“Dave” claimed that he was a veteran of the Edinburgh Coffee Morning, and old friends with “Andy”. I couldn’t ever remember seeing this Dave at the Friday gatherings before, and on close questioning he couldn’t come up with a surname for his Andy, even though there were plenty of regulars of that name. Yet I still had a feeling that I knew Dave from long ago. Was he perhaps my school friend SA in disguise?

Still curious as to his real identity, I led Dave to the table at Centrotre and introduced him to the others, including my university pal MP and his soon-to-be-wed son SP. I was disappointed that Dave showed little interest in them.

However, Dave listened very intently as I explained that my visits to the coffee morning would soon be less frequent. I confessed that I was giving up my job so that I could pour all my energies into writing a novel.