At a dinner party recently, someone asked me what we were doing for Easter. Now, this has been happening quite a lot lately, and always has me wondering why people can’t find a more interesting thread of questioning other than ‘What are you doing for your holidays’ at these functions? It usually means that THEY are doing something for THEIR holidays that they are dying to brag to you about, and are asking you just so you will ask them back.

To start with, it was quite amusing to say ‘Yes, actually we are going travelling in Kazakhstan and skiing in Kyrgyzstan, what about you?’, and watching the smile freeze on their face which would either be an indication that they thought I may be joking or else I had just trumped their week in St Tropez – usually the latter.

Then, people are either really interested in what you are doing, or they just want to get away from you as fast as possible in order to try their luck with someone else. This of course, is in the hope that they will be going to St Albans and therefore will sigh longingly at the thought of St Tropez and say how lucky they are and that they ‘simply must hear all about it’.

This is why I’ve actually been quite careful about asking what others are doing – I don’t want them to feel I’m only asking so that I can launch into my Central Asia story. I’m actually finding others will bring it up for you anyway, so you don’t have to; ‘Have you heard where they are off to next?!’ I have overheard more than once in the last couple of months.

I think we are something of an oddity in our circle of friends. I would also probably prefer St Albans to St Tropez – at least you can get a decent pint!