Much of the power of this travelling time depends on the nature of the journey – inevitably it will be more relaxing if you are on your way to a holiday than if you’re travelling for work. But that doesn’t mean it can’t exist on a work trip. This suspended time is one of the few spaces where you are made to shrug off the responsibilities of adult life and let go of the otherwise constant anxieties of getting through the day. You have no power over how fast you go, what time you arrive or whether you have enough signal to reply to that email. Instead you are forced to accept that time as it is: a period to listen, or watch, or read, or just think, watching the world go by (and, if you’re me, pretend you’re in a late '00s music video).