I managed to reach my father by phone from overseas. He chatted happily about his schizophrenia as if I had always known about his condition. In fact, this was all news to me.

Then I joined TPR at the bar for the last night of our holiday. A once-famous band from the 1980s played songs familiar to us from our student days. We were delighted when others led us to the dance floor (JB included).

The next day we had difficulties identifying facilities for printing out my boarding pass for our return journey. We were told that we would be assisted just as soon as a particular member of staff returned from some trip to the countryside.

In the meantime I compared my skin with a local. While our skin tones were completely different, we both had very hairy legs.