A collection of short stories... some set in the San Francisco Bay Area with its beaches and ferries and views, some set in the north of England during 2001, when the country was battling with foot-and-mouth disease. There are stories too about music and its effects, and the effects on us of people we know only briefly or people we think we know very well.... mood provoking sketches and glimpses of people’s lives, some fairly light, some with echoes of the more serious moments we have all known.