“It’s Herman the German” hissed AW when I asked who was at the wheel of my car. Now I understood why WB was chatting away in her native language in the passenger seat. Herman was driving us all to Manchester airport to catch a flight south and continue our UK tour.

The parking facilities at Manchester airport were in complete disarray. The main car park looked more like a vehicle recycling depot than a safe place to leave your car while you were on holiday. We dropped ours off in the departure lounge instead, where we parked it next to an orange sofa.

We were just checking our travel documents when I spotted RG (or F) from the Manor House at the University of Birmingham. Although we hadn’t seen him for 30 years or so, he’d hardly changed. What a coincidence that I had only looked at his LinkedIn profile the previous week. He was now a highly successful business man, with a huge trading empire in China.