Chum Ken had his FeelingFortyFest on Friday, so I peddled over to join the fun on my new bike. Which is fantastic, by the way. Although, at 500 quid, it's comparatively low-end, it is the whizziest bike I've ever had. It's made of aluminium with carbon fibre forks! I mean blimey! At it goes like the clappers. When you ride it, it's almost like it wants to go, especially when you stand up on it. Anyway, I zoomed over to join in the drinking, chilli-eating, bollock-talking fun. And jolly good fun it was.

Ken introduced me to The Baron. We hadn't previously met, but in today's modern world that doesn't necessarily mean we're complete strangers. As we did the orienting recollection and confirmation thing, he said So you know Pete Ashton? Yes, I replied, I knew Pete before he was on the internet. Perhaps I'll have that made into a t-shirt.

Another of Ken's friends, whose name embarrassingly (although not surprising, I'm afraid, because I'm good with faces but terrible at names) escapes me asked how Ken and I knew each other. A few years ago, I sold Ken some comics, seemed like a full and complete explanation to me. And you kept in touch? he persisted in mild disbelief. Yes said Ken. Yes I said, It was a lot of comics. It was like, I'll take your money, but I feel your pain. I'm still not sure he quite understood.

I'm indebted to Ken for his choice of music. I was particularly taken by Hawkwind's Brainstorm and some early Peter Gabriel and Genesis tracks I hadn't heard before. Always interesting to have a good rootle through somebody's bookshelves, and so it was also fun to poke through Ken's comic stack. It's not enormous but it is rather lovely, tending toward the cosmic. Plenty of Jim Starlin's Dreadstar, Kirby's Eternals and 2001 adaptions. If that means nothing (and let's face it, it probably will) don't worry. Just accept that comics are particularly suited to bonkers cosmic SF and that Kirby and Starlin are the two most bonkers, most cosmic SF writer-artists there are. Kubrick's film of 2001 is only a toe-in-the-water compared to some of the madness Kirby came up with.

I rode off home into the brightening morning, pausing briefly to slide off my bike at a roundabout (more the cause of wet road than an excess of beer), and was slightly alarmed (since I had to get up at 7) to find myself getting into the bed on the stroke of 4 o'clock.

Looking forward to next year's already. Thanks chap.