“Aluminium Foil” - “Patience”
Macdonald writes, "I felt odd: overtired, overwrought, unpleasantly like my brain had been removed and my skull stuffed with something like microwaved aluminium foil, dinted, charred and shorting with sparks.” The metaphoric aluminum foil underscores the oddness which triggers the narrator’s unanticipated journey. The narrator’s brain is not functioning as it should because it feels like a charred aluminum foil.
“Partner in Crime” - “Lost”
Macdonald writes, "And partly because a decade before, Dad had invented a gloriously eccentric weekend side-project. He’d decided to photograph every single bridge over the Thames. I went with him, sometimes, on Saturday mornings, driving up into the Cotswolds. My dad had been my dad, but also my friend, and a partner in crime when it came to quests like this.” The metaphoric “partner in crime” surmises the close bond between the narrator and the father which governed their engagements. They participated in activities together as criminals would. Hence the narrator and the father had an extremely close relationship.
