TPR set up a summer-long ‘book’ group and called it ‘Chad’. The participants ranged from his friends to a couple of my undergraduate students. Somehow JS had managed to inveigle herself into the men-only meeting.

Meanwhile I visited drab, rainy Disneyland. The only ride of any interest was a roller-coaster. Otherwise the ‘attractions’ simply didn’t deserve their label. When I started to feel the cold on my bare legs, I decided to turn back. This presented the opportunity to hunt for my lost handbag.

Along the way I found old University friend BN playing a woodwind instrument in a Disney orchestra. She’d spent so many years in Australia that her speech had lost all trace of her Croydon credentials.