So, S invites me to take up a spare ticket for Brighton's home match.
I don't support any team of any sport. I have a dabbling kind of interest in major competitions under certain circumstances. Nevertheless, I started watching live football around the age of five.
After a whistle-stop tour of the town (I'd never been there before) and lunch at a good pub we head off to the ground.
The last time I'd actually been to a match was when Bristol City was in league division one (in today's money, that's the Premiership) and Brighton's current home ground is far state-of-the-art (that comes next season) but on walking through the ground to take up our seats, I got a powerful sense that despite a different team at a different ground, football matches are somehow a universal constant.
S had been a little concerned that I was attending out of politeness - he needn't have worried. I had a whale of a time.
The football wasn't the best in the world but there were moments of sheer elegance. There was plenty of action and three actual goals and about four nearly ones.
According to the home crowd, the referee was of questionable parentage and visually impaired at that. It was also asserted that he got his ya-yas at his own hand. I can't really comment on the veracity of any of these statements - but he did seem to make a few school girl errors. Then again, I had a better vantage point than him so maybe I should cut him some slack.
I'd been warned that the regulars in the seats behind would be vocal in their opinions throughout the match - and this was certainly the case. If only all these people's opinion on the best way to arrange the team, or to press home the advantage were taken - surely the resulting squad would be near-perfect proponents of the craft. No?
You can argue that it's a fairly low, tribalistic form of entertainment but I have to say that the enthusiasm of fans for their chosen team is quite infectious.
Best of all is to hear about five thousand people crying "Oooooh!" in unison, with no conductor or instruction but as a visceral reflex at a chance made but not converted.
I'm not about to start watching regularly again but it was brilliant to be reminded of what being at a live game is about.
It was also a lovely reminder that there are things in your life that are largely unchanged by time and that despite changes in rules, and in styles and in the length of shorts, the spectators of a football are one of those things.
Thanks S, thanks MP and thanks Seagulls - it was fun
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