In the hospital to get my various vaccinations for Southern Sudan, I spotted a familiar couple in the waiting room – one of the International Crisis Group’s board members and his wife, like me getting jabs for a forthcoming Africa trip. This would be Mark Eyskens and his wife Anne, he being a short, jovial viscount and former prime minister of Belgium (his father Gaston was prime minister off and on between 1949 and 1973, Mark followed for a few months in 1981 in which his major achievement was lowering the voting age from 21 to 18). He posts his somewhat surreal paintings of Leuven town hall, and other ramblings and deep thoughts, on his website, rather as the current prime minister posts haiku on his. We had a nice chat about Africa, and will see each other again later this evening at a reception. It can be a small world sometimes.