Help, banks and beating the rain.

1. When I thank him for helping us on to the bus with the pushchair he smiles and says "I remember just what it was like." And at the end of our journey there is a lady who knows just what to do with an Alec who won't walk down the steps while I carry the (now folded) pushchair. She takes his hand and guides him kindly off the bus.

2. We climb the motte at Tonbridge Castle. The banks between the serpentine paths are a tumble of spring hedge flowers, violets and primroses and the odd periwinkle.

3. To get home just as the rain starts to fall in single-minded columns for the rest of the day.