My cousin B sat at a picnic table in the garden of a Sydney suburb with a handsome Asian man. Even though it was the height of summer, flurries of snow fell all around. Shouldn’t Australians be enjoying evening barbecues in the warmth at this time of year?

And where was B’s blond husband? I later learnt that he had been dismissed in favour of this stranger who was, in fact, B’s new fiancé.