January 4 - in which I get given a look (a filthy one) and Lorren gives away a book (not a filthy one)

Easy one for me. I'm walking past one of those mechanised kiddie rides - you know the sort of thing, a small car or whatever you can sit in and which, when you insert some change and press a button, moves  reluctantly and almost impercetibly back and forward while emitting a loud hum, and which, when I was 2, I considered the very acme of thrill-based excitement. Two little Spanish toddlers are sitting in this thing, their faces a mixture of anticipation and bafflement. They know they are supposed to be deriving some kicks from this ride but it is just not doing it for them. Nothing is happening. There's no going forward. No going backward. Not even a perfunctory sideways shudder. Quickly perceiving where the problem lies (he's no fool, this boy - ed), I step forward, insert a euro, hit the button, and let the fun commence. The kids stare up at me in wonder. Just who is this magician who can make machines burst into life like this? The kids' dad however gives me a look I can only describe as that you might bestow on a particularly predatory type of paedophile. I leave before he calls the police.
L has been busy too, chatting to the family with the rather attractive young mum and the toddler whose ball I saved from a watery fate the other day. As we're about to leave for the airport, she gives the mum the book we've both been reading this holiday - The Elegance Of The Hedgehog, it's called. Which would be an even more impressive RAK had we both not considered the book a bit tedious.