Q. How do the Red Arrows hang out their washing?

A. Online Information.

A long long time ago, M made that clue up for a cryptic crossword we put together for the December issue of Information World Review (the "official media partner of Online Information"). Nobody ever sent that crossword in. But then it was actually technically impossible, as we got the grid wrong. I never owned up to that.

And today I re-entered my past life, if only for three days, as I decided it was time I again passed through the Satanic Portals (as another ex-IWR writer put it) that lead to the Online Information conference. If you don't know, Online (as it is commonly known) is information management mecca. Gathered there every year are librarians from over 40 countries. You would not *believe* some of the knitwear.

I suffered two profound shocks to the system. One: getting up at 6 am. I don't care what anyone says, it's not natural. And two: being in Olympia without a giant hangover. I really don't think that's ever happened to me before. (More about why not from Justin Ruffles - you need to scroll to 07 December - for some reason I can't link to the exact post).

I learnt about ontologies and asked Jakob Nielsen a question. I then did a bit of networking and came home. I am So Grown Up.

joella