Back then, any time he spent on one project he stole from another. That was the cause of what he calls his one flagrant mispromise.

John looked at a woman standing further down the carriage in bridal headdress surrounded by her hen party acolytes. ‘She's got the wrong aisle. At least she chose Virgin Trains. All train guards can marry folk you know. But the vows are only valid for the duration of the journey. You can always get off at Haymarket, know what I mean?’ The women shrieked as the inflatable male doll her friends had stowed in the overhead luggage rack idly dangled a leg.

[…] I could no more travel the same Path, again and again, than I could have Patience to mount a managed Horse, in the Riding-House, and curvet it in the same Spot, for three Hours together.

The start is critical to the race's outcome. Racers run on their skates, lurching toward the first turn with a furious duck walk.