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Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 03:56 pm
So the reason I scheduled London into my trip was to watch a WSL football game, since there happened to be an Arsenal v Chelsea game on that weekend, and there are a total of four Aussies playing in those two teams.

Then [personal profile] rmc28 and I arranged to meet up and she's an Arsenal fan and so...

We had breakfast at a restaurant called Dishoom that had been recommended to [personal profile] rmc28 by a friend.

From the outside, it looked fairly small in terms of floorspace, but once getting inside the restaurant, we realised there was a mezzanine and a basement - it was most definitely 'bigger on the inside! And the food! The style is more or less "English traditional with a subcontinental flavour", and everything sounded delicious! In the end, we split a "traditional fry-up" that had some different yet delicious flavours to it, and the chai tea was 'bottomless'. It was understandably popular. When we arrived it was just filling up, but by the time we left an hour later it was full and there was a queue!

Mostly UK London day


From there, we caught the tube to a nearby station (not the closest one), waited for R's friends to arrive so they could all meet up and be handed Arsenal shirts as appropriate attire, and walked to the stadium.

The walk itself was interesting: it's a pretty common route for football goers, and it seems some locals along the way have set up shop for themselves. A few food trucks, some stalls selling gear, and some houses that had painted their trim something other than the standard all-white!

There was the game - good, but none of my Aussies really got to stand out (sadface) - even Sam Kerr couldn't get it in the net that day. Arsenal won firmly and ferociously, but I was there for the Aussies of both teams as my gear will attest:

Mostly UK R and T!


I did get a few looks from people at my beanie, a couple of grins. I spotted another Tillies supporter at the end, but I don't think she saw me. I know there were at least a couple of other Tillies supporters in the 75K-ish crowd (a new record), but none of us had arranged to meet so the chances of bumping into them were fairly marginal, all things considered.

After the game, rather than crowd onto public transport, we decided to head off to a nearish cafe with a recommended hot chocolate, and spent the afternoon sitting and chatting until the light faded and we had to head home.

It was a great day, lovely to meet another internet friend in person after...however many years. (We never did manage to work out just how long we've known each other, did we, [personal profile] rmc28?)

We did take a photo, I'm not posting it because I didn't ask permission from R to post her pic on my public entry. But it's a very happy photo, even in some sliiiightly inclement weather!
edit: Photo's up!

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And then Monday was the day of wandering London.

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I am currently home. Really really zonked and a little bit blurry.
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 07:13 am (UTC)
Sounds like you had a great time. Nice to be home though.

"HUGS"
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 05:12 pm (UTC)
Yaaaaaas. So rad to get to catch a match and sport your gear. A bummer no Aussies had a breakout play, but it sounds like the environment was top tier.
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 05:55 pm (UTC)

Happy for you to post the pic!

I was thinking it must be at least a decade, because I think I found my way to you via your Avengers fic. And then I had the bright idea of searching my email for DW notifications, and the earliest is May 2013. So I wasn't too far off ...

I mentioned the Dishoom bottomless house chai to a colleague, who insists that his chai is better, and today he beckoned me over to try some. It was indeed delicious and mostly I'm now inspired to see how I can improve my home-made chai latte game ...

Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 10:10 pm (UTC)
That sounds like a lovely day indeed.