We travelled in a smart black stretch limo to see the new house of Z and SM. This was the most appropriate form of transport for visiting multimillionaires. In short, if we turned up in our own (modest) car, we would not be welcomed.

Z had made his fortune in IT, and had spent much of it on this palatial new-build in central Birmingham. Every room was enormous. Most impressive was the indoor, family-sized hot tub just off the kitchen. Most curious was that Z and S displayed a four foot square elephant logo set into the red floor tiles of the entrance hall. It crossed my mind that perhaps the whole enterprise had been bank-rolled by an Asian airline.