The big question of  the day seemed to be if it was better to be living but dead, or dead but somehow alive.

*

Stepping into some kind of nightmare circle. "It's the typical scene in American novels - the two guys talking in the changing room in the gym" says one deaf old bloke to another in the changing room at the gym.

In the pool itself the guy ahead of you in the lanes stops for a moment to chat to the lifeguard. "Hows it going?" the latter asks. "Not bad" the swimmer replies, "still getting used to life without Heidi and Claire". "That's been a while now hasn't it?" says the lifeguard. "Yeah" says the guy, in a way that quietly implies it really hasn't been that long, or at least not long enough.