‘Yeah. Well.’ I was trying hard not to be too pedantic. It was hard. ‘The Doors did it before Billy Idol. It’s a Doors song. Not – you know – a Billy Idol song.’

And I realised that for some unknown reason it was important for me to make this young woman see that I was not just a stay-at-home dad listening to old rock music way too loud.

‘I’m writing something about Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine,’ I said, trying to sound casual. ‘I’m getting back into my journalism. If I can. If anyone will have me.’

‘But it’s so great what you’ve been doing with your son – with Marlon! Taking care of him while Tara builds up the business! Not many men could do it. The guys I know – well, they’re overgrown children, really. They can’t take care of themselves, let alone a child.’

Who were these men – these overgrown boys? Where did she meet them? What were their unsuccessful chat-up lines? I was ridiculously proud that they could not do what I had done with my son.

‘To see a man as the primary carer for a child,’ she said. ‘It’s special.’

A primary carer. Is that what I was?

‘It was kind of imposed upon me,’ I said. ‘Upon us. After we lost our jobs on the music paper.’ I still shuddered at the memory of the print plunge, and waking up in the middle of the night wondering how we were going to support ourselves for the next half a century. ‘Our industry – print journalism – didn’t exist any more. Not in the same way. We were like those starving Red Indians – Native Americans, I mean – driven from our happy hunting grounds at the end of Dances with Wolves.’

‘I’ve seen that one,’ she said, as if Dances with Wolves was from the silent era.

‘But Marlon’s great,’ I said. ‘Our boy’s not a difficult kid. I always love hanging out with him.’ I shrugged, smiled. ‘It was just the way things worked out.’ I hesitated, then reached for the profound cliché. ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’

Her brown eyes were wide. ‘Wow. That’s so true. Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans!’

‘That’s a John Lennon quote,’ I said quickly. ‘I didn’t make it up.’

She looked a bit disappointed. ‘The Beatle that got shot,’ she said.

‘That’s the one.’

Then we both stared thoughtfully at the cover of Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine.

‘Tara and I are just different,’ I said.

She’s driven. I’m parked.

‘I could never do what she did – start a business,’ I went on. ‘Have that idea, that vision, and build it up from scratch. You watch – a fire is not going to stop her.’

‘No,’ Skyla smiled.

‘The truth is, I was happy to give up work, especially towards the end when I was on a national newspaper. All those people doing work they hate so they can buy stuff they don’t need, the years slipping away. I was happy to bail out and look after our son.’