"It felt like a breakthrough.
"Ah bonjour!", he said, "Tu vas bien?" It felt like a breakthrough.
In the attritional fight to push classical music into the present, the Saariaho autumn felt like a breakthrough.
Woolf Works, The Royal Ballet Wayne McGregor's evening-length work felt like a breakthrough for the cerebral choreographer, exploring story and emotion in distinctive ways.
It feels like a breakthrough, of sorts, when most women on TV are evaluated for work on the basis of their looks.
Davis (.196) had been showing signs of breaking his slump, building an eight-game hitting streak before the game, and as he galloped around the bases, the grand slam felt like another breakthrough.
It had perhaps felt like a breakthrough had been made on the issue, considering the response when Mamadou Sakho fell writhing in agony and holding his knee towards the end of the first half, with Liverpool already behind.
When Team Sky proudly showed Tour of Italy journalists around the motorhome it had hired for leader Richie Porte as an alternative to the organisers' team hotels, it felt like a breakthrough.
But there was something about the way they performed Sunday, how they dictated the game from the start and weren't content to use their powers in reaction to flirting with trouble, that felt like a breakthrough.
Without wanting to heap too much pressure on England – after all, pressure and the national team do not normally form a favourable mix judging by recent history – this autumn feels like a breakthrough moment in waiting for international rugby league.
