A sensation he compared to feeling the earth moulding herself under me ... coming alive ... and heaving and tossing on each side like a sea.

You've never really been sure of this, but I can assure you that this quirk you're so self conscious of is intensely endearing.

And by this weird quirk of alphabetical order of the nations, a lot of the low lying states, like Kiribati and Nauru, they were seated at the very end of these immensely long rows.