When my work colleague Julia said that her mother was lonely in the old people’s home, I offered to welcome the sad geriatric into my team to cheer her up. I popped over to her place to discuss the arrangements.

What I thought would be a friendly work chat turned out to be a full-scale get-together for every oldie in town, and before we knew it my colleagues and I found ourselves in charge of a pensioners’ Gaelic singalong. C couldn’t wait to leave.