I woke up in a single bed in a luxurious Perth hotel. SC, in the bed to the left of me, was already awake and watching a BBC nature documentary on her iPad.

There came a knock on the door and in walked two butlers pushing a breakfast trolley laden with bread, Nutella, and Toblerone. My former colleague KM, my cousin S, and my parents followed them.

As I tucked into my dream breakfast KM initiated an ice-breaker game. This required the person who was “it” to run around the room and snog all the others in turn. My mother could not hide her disapproval of this nonsense.

Meanwhile my father picked up a copy of MacUser magazine and started to read it avidly. This was so out of character that KM felt obliged to photograph the scene on her iPad.

When, at last, everyone settled down for breakfast KM told us about internship in Canada in the mid-1990s, then moved on to the theme of teaching roles for librarians. This set SC’s husband off on a rant about undergraduate stats classes.