It is no longer possible

So, if you had expected this one to start with a great soaring leap out of the mundane into a world of such excitement, risk, insight and emotional intensity as you have barely imagined possible ... then? That is for you to say.

This one is more like a fully ladened 747 crawling down the runway ever so gradually gaining speed. Trying to claw itself into the air like one of those pelicans you see in wildlife films. The pelican is swimming in a great lake. Suddenly it starts paddling purposefully in a straight line. Now it starts to flap its wings. It builds up speed. Its body rises in the water. At some unbearably tenuous, heart thumping moment you see that it is not paddling any more but running on the surface of the lake. Wings still flapping wildly. With some sort of exponential obsession, the steps on the water grow further and further apart.

At any moment!

At any moment some sanitised voice is liable to crackle into your brain just as you peer out of the tiny window 4 seats away wondering if you have left the runway or are still on it.

'We are sorry to inform you that we are unable to take off at this time due to an exaggerated payload. We shall either wait until the runway extension is finished or ask several passengers to wait for the next flight.'

The Pelican sinks slowly down into the surface of the lake dejected and exhausted. Millions of people all around the world sink dejected back down into the surface of their arm chairs, easy chairs, sofas and deep pile carpets.

Has the pelican got too much fish in its beak? How does a pelican decide which fish to discard? Can a pelican discard just one fish from a beakfull? Its beak can hold more than its belly. That's for sure.

What actually happened when the pelican cut short its attempt to fly off the lake?

Perhaps the 747 make it off the ground after all. Just because the pelican gave up doesn't mean the pilot did too. By this time the 747 might be several miles up, climbing out over the Bristol Channel with Cornwall on your left, Wales on your right, and Eire on the horizon across the Irish Sea. The pelican and the 747 was a nice analogy while it lasted but it is too obvious, not very subtle and perhaps wouldn't hold up on a long and difficult journey.

Fish passengers billet
delay the runway
finish this example
there is a flight
once it happened.