I had been away from work for so long that a new boy had to show me around our office premises south of the Edinburgh city bypass.

First he took me to the car park that we shared with the pharmaceutical firm. I feigned interest in the strategies that he had devised for timing his arrival at work to guarantee a parking space.

However, I was really hoping that my companion might ‘help me out with my seat belt’ now that my hand had become inexplicably ‘trapped’.