I was delighted to be appointed to the job in Amsterdam, and soon fell in love with my new colleagues – especially the small man. However, before anything else I had to decide which desk to take. I chose the one next to the bed. Then I got down to some work.

As we came to the end of the working day I wondered how I would get home for the evening. It was a long way back to Scotland, and already 10:30pm. TPR would be wondering what had become of me.

It was only now that it dawned on me how impractical it was to take a job in the Netherlands. I decided not to bother going home after all. Instead I spent the rest of the evening roller blading in the snow.