AT, JS, TPR and I opened the locker and pulled out the carrier bags of food. Would our sandwiches have survived three days? What about the two tubs of ice cream? Would it have melted?

We loaded everything onto our bikes then cycled over to the house that JMH had hired for the holiday. She had sold it to us with a promise of acres of space and marvellous views. It was true that we had an entire floor of the building to ourselves, but the view of a tractor in a field and Sainsburys across the road was hardly enthralling.