I had the loveliest time this afternoon ...

I went visiting and spent a couple of hours drinking a little of the Spanish version of Beaujolais Nouveau, snacking on herring, olives and yummy cheese while looking through photographs and talking.

Lut had invited me over and had a delicious pile of photographs from her recent visit to Turkey ... not only that, she has a gorgeous old dog who was happy with the attention I paid him. I miss dogs here in Belgie ... Gert isn't convinced by my need for one.

Her photographs captured a Turkey I recognised and I sighed over breakfasts and dinners but there was more ... boats on a stunningly blue Mediterranean, pink graves cut into a hillside and stone stairways that had led ancient people up hidden pathways on a now abandoned island.

It was dark by the time Lut's husband lifted my bike down the steps of their house ... hmmmm, we noted my bike doesn't have a dynamo for the lights and Gert wasn't answering his phone and then there was the fact I wasn't biking home through the park in the dark which meant ... hmmm.

I walked on. My conditioning is a lifetime of riding on the left side of the road ... I figured this wasn't the best plan when biking without lights and a little uncertain of the way home. I walked a while, made a plan and the phone rang.

I talked Gert through my route home and being a patient man, he pretended he needed talked through my route home ... he corrected me and there I was, back on a cycle path and relatively safe. He updated me with the news that my bike has never had a dynamo ... my battery-powered bike lights were at home in the basket in the washhouse, but of course.

I came home with a bag full of goodies. There's the delicious jar of Turkish honey and nuts, and the Irish cds which are playing as I type this.

Dank u wel Lut, I had the loveliest time.