I returned from test-driving the tandem and followed TPR into the posh hotel dining room. We felt somewhat embarrassed eating there, especially since I was unshod.

After the meal TPR returned to our (more modest) accommodation a couple of streets away. Since I was still without shoes and wanted to enjoy the luxury of the deep sofas in the hotel drawing room, he left me behind. Initially we agreed that I would stay here only an hour or so.

However, because I was without my mobile phone and TPR’s was permanently switched off, we had no way of communicating how we would see one another later. I was now doomed to spend the rest of my days in the company of old bufties in a country house hotel.