Gathered together in Porto at their annual conference to discuss the nature of being, a clutch of Finnish philosophers welcomed me into their company. They gave me protection from the bullies whose insults referred to my stupidity of flying home, and then back to Porto, in the middle of my pilgrimage by bike along the Camino Português por la costa.

While listening to the Finns’ discussions, I was frantically trying to pinpoint the location of TPR and the rest of the party (now in Spain), and work out a way of reaching them to rejoin the ride. It did not help that I struggled to contact TPR by phone, and that every conversation we managed cut short at a critical moment.