The wall

On the opposite side of the road that lies below my office window there is a wall, grey stone,and about three feet high.

Small children run towards it screaming with joy and demand that their grandfathers lift them up so they can walk along it.

Students just arrived at the University, freed of parental inhibition stagger along beside the wall, lean on it, and then slowly fall backwards and disappear behind it.

Groups of young people hang out at the wall, chatting, flirting, mock-fighting and generally eyeing each other up and down.

Students about to leave the University and head off to adult life, perch on the wall in academic gowns with bottles of postgraduation champagne.

Young lovers snuggle up on the wall together, gaze into each other's eyes and steer a fine line between passion and public indecency.

Lunchtime office workers sit on the wall and eat their sandwiches or smoke that forbidden cigarette, staring into space and - presumably - mulling over their lives.

Proud parents pushing prams pause at the wall, take a moment to lean in and gaze at their new offspring, smile at each other and then walk on.

And... yes... small children run towards it screaming with joy and demand that their grandfathers lift them up so they can walk along it...

I sit and watch from my window and love what I see.

Much better than television.