Five of us climbed into the CoWheels car I'd booked to take us all to my brother's and realised that it's tiny and holds only four people. Oops. I could so easily have booked a bigger one if my brain had been engaged. So son caught a bus and once I'd delivered the others to my brother's I drove out to the bus stop in a village four miles away to wait for him to arrive. And, as it turned out, to ponder the reflection of the village Christmas tree in the burst water main.

Symbols.