In the hotel Graham is attempting to treat me as his friend rather than my boss. It’s intensely annoying. He’s completely lacking in interpersonal skills. This is the warm-up to the flip charts in the morning. As I envisage the day ahead I begin to get drunk and I’m not slow to notice that Denise seems to be matching my alcoholic intake. Some of the office team are bearable, young, committed family men for the most part. I recognize a lot of myself in them, the need to talk about nurturing their children’s talents, harping on about the good old school days, as if trapped in an adolescent world trying to keep up with traditions, the confident and ever so slightly aggressive talk about putting their children into the same schools that they attended.

Three of the younger girls in the office look like they would rather be anywhere than here. They too, it seems, don’t have a choice and they are stuck tight together trying to avoid Graham, who’s becoming lecherous after one too many. I try to act cool, humouring the girls saying things like it isn’t that long since I was in their shoes when I was first dragged down to these team-building things but that there are some things in life that you have to put up with in order to get ahead. If it’s meant to be reassuring it’s not working. Judy, Graham’s assistant, looks at me as though I’m nothing. I’m boring her and I am old. The other two smile nervously. I can never be sure of their names. I wonder if they think it’s sad that at my age I still have to endure these expeditions.