It was, and I nodded. For as long as I could remember people had been scornful about my dreams and plans, but Clio didn’t seem to see my picture gallery as anything to laugh at.

‘What a great way to do it,’ she continued. ‘Most people just have a list hidden away on an app somewhere, not actual pictures to remind you of your dreams every day. Where’s first?’

If I was being totally honest, the chance of getting to any of these places was so small that a detailed pecking order wasn’t something I’d ever thought about.

‘Paris, I suppose,’ I said. ‘It’s the nearest and the cheapest to get to. But really I want to visit the rainforests of Central America first. I saw a documentary about it. Did you know that there are six kinds of forest in Costa Rica? Rainforest, cloud forest, tropical dry, mangrove . . .’ I wracked my brains for the remaining two but they had escaped. ‘I forget the others, but isn’t that amazing?’

Clio nodded. ‘I just thought a rainforest was a rainforest,’ she said with a grin.

‘Have you been there, to Costa Rica?’ I asked. I was feeling a little giddy now that I had access to someone who had been to all the places that I was dying to see, but Clio shook her head.

‘I did a week’s all-inclusive in Mexico once but that’s the nearest.’

‘Mexico! That’s another one. And Peru. I think ancient civilisations are dead fascinating.’

‘Well, we have some of those in Europe,’ she said. She sounded like a history teacher all of a sudden. ‘Rome. Pompeii! You must see that. I went with school. The whole place is preserved. There’s even a couple who were having sex when the lava fell. Hilarious! Well, not if you were them, of course. And Greece.’

And then suddenly the enormity of everything I wanted to see and the infinitesimally small chance of it ever happening suddenly fell heavy on my shoulders.

‘It’s silly really,’ I said, turning my back on the pictures. ‘I’m a cleaner. Where am I going to get the money to see all these places?’

Clio shrugged. ‘But at least you have a plan. Most people just bumble along from one week to the next letting stuff happen to them. I mean, look at me. Yes, I’ve travelled but only because my friends were going and I could tag along. I’ve never picked a place to go and researched it like you do. I think that’s wonderful.’

My cheeks were burning.

‘Thanks,’ I said quietly.

‘God, look at the time,’ said Clio, flashing a very expensive-looking watch with what looked like a real gold strap. ‘I must go. I promised Marlon that I wouldn’t ring him later than eight.’

‘Is he your fella then?’ I asked, but Clio laughed.