1. During my morning flick through Facebook I spot news of a parade, starting in an hour at the end of our road.
2. Five boys from the top end of the primary school race from the swings to the see-saw. One of them spots a girl walking past. She is wearing the short dress that is the uniform of one of the town's grammar schools and is head-and-shoulders taller than him. 'Heather! Heather! Do you want some Toxic Waste?' (Toxic Waste is a sweet sold in small plastic cannisters).
'No thanks,' she says coolly.
He grins at his friends, perhaps to remind them that faint heart never won fair maiden, and then jumps on the see-saw.
3. The way Alec leans round to look at Bettany's face while she is feeding. 'I want to see her eyes,' he explains.
