I abandoned my friend for the company of a gang of bikers in the bar. They looked quite threatening in their leathers. However, once they had removed their helmets, they were recognisable as a set of old blokes. All were childhood classmates of mine.

PN was still incredibly shy, and super-successful ST was super-friendly.

I was most interested in talking to CC. I wanted to discover why he would regularly come up from Oxford to Birmingham in our student days supposedly to visit me, yet spend most of his time with NA instead.