It had been quite a while since I’d seen school friend ST so I was delighted when we were reunited in the car park. I dared myself to invite him to join me for lunch and was astonished and grateful when he agreed. I also wondered whether the time had come when I should finally confess how often he visited me in my dreams? After all, I could never be certain when I would next see him. Once again I chickened out and instead gave him a guided tour of my red Fiat Stilo.

Another day I was back in the US in another huge chain hotel where TPR was attending a conference. Strangely we had separate rooms and could only communicate by the hotel phone system. However, the great advantage of this arrangement was that I found peace to work. I looked down on the other wives and partners who, I noticed with horror, were so irresponsible that they started their day of doing absolutely nothing downing tumblers of red wine.