A conversation at pedestrian lights on a street in Dublin

The pedestrain lights were red against traffic. I was stopped on my bicycle. A man was crossing and then stared at me as if to say don't you dare go through that red light.

We locked eyes. He kept staring me.

"You think I am going to go through the red light," I asked.

He replied: "Nobody keeps these lights and I was watching you."

"I'm cycling 59 years and really find it impossible to keep traffic lights," I answered with a half-hearted smile.

He now began to smile too.

I went on to say I was addicted to running lights but added that if I could give up alcohol then I could keep the lights and I told him I was off alcohol four to five years.

"I have not had a drink in 35 years and I'm 75 now," he smiled.

A cyclist and a pedestrian in conversation at a pedestrian crossing in Dublin's Camden Street yesterday.