Adams wisely goes off the record

As he browsed through books at the second-hand stall in St George's Market, Belfast, on a walkabout yesterday, Gerry Adams casually picked up Beryl Matthews' A Time of Peace(2004), with its cover-line "the best of times can also be the worst". Other titles by her include One Step at a Time(2005).

He looked hesitant, then put it back. Chick-lit must not be his style. He moved on to more robust stuff, flicking through a collection of vinyl LPs before plucking out Ghost in the Machineby the Police. He dropped it, fast. The photographers following him, who had nearly passed out in ecstasy, were as suddenly grief-stricken. They had missed the picture.

It being Friday, he bought fish - smoked and fresh cod - as the man behind the counter said it felt like being at the Oscars with the number of cameras flashing.

And then an impromptu press conference at which he pointed out that his party was fighting two elections, "including an undeclared one in the South", and he spoke of "the two huge issues" on the island as a whole - suicide and road deaths - which were killing more people than died at the height of the Troubles. And he was gone.

Over at City Hall it looked as if a group of devout Free Presbyterians were about to hijack an Alliance party gathering there, with loud hymns in praise of the Lord. They were using a PA system which would not have been out of place at a concert in Croke Park. The Alliance candidates could not be heard.

"I heard a small voice say, make me your choice", the Free Presbyterians sang, confusing everyone. Was it a prayer service or an election rally? No one present could imagine a Free Presbyterian with a "small voice", so the consensus was that it must be a prayer service. A traffic warden sorted things by threatening the Free Presbyterians with a parking ticket if they didn't move the car on which their public-address system rested. They moved on.

Former Liberal Democrat party leader Charles Kennedy explained he had come along to help his friends in the Alliance Party with their campaign.

There to meet him were Alliance leader David Ford and the party's South Belfast candidate Anna Lo, who has been receiving a "fantastic reception" on the doorsteps and not just from other Chinese people and members of ethnic communities.

It rained and rained as they began a walkabout in nearby streets. Soon a bare-headed Charles Kennedy began to turn blue, which matched the Alliance yellow rosette he wore.

"Hello Scotsman," said a cheery woman. "You from Glasgow?" he asked, recognising the accent. She was. "You brought the Scottish weather with you," she said. And then he was gone to Carrickfergus, leaving the weather behind.