I broke my promise to myself and sneaked into the office during the Christmas vacation shut-down. I knew that it was wrong – especially since the University had asked for all computers to be switched off for a fortnight – but I couldn’t bear the thought of returning to work in January to face a huge backlog of work. Surely it made sense to do a little work now in advance?

I was most surprised to discover that I was not the only one to have this idea. The corridor lights were already blazing when I arrived and it was soon obvious that BB and his entire team had not left the building once over the holiday period. In fact they had taken advantage of everyone else’s absence to loot the nearby offices. I caught one scallywag running out of my room carrying a table. His apprehension alone made my unexpected trip into work worthwhile.