At the end of day two in Surrey, where I took part in a croissant taste test, I travelled by train from Slough to Belper in Derbyshire.

Of the six coaches on the train from St Pancras to up North, three were first class. And there were only three or four non-reserved seats in the remaining three carriages. Very strange.

Through darkening skies the train cut through increasingly northern towns and then began climbing into the Peak District.

Belper is a small town with a big central heating boiler company in it: Vaillant Glow-worm. The client I was going to see.

I stayed at the Lion Hotel, a partially refurbished dump in the centre of the throbbing metropolis.

In fairness, the bar and pizza restaurant were cosy and relatively stylish. But you know that, when you’re in ‘Room 1’ that you’re being punished for booking online with a clearing website and things aren’t going to be so good.

I was tired, so I overlooked the mustard colour scheme and the pokey bathroom with - as my American client once said of his shower in Luton - a shower like a fern mister.

After a lovely pizza, I retired to the uncomfortable bed, where I listened to the unmistakeable sound of the toilet almost overflowing its plimsol line.