I was on a bus this afternoon, just outside Finsbury Park Station (Finsbury Park being a mixed neighbourhood, where the shops look as if they have been blown across from continent to continent). An old man was sitting on a bench at a bus stop. He may have come from the set of Fiddler on the Roof. He was about 70; wore shaggy tefillin and Hassidic long black coat and black hat; his beard and mustache were long, straggling and white(ish); he was snuffling snuff and accosting (or trying to converse with) two young girls, who looked as if they were trying to find an excuse to get away. One such arrived - a bus that might, or might not have been one they wanted to take, but they took it anyway. Their place was taken by another old man: an old Muslim in the sort of cap I've seen on lots of old men in Uzbekistan. These two old men looked at one another, then with great and quiet dignity turned their shoulders away. Then my bus moved off and I have no idea what happened next.