It never failed to do so. As the date of their annual excursion neared, Russell felt an actual ache in his stomach, the anticipation developing like some growth within him. He knew that it was a measure of how, by contrast, the rest of his life was dull, mundane, a great disappointment. Indeed, he was a great disappointment to himself. Despite his early aspirations and ambitions, he had achieved nothing special in his life. Gradually, he had morphed into one of those dull sods he had sneered at in his youth. Without Laurence’s influence, inspiring him to dare, to reach, to grasp the challenging and the unknown, he had made the obvious choices. Out of laziness and a lack of passion for anything else, he had simply taken the easy options. He had not even moved away from his university base. He was still in Durham and for all he knew would remain there until the end. He was trapped in his own web of incompetence. He had allowed himself to fall onto the predictable middle class conveyor belt that chugged its way through all the conventionalities he despised so much.On leaving university, he had settled for teacher training because it required no thinking or effort.
