It was July 2011. As was the case on the days of our 10th and 20th anniversary parties, the 1986 French graduates from the University of Birmingham were enjoying a reunion lunch in the blazing Brummie sunshine. This time we sat at long picnic tables outside, just down the hill from the University railway station. I hadn’t been too keen to organise the whole event (again) due to my hideous workload, but this time I had lots of help from the others, especially GG and his wife J (was JS). When my Griffin flat-mate HW (now HJ) joined us at the table I was shocked to notice that she was pregnant for the fourth time, and would be 47 at the time of the birth. We all guessed correctly that this was a last chance attempt to deliver a boy. Others sitting beside me were CP (now CA), who had been in hall with me at the Manor House, and SC (now SL), with whom I’d spent my year in Nantes and shared a Griffin flat in final year.

Suddenly the entire table emptied. “They must be organising a thank you present for you” said TPR. He was right. They’d just popped up the road to John Lewis (in Edinburgh) so that GG could present me with two bikini tops (he was unsure of my size) and one bottom. This wasn’t as bizarre as it seemed: our afternoon activity following lunch was for us all to go swimming in the University pool. It was a shame that the boy in the gym who looked like QL from behind turned out to be the Irish stand-up comedian Sean Hughes.

Later video footage of the day showed me serving elaborate ice-creams topped with brambles to students. I had no recollection of this at all.