When we reached the dark and snowy outskirts of Edinburgh, the coach driver decided to turn back. Looking out of the window at lorries and cars strewn upside down at the side of the road, I understood his reasons.

This meant that we didn’t reach the pub for our rendez-vous with K&J. Instead the driver dropped us in a grand Georgian crescent in Balerno.

Here the residents were preparing for a garden party, carrying baskets of bread from their houses into the shared garden. A man wearing an Oxford college tie struck up a conversation with us, saying that he went to school in Bristol (but not the same one as TPR), then disappeared behind his garden gate. As he attempted to pull the gate shut behind him, a small dog escaped and leapt into my arms.

It was love at first sight. I had never seen a small woolly pooch dyed pink before, but this one was absolutely beautiful, and I could tell that he reciprocated my feelings.