PG generously invited several of us – including TPR, BR, KS, myself, and my mother – to stay in his flat. This made it rather crowded for our kind landlord and his regular lodger. The huge advantage of his arrangement as far as I was concerned, however, was that my mother loved it there. She  jumped out of bed early every morning, slipped on her rubber gloves, and dedicated herself to the cleaning.

I was less enthusiastic about my catering role, especially when I had to accommodate BR’s vegan requests, and KS munched her way through more than her fair share of my freshly baked scones.

One evening we all went out to the theatre. Unfortunately for the actors their performance date clashed with a high profile cricket match. The audience struggled to keep their eyes on the stage, but instead turned towards a huge screen at the back of the theatre to watch the cricket action. Even the drama students (easily spotted in their beige uniforms, waving fake Highland Stoneware plates in the air from their seats at  the front of the stalls) struggled to concentrate on the plot of the play.