The cello tape had finished, and she swapped it for ABBA. ABBA was familiar, ABBA was big in Russia. On their concert tour of the Soviet Union it was rumoured that, due to restrictions on the rouble, they had to be paid in oil commodities. She laughed quietly to herself: there was always a solution in Soviet Russia.

A few hours later, Andrew parked outside a small apartment building in the mountain town of Hotham. The flat they had rented was designed for winter, with a rack for skis and an area just inside the front door for wet clothes and boots. The windows were double-glazed and lacked wire screens, which, from the short distance from car to flat, Galina decided were desperately needed. The air was thick with flies.

Andrew took the smaller of the two bedrooms and immediately unpacked. He returned to the living room with two broad-brimmed bush hats, each with a curtain of netting. ‘To keep the flies off your face. Out of your nose and mouth too.’ He was smiling. ‘Once before I stayed here in summer. The weather was perfect, the walking was sublime, and the flies were unbearable.’

It had been a long day and they were both tired. Andrew made a dinner of toasted cheese sandwiches, after which they walked around the town. The place appeared deserted. They followed the roadway to the end of town, then retraced their steps and continued past the flat in the other direction. Up ahead, a hotel was lit up, and voices and laughter reached them through the clear still air. As they drew closer, they saw that a broad balcony was filled with people standing around drinking and talking.

‘Obviously the place to be,’ Andrew said.

They decided to do as the locals were doing. They bought drinks, carried them to the edge of the balcony, and stood leaning against the railing, gazing out at the mountains. As Galina sipped her drink she imagined these slopes under snow. She missed snow, she missed the cold.

By the time they had finished their drinks the sun had set, and they made their way back to the apartment in the dark. While Galina prepared for bed, Andrew sat on the front steps smoking, a deliberate move of his, she decided, to save them any embarrassment. She called out goodnight and shut her door. He lingered for a while before taking himself off to his room, where he lay himself down and immediately fell asleep.