Today was a day for catching up with friends. It started later than planned as a combination of over-sleeping, having to get fuel, getting myself motivated and getting onto the roads all took me to later than expected.

However, as far as friendship goes, the day was excellent. In my morning-voice state, I caught up with a dear friend who rang me and chattered excitedly about stuff, which is always nice. I like to hear about stuff, especially in an excitably chattersome manner.

About an hour later than planned - I'm nothing if not reliable, so I'm nothing - I arrived at the house of my Kent-resident friends and we caught up on what has been a very taxing interval. It has only been a six month interval, though, so at least it wasn't like the catch up I had with someone last weekend, where we hadn't seen each other for thirteen years and so the question "So, what have you been up to?" would have required the answer "Erm... most of my adult life".

I enjoyed today. My friends have a young child, who is at the sort of age where you can really play games and have innocent fun. All that you need is a little imagination and a desire to have fun. That's what I think I enjoy most of all in life in general, so to have someone of my mental age to enjoy it with is a real bonus.

We had lunch, a walk, plenty of chat, a little too much coffee, discussions about boilers and skirting boards, magic tricks, story time, songs and more stories.

That's a good day out in my book.

The homeward journey involved a detour to avoid the closed exit onto the M4, which expanded into a minor detour via the office to pick up my laptop for tomorrow's off-site meeting, which I'd forgotten about.

It all worked out rather nicely.