At the very last minute all members of my book group were able to meet at my flat after all. I quickly set the table with our ‘fun’ Champagne glasses – largely because DM had served drinks from similar glasses when we were last together at her house. Then we settled down to chat.

Our first conversation concerned TPR and the pinnacle of his amazing career in software engineering in Australia in the mid-1990s.

Then DM told us all about her sponsored rock climb. On video it looked like she had scaled the most dangerous precipice. In reality she had crawled across the floor on a patterned mat. It was simply video trickery that gave the impression of her amazing feat.