoramic photo of the group, involving us all standing in a circle and passing a camera around. Each of us had to take a photograph at eye level of the people stood directly opposite us. Would be interesting to see how that turned out, though I'm not sure it would have worked quite as well as planned with us all being different heights. We'll see - it was a cool experiment to try out.

After a while we got heavy cloud cover and a few raindrops, though nothing really came of it. It also began to get dark, so plans were made to meet at
The Sports Cafe, which was an expensive sports bar with screens all around showing the football, cricket, baseball, womens beach volleyball (I have a photo of a certain 4 Newgrounders in a booth positively drooling over this), and later what appeared to be soft porn. It was very loud and I struggle to hear what others say at the best of times, so if you told me something and I don't remember, or you tried to get my attention - I wasn't ignoring you, just going deaf. At least, more deaf than the elderly lady at Victoria.

It was here we experienced some of Bezman's incredible dancing, and after much persuasion I allowed him to teach me to salsa, until some crazy woman on the dancefloor stood on the back of my already blistered foot with a stiletto... owww. I had to stop, but thanks for showing me, Bez - when I'm next over the border I'll let you know and we'll go to that club :)

It got on for time, so we decided to start heading back towards the hotel. The tube was closed at this time, so started looking for a taxi. Easy, right? To find a taxi in London? Wrong. Didn't find a single one. So... went for a bus. Which was crazy busy too, and there was drama on the bus. It was so busy there was a guy standing upstairs, so the driver put out a safety warning to sit down or come downstairs to stand. He couldn't sit, but he couldn't come downstairs either as there were people sitting on the stairs too, blocking the way. At the next stop it all got sorted, anyway. Heading back to the hotel from the bus stop was too much for my feet, I eventually took off my shoes and was walking barefoot through the streets. It was mostly smooth paving stones, so it was all good, though my soles were practically black when we made it back! Got in, practically crashed straight away. Sleep well? Oh yes...

Sunday was check-out. I headed back to central London to meet with a friend for lunch, then I got my bus later that day and eventually home by 8pm.

Special thanks to James for meeting up with me beforehand and sharing his hotel room with me and for walking slow for hop-along :)

As good as the January meet? Better. Would I go again? Definitely. So good to see everyone again and to meet those who came out for the first time. Good to see a couple of dads get involved too, I think most would freak out if their kid wanted to go meet random people from the internet.
We're a harmless bunch, really.

It's 2 am. I have no idea how many spelling mistakes I've made but I don't care ;)

Update 16.8.09 - Photos!