We’d been sharing our big double bed with four PhD students for some time when one day I found a gift bag on my pillow. Inside there was a bottle of wine and a card. The present was from F’s father, and the card included a party invitation to his house in the Pentlands.

F’s father’s house turned out not to be a house at all, but an enormous turreted castle with beautiful views across the Borders countryside. I mentioned to TPR how cross I was that I had forgotten to bring the camera. We struggled a bit to get up to the upper levels when we mistakenly attempted to climb a spiral staircase (there were even notches in the wall to help) without realising that there was a more accessible route. We eventually reached the rest of the party guests and had a fabulous time.

At home afterwards we wondered how we would break the news to F and the other PhD students that we were evicting them from our room. From now on they would be sleeping in single beds in the spare bedroom, and we would get our own bed back to ourselves.