What fun: at last KA and I had wangled things so that we were both heading to the same conference! Ahead of us lay two days of academic discussion of digital media.

My father-in-law drove us to the venue from Hexham in his battered burgundy estate car. During the journey he explained that he planned to fill in the swimming pool at 6 Broadway Gardens because nobody ever used it. He was right – none of us had taken a dip in the back garden for years – but I vowed that I would, just as soon as I was back in town.

The conference registration desk was not yet open when we first arrived so KA and I headed straight up to our hotel rooms. We never made it back downstairs again. Instead we spent the whole afternoon puzzling over the strange noises coming from my new suitcase. Even when we emptied out all the contents on to the bedroom floor there was not a clue as to the source of the odd buzzing sounds.