The weather was sunny yesterday. An uncommonly summery day for Belfast this July. I had a long over due car wash. The foam squirting from both sides cocooned me in a candyfloss pink, blue and yellow world. The hot wax ran quickly in serpentine charades down my windscreen. A coating of illusory protection. My car shone in the sunlight and my wing mirrors showed a very clear rear world.

I was in Dublin at the weekend. I stayed with a friend Treena and had my first experience of going to see people playing Cricket. Merv was 'playing' so we sat with him having a beer and chatting. We left when his team went out to field. Nice afternoon but I wasn't converted to what seems a long, slow game. Did I say the word 'boring'?

I sat in a small cafe early on Sunday afternoon. It was a very small cafe and I got a seat at a small two seat round metal table by the window with my back to the door. The cafe was painted aqua blue. The trimmings were modern and silver. A large silver framed mirror hung on the wall above the wall length bar table, and reflected the vase of white lilies, only one of which had opened yet. Outside there was a small square table with nine sachets of white sugar on it lying against each other. One of them had been neatly opened with a diagonal tear across the corner. The waiter cleared them and the coffee mug rings away when three middle aged men came and sat down outside in the sun to have coffee and brunch. Three blond girls in red t-shirts sat at the far wall by the mirror and had a coffee before heading out to drive past in their t-shirts red beetle promoting a local radion station. I sat and wrote in my beautiful journal from Trevor and Jenna (made by a very talented Andy Harding) and then read some of my book 'The Art of Travel', also from Trevor and Jenna.

I went and saw my Granny. She was at home for the afternoon, Ruth had brought her out of hospital. We celebrated her birthday. Presents, cake, banner and balloons. She was alert and in good form. Old age can be a very undignified process though. She has become completely dependant. At least she can eat herself at the moment. It made me think a little about what it will be like to be old.

Last night I had to collect a boiler and teapot that we had borrowed for camp. I ended up sitting outside Clements on Botanic Avenue with Jonny Cunningham drinking a smoothie and chatting. Carl came by on his bike to have a quiet read of his book. It was never opened but we had a great evening.

Random Acts of Kindness. Experiment One. Conducted 11.30pm 18th July 2002. Completed successfully from our side. We handed out the random encouragements. Whether the people we 'made contact' with passed them on we have no way of knowing. but... We had fun. We were creative. We acted in the moment. We lived, and hopefully let live, a little. Success.