I knew that he should have kept his mouth shout. Instead, he opened up the invitation to dinner at his house to everyone at the meeting.

“My wife won’t mind”, he boasted.

Indeed she did mind – very much. She had prepared a posh dinner for eight around a circular table, and not an informal supper for twelve.

I volunteered to help out by making a carrot layer cake in her Aga. Unfortunately it all went terribly wrong when I grated cheese instead of butter into the roux sauce.