After another steep climb, we reach a small plateau and the full vista of the Himalayas is laid out before us. A steady stream of spindrift blows from the top of Annapurna II and I can feel the chill of the snow from the very top of the mountains stinging my cheeks. The foothills feel so close that I’m sure if I stretched far enough I could touch them. We find a grassy bank and lie down with our backs against a warm, smooth rock. Dean takes my hand and we close our eyes, basking in the sunshine.

After a while Dean kisses my cheek. ‘Penny for them?’

‘I was thinking about my family,’ I say.

‘You’re missing home?’

‘No,’ I say. ‘Not at all.’ And in one way that’s quite a surprise. I’ve hardly given the folks back home a second thought. ‘I was just wondering what they’d think of all this.’ I snuggle into Dean. ‘They thought I was mad to come out here. I’m the sensible one. The coper. Ms Reliable. I’m not given to flights of fancy.’

‘Maybe that’s because you’ve never had the chance.’

That’s exactly the reason. But then how many of us can afford to take time off the treadmill of modern life to think about what we really want to do? Most people are just too busy trying to get through the days to consider whether sitting in an office somewhere shuffling paper to pay off their mega-mortgage is how they truly want to spend their days. It’s taken one hell of a jolt for me to do it.

‘You’re very lucky,’ I say. ‘I have no idea what I want to do with my life.’

‘Luck has nothing to do with it,’ Dean says. ‘It’s about seizing opportunities until you find something that excites you.’

I don’t know what excites me anymore. The only thing I wanted more than anything I can’t have. That leaves me feeling sort of adrift. ‘I do a very dull job.’

‘Chuck it and do something else,’ Dean suggests with the ease of someone who has no fear of doing that.

‘Some people are adventurous and some people go on holiday to the same hotel in the same place every year,’ I say. ‘I think it’s indicative that Jake and I went to the same resort in Thailand for four years on the trot.’ I think it’s even more indicative that it was my choice.

‘People are comfortable with familiarity,’ Dean says. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that unless you start to find it stifles you. Are you close to your family?’

‘Mmm. I have a mad mother, one younger sister, Edie, and a gaggle of small relatives.’

‘And they rely on you?’

‘Totally.’

‘They could probably manage without you if they had to. People do.’