Where in the world has David been yesterday? Luton, Kensworth and Abbot's Langley

A bit late blogging - sorry! Fell asleep exhausted after uploading the pictures to my netbook and didn't reawaken to do the blog itself. Is it critical? I hope not. In case you're worried though it was good exhaustion, not bad exhaustion. Yesterday threatened to be wet, but I managed to stay ahead of it till the last few miles. Even so, it was a pleasant day of riding and I was much refreshed after my stay in Bedford. My 'sit bones' are less sensitive (and the flesh on the sit bones) and my muscles were back to full strength. I find myself wondering how Jenny, Peter, Chris, David, Fred, Phil and Julie - the CMS riders - are doing having not been able to have a day off. Cleaning the bike paid off, but there was a very strange squeak once it got wet which I would love to get rid of - it only happens when I'm freewheeling, strangely. Maybe it will just disappear?

Anyway, I got away from Bedford at around 8.15am as David left to take services and made my way steadily to Luton - a nice ride through the Bedfordshire countryside - mostly flat, and I was much fresher for the hills there were. I was at St Hugh's Lewsey, where I began my curacy in 1999, by just after 10.00am so there was plenty of time to sit and drink coffee with old friends (Kathy and Olwen, Peter and Ann Warburton and others) while waiting for the first service to finish, and then to chat with others before the next service began. It was just as I remembered, but ten years on! The decorations in the church have changed (see the photostream) as they always do from season to season, but it is the same crazy wonderful place and Peter Law and Cathy Pullinger continue to lead with the same quiet wisdom and grace.

It was great to talk to some of the former members of the youth group from my time there. Paul Foster is now employed by the church as a youth worker himself, and marvellously fulfilling the potential we always knew he had - Malcolm and Margaret must be proud of him. And Tasha Lovesey's baby, Olivia Grace, was being baptised - a lovely, chaotic Lewsey occasion. One or two key faces are no longer there, and there was news of others who are not long for this world, which was poignant, but there are plenty of new faces too - the place felt full of life and hope. Typically of St Hugh's there was an 'incident' which involved the police being called, so I didn't get away till about 2.30pm in the end having sat around with Peter, Cathy, Dave (new curate) and Olwen (churchwarden) reflecting on what had happened! Plus ca change!

From Lewsey I set off across Dunstable and climbed up onto the downs at Kensworth. I thought I had worked out that it would involve less up and down, but I think I was almost certainly wrong. However, it was beautiful up on the downs, as it always is - particularly the tunnels of trees and the woods full of bluebells up near Studham Common. As I toiled up to the crossroads at Kensworth (these aren't roads I ever knew particularly well), I looked across and suddenly realised that I had come up by the Vicarage. The vicar of Kensworth, Whipsnade and Studham is Nicola Lenthall - she and I did our post-ordination training together and were part of a cell group together in our early years of ordained ministry.

On the spur of the moment I rang the doorbell, and there they were: Nicola, Adrian, Christopher and Susanna - and not in a rush to go out. I spent the next couple of hours having a free-flowing conversation with Nicola and Adrian on life, death, ministry, music and much more beyond. I particularly enjoyed seeing the 19th century Clementi square piano that Adrian is just finishing restoring, and the lovely old Erard grand piano - acquired for a very modest sum at auction. (Most of us who play the piano will know Muzio Clementi as the author of studies that often found their way into exam syllabi - he was also a piano manufacturer.) I'm cursing myself for not taking a picture of the square piano! Being 'up north' is great, but it is a pity not to see old friends more often.

That took up most of the afternoon, in fact, and conveniently meant that I left after the rain had stopped. Aha, I thought, that means I don't need to wear waterproofs. That was correct, of course, but I should have put on the waterproof overshoes! I am travelling light, so my one pair of footwear is a pair of cycling sandals - those aren't very waterproof, so I quickly got wet (but not cold) feet. In the end, after a nice run downhill and a pleasant run along the Gade valley into Hemel Hempstead, it started to rain again (only moderately) and so I pushed the speed to get out to Abbot's Langley, skirting round the growing puddles in case they hid potholes, and arrived at Martin and Christina's in nice time. I'll be back in Hemel Hempstead tomorrow, but I wasn't in the business of being nostalgic yesterday - I was in the business of dodging the drops.

Martin Cooke was one of my very first friends at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and though there have been long periods where we haven't seen each other much, the bond is strong and occasional nights with Martin, his partner Christina Thomas and their son Owain are always fun. They usually involve ample food, the conversation is always hilarious but serious at the same time, with no topic off limits, and the atmosphere totally relaxed. On this occasion, Christina's mother, Freda, is here too, recuperating from surgery. She joins in the fun too and has her own fund of stories and memories. Martin cooked up three different kinds of stir-fry (the kind where you look in the fridge and see what needs eating up) in quantities fit to sink a battleship, so I know what they will be eating tonight. I certainly felt refuelled ready for another day and sad not to be staying another 24 hours. Sadly Martin had to be off early this morning, and will be leaving at 4am for Holland tomorrow, and Christina and Owain had to leave by 8.30am too, so now I am here alone with Freda, fuelled up after a marmite and fish finger toast sandwich and just finishing up the blog before packing.

Today I head into Hemel Hempstead - or, more precisely, Leverstock Green - to see Simon Cutmore. Simon was the third member of my little cell group with Nicola, and is now Team Vicar of Leverstock Green. He has  been on sabbatical this spring, travelling to New Zealand and Sweden, and it will be good to compare notes. I may try to see other friends locally later in the day, or I may head straight to Denham to David and Eli Prais. More about them tomorrow. I can report, however, that the sky is blue, the sun is shining and God is in his heaven unconcealed by rain clouds.