"Ibrahim is practising yoga in his girlfriend's studio." "In one of her paintings there is a sentence which reads:" "Sex is a wonderful and natural thing." "As Ibrahim looks to his right, he sees the word SEX." "As Ibrahim looks to his left, he sees the word THING." "In his mind, Ibrahim puts the two together." "SEX" " THING." "Lyndsay Aldridge has just bought a packet of string beans." "He's on his way home." "Decodes to his fervid imagination that the beans will explode in 20 seconds unless they can be rushed into the nitroglicerine immune area inside his mother's kitchen." "Will he make it?" "These beans react explosively under street conditions." "Mrs. Gwen Gilbert, hearing this sound, at first thinks it's a Japanese woodblock being played in Mrs. Bakacek's backyard next door." "This seems very unlikely." "It's probably just a woodpecker, she tells herself." "Mrs. Gilbert can't understand how Mrs. Bakacek could make that noise by beating the clothes line with a stick." "She reminds herself that we don't have woodpeckers in Australia." "Shaun and Arnold aren't speaking." "Arnold's mad because Shaun's been playing around." "Shaun just can't seem to care." "He's wondering why he can't keep two things in focus at the same time." "Arnold's not going to warn him again." "Shaun knows that one of these times it'll be all over." "But all he can think of now is day diagrams from school containing focal lengths, umbras and penumbras." "Tony Formiati injured his shoulder muscles in a friendly game of soccer last season." "This is Jim Simpson, Tony's neighbour, though they have never spoken." "Tony thinks Jim is waving hello and, not wanting to leave unfinished something he unwittingly started, he waves back and smiles." "Tony now realizes some mistake has been made." "Jim Newbury is washing his smalls." "As he does so, he hums to himself a pop song from the early seventies:" ""Cheer up, sleepy Jean"," ""Cheer, sleepy." "Oh, what can..."" "Now, really ten years later," "Jim is wondering what this song could possibly mean." "For years he's been singing to himself "Clear up sleepy jeans" as in denims." "Could the singer be asking this miss to clear up jeans?" "But no, no one would write a song about this, would they?" "Angela thought she heard the phone ring." "She's waiting for an important telephone call." "She has just unwrapped a selection of sweet meats from the local delicatessen." "Seeing this curled slice of ham which she's about to devour," "Angela is suddenly reminded of her uncle's pet pig Rufus with whom she'd became acquainted at his farm many years earlier." "It occurs to Angela that this is the kind of feeling that turns people vegetarian." "On Sundays Ed Turnbury irons six shirts, five for work and one for Saturday night." "He is off to get himself a fresh meal." " The Wranglers!" " Hurrah!" "Ed played front row at school, he wanted to be captain." "What about that incredible pass he fed Tony McGrave?" "God, when was that?" "God, that was a good pass!" "Yeah." "He's gonna give up the grog and get back into training." "Gavin Metchalfe, bachelor, has been trying to put his life together for three or four years." "At the moment, he is listening to the beat of his own ear drum." "As this fades from his attention, he notices particles of lint drifting through the air in front of his eyes." "He watches the lint for a moment," "remembering his mother used to tell him they were angels." "Julie Fry has spent the day sick in bed." "She's bored with trying to play monopoly on her own." "Now she discovers how perfectly monopoly money fits onto the back of the Scotties box." "She wonders how many other paper products would fit onto the back of the Scotties box." "The pages in her exercise book." "No." "But folded in half, yes, they probably would." "Most paper, in fact, folded in halves, quarters or thirds, would fit on the back of a Scotties box." "She pictures a large conference room where men in suits discuss the proportions of paper so that all things will fit provided they are folded correctly." "We leave Julie now as her moment passes." "There are one million moments in your neighbourhood." "But as the film makers discover, each has a fragile presence which fades almost as it forms."