When LM and I returned to campus, we were shocked at the neglect that it had suffered in the past year. We hoped that the new students would not be disappointed with their choice of university. Whatever their opinion of the teaching environment, however, there would still be cake for them.

It was only then that LM remembered that the cake was at my mother’s house. We would have to travel all the way there back to fetch it. Could this be done in six hours before our afternoon classes? Possibly.

At my mother’s house, my sister tried to sell us two china cabinets, then offered to drive us north again. We should have turned her down. She didn’t know the way, and two hours later we were stuck in a small town that none of us recognised.

However, not all was lost. We got out of teaching for the rest of the day in favour of spending the afternoon in the town’s Charles Dickens novelty shop.