The Meet Up - The Story

The great, or not so great, Lankanosphere blogger meet up finally happened last Friday. I feel, in my position as the thingamajig, some might even call me the whatshisname, of the Lankanopshere that I owe it to you to give a brief outline of events, people and the evening in general.

You know, one of the things about my mixed up identity is that, where timekeeping is concerned, I'm strictly a Brit. I just struggle to take that Lankan approach to the time of something and an always early. Even, as on Friday, when I try to be cool, Lankan and lateish, I end up early, uncool and British.

A start time of 7.30 PM saw me and C stroll into the wonder of the Barefoot Garden at about 7.10 on a balmy, rainy and warm Colombo evening. I know it gets its fair share of "exclusive" press and that, from a balanced perspective, the Barefoot Cafe is out of financial reach for the man on the street but I adore it and consider it one of my top five places in the world.

We eased in and sniffed the air. It was delicious, that mixed aroma of the Galle Road, the sea, the rainfall and that heat as it wafted its way around. Rain does something to green things, that's the technical side.

I was a bit worried though. I didn't want to give the impression that I was hosting a big get together, like I was a King, or even a Rajapakse, meeting and greeting people. I wanted just to organise a bit of a meet while I was in town. And, truth be told, TMS was the person who had kindly done most of the organising in terms of getting people to attend. She'd been emailing and calling people and I'd just swanned around in the hill country and sent the odd text asking people if they fancied coming on friday. Not that swans can text.

But I was concerned. Would this be an evening of non attendance? Would the crowd be tiny and geeky?

We sat down and then Java phoned me. He didn't know that we'd sat down though, I just added that in for effect. My initial fear that he was calling to cancel was allayed as he said that he'd be there in a couple of minutes. That, in itself was good enough for me. He arrived, followed closely by Dom and Naz and Kaiser Sebastian Posingis. And here I must apologise, for as I regale you with tales of who turned up and the like I'm sure to forget a blogger or two. It's only because I was rather excited to meet so many.

We had Nisadas and a friend. Now I must confess that I'm not a regular over at the Nisadas place, though have read it a bit. But, from an almost casual remark I discovered that his friend was actually Angel with a Pitchfork, the Doctor blogger whom I think many of us read regularly. To use the correct Lankanistic approach I should really say that she's actually the Doctor (Mrs) Blogger we all read regularly.

Then there was T, the Dance in a Triangle T, not the Gypsy T, and the blogger formerly known as Child of 25, along with their bubbling sexual tension. I'd bumped into them the previous week so this wasn't our first meeting but I was pleased they were there.

TMS of course was there, along with Jade and St Fallen. TMS was exactly as I'd expected her to be. We'd emailed, texted and communicated in all ways except that so old fashioned face to face one. This was our first meeting and, I think it's safe to say, TMS was suitably impressed with me.

St Fallen slouched everywhere and was ever so slightly different to the way he portrays himself through his writing. I guess that's what these teenager fellows do these days but conversation with him wasn't what some might call effortless.

The Blacker bros were there too. It was the first time I'd actually met TKRP and I hope not the last. At one point I looked at the fellows and their heads reminded me of a couple of snooker balls. There's just not much in the way of hair going on and I pity the unlucky person who goes around town with the title of "hairstylist to the Blacker Bros".

It was a bit awkward to introduce people to each other when I didn't actually know them, I'm not good with these things, and the big barrier caused by thinking you know a person when you actually don't was sometimes evident. We could have done with some name badges, special ones with the person's real name, their blog name and also a link to their blog would have been handy.

At one point a bloke arrived and told me he was the Jester. I feel so bad to confess but I thought he meant Jerry, the Jester of ASOB. Only later did I discover that he was actually Jack Point, the Court Jester. JP's one of my old and much liked regulars and I wish I'd had more time to listen to him and talk to him. So sorry about that JP, I hope we can meet again. Tall, dark and handsome eh? Well I've heard it said that it's not only you that thinks so, you charmer. You have fans, female ones.

Java's famous and often blogged about friend Mr Zippy was there too. I was disappointed in him to be honest. With a name like that I'd expected a punky and edgy chap, with zips all over him. Turns out he's called Mr Zippy because he owns a Zippo lighter. I've decided that I want to be called Mr Briefcase from now on, maybe Mr Biro, though not because I invented the thing.

Later in the evening Indi ambled in casually in his understated I hardly ever wear shoes way. I was glad about that as no Lankan bloggers' get together would have been anyway near complete without him, even if his sentences are sometimes missing a word or two, kinda.

The new drummer arrived as well. That was great for me, we got to talk about drums, drummers, sticks and pedals. He even asked me for some advice and I had to pretend that I was a proper and good drummer and make stuff up. I think I managed to fool him.

There were some notable absences, people who I would have loved to have met and people who I'm sure would have loved to have been there. DD, you were one of the most popular subjects of conversation and, though not there, your presence was felt.

The Gypsy and Amila Salgado were sorely missed though I was lucky to have met them both before. Cerno was absent but had sent a sick note in beforehand.

All in all I think the evening was a success, though I'm blissfully ignorant of the expectations I had beforehand. It's funny to say so but I met some people who I'd already considered friends and just had a bit of a laugh.

Thanks to all who came, particularly to TMS for the publicity and Dom and Naz for the venue.

Oh, some of us ended up at R+Bs later on. Me and Java played pool.

He thrashed me.

Which probably proves that the bidet spray is the way to go.