Finding a quiet corner, I sit on the well-worn library sofa and curl my legs beneath me. The book is filled with glorious colour photographs that bring an exotic world right on to my lap. I stroke the pages lovingly. Here’s the Cañón del Colca – a place I’ve never ever heard of which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia, the second largest lake in South America that still houses people on floating islands made of reeds. I take out the itinerary that my colleagues will follow and flick to the pages covering the places being visited on the four-day charity trek. The charity trek that I’m not going to do.

Next on the list is the Nazca Lines, a collection of drawings etched into the earth as far back as 500 BC – Before Christ, not Blake Chadwick. Some say that the sophisticated drawings were made by aliens visiting the earth, some say that they’re messages to the ancient gods. I don’t know what I think, other than I’d really like to see them for myself. I let my fingers follow the mysterious outlines – the hummingbird, the monkey, the spider, the whale.

I could lose myself completely in this book. Already, I’ve been here an hour and have just begun to scratch the surface. Glancing at the clock, I think that I should be going home. Checking the book out, I slip it into the depths of my handbag. Then I can follow where my friends will be going. Lucky them, I think bitterly. Lucky, lucky them.

At home and, as soon as I open the front door, I can smell cooking.

‘Dinner’s nearly burned,’ Greg shouts from the kitchen.

I throw down my bag. ‘I didn’t know that you were cooking.’

‘I got home a bit early. Thought I’d start it.’

Greg never cooks. That’s my job. I feel like testing the temperature of his forehead, but I resist.

‘Where’ve you been?’ he asks.

In Peru, I want to say. In the Colca Canyon, at the Nazca Lines, lost in the Andes. Instead, I say, ‘I popped into the library.’

Greg raises his eyebrows but asks no more questions. I notice that the table is set for four. ‘Are the kids here?’

He nods and goes back to fiddling with his dinner. ‘I just did the pork chops that were in the fridge with some carrots and new potatoes. That okay?’