Indian student Bhopal chose my flat for his lockdown accommodation. We barely noticed him as he hid in our study for two weeks. He might have even been ill in this period. If so, we never knew.

One day Bhopal emerged from ‘his’ room, suitcase in one hand and a scrap of paper in the other.

‘Here I have all the details that I need to find myself suitable student accommodation in Edinburgh’, he declared.

I glanced at the scribbled address on the crumpled paper: a letting agency in Middlesex. I doubted that this would be much help. Regardless, I suggested that Bhopal left his luggage with us while he paced the streets of Edinburgh looking for his new home.