The book “Flower o' the Heather” written by Robert William MacKenna revolves around the moments of killing time. An excerpt from the first chapter goes thus “It is a far cry from the grey walls of Balliol College to the sands at Dumfries, and many ways may lead a man from one to the other. So thought I, Walter de Brydde of the City of Warwick, when on an April morning in the year of grace 1685 I stood upon Devorgilla's bridge and watched the silver Nith glide under the red arches. I was there in obedience to a whim; and the whim, with all that went before it--let me set it down that men may judge me for what I was--was the child of a drunken frolic. It befell in this wise.”