KJD stood up from the table, grabbed her wine glass, and invited her closest friends to join her at the other side of the room. When everyone apart from her two sons followed her, I felt that I had the right to do the same.

Once we were all settled in our new seats, KJD made her announcement. She recalled her previous ‘adventures’ such as wild swimming. She dismissed them all as passing fads now that she had splashed out £55,000 on a trip to South America. Next month, she and her husband would conquer the Andes.

When I raised the risk of death in the perilous mountains, KJD responded that this would be fine, so long as she and her husband died together.

‘Hear, hear!’ said the old lady seated next to me.

‘Oh, are you a widow?’ I asked her.

‘No’, she replied, ‘My husband is at home. I can’t stand him, so I come to the pub as often as I can’.