All we wanted was some peace to enjoy a quiet barbecue for two in our little Edinburgh yard, but every so often friends would run down the steps to interrupt us. First came the F family, then LF and IF (no relation), followed by J and BG from Ireland armed with enormous bouquets of flowers.

Two hours later we were in London trying to locate the wedding of R and CA. The fact that they had been married already for almost twenty years seemed to have been forgotten. The whole point of the ceremony, which we only discovered much later, was to give their red-haired toddler the chance to play a starring role as a bridesmaid.

In the meantime, we struggled to locate the venue for the celebrations. It was very well hidden in one of London’s great parks and I became increasingly flustered trying to find it. Thankfully my mother appeared at just the right moment to calm me down.