It’s a police rule of thumb that anything involving members of the public takes twice as long as you think it will. - Ben Aaronovitch

It’s a sad fact of modern life that if you drive long enough, sooner or later you must leave London behind.

There's no glamour in infrastructure," he said as he filled our glasses again. "Steve and wee little William, right? They make stuff everyone uses every day but nobody thinks about the plumbing until it goes wrong.

Now I was used to it, the bell-like silence was louder than ever, and I was starting to get undertones of orange blossom and incense. You have to be careful with this stuff or you begin to sound like a wine taster—with about the same amount of meaningless bollocks.