My friend comes towards me across the plaza. In a quick embrace we tell each other how chuffed we are to have pulled off this city meet up in a single email exchange.

As we sit down to lunch she asks me about my weekend sojourn – ‘You’ve just been away somewhere? Was it a work thing?’ I’m jiggling my seat into position opposite hers and suddenly I’m talking way too fast, racing across my recent activities, back-story-ing, forward speculating, announcing, commentating. I’m thrashing about like an idiot on a jetski.

Nothing, it seems, will stop me.

There’s a little crease near my friend’s eyebrows, she looks like she’s trying to concentrate. The Report-on-Everything I’ve blurted out is dragging us away like a tidal rip. I pause, take a breath, ask her a question. She answers briefly, but she’s a bit limp, out of air.