A certain irony...

"Bedraggled, the guys looked on me with mild bemusement and compassion as the puddles gathered in and around by trainers where I stood."

I'm beginning to enjoy getting around London on my bike.

It usually feels great to get to Faith House having had the adventure of cycling from South London. I couldn't help but see the irony last week as I turned up dripping wet from the 6 mile cycle in torrential rain. Bedraggled, the guys looked on me with mild bemusement and compassion as the puddles gathered in and around by trainers where I stood. A couple of new guys looked with kindness and with a 'it's OK here' look as they began to make room for me to sit with them! I enjoyed that embrace.

It comes to something when you have to ask if there are any spare trousers at a homeless drop in!!

I had dried off by the time I shared a thought at the end of the evening. Derek was well stocked up on 'lucazade' and had his say. Pointing drunkenly in turn at each one of us he declared - 'you're my friend, you're my friend, you're my friend, you're my friend...' until he had completed the circle.

There was something special about that embrace made all the more poignant in that Derek wasn't at FH last night. He has started a 12 month stretch in HMP Wandsworth for a string of no doubt drunken related incidents.

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