I brought a case of beer into the kitchen the other day, and invited Ian to help me load a few cans into the fridge and the rest into the cupboard. But he had a better idea: he took all the cans out of the case and laid them meticulously in a long side-to-side row across the kitchen floor. Then he took out all the soda and tonic cans that were already in the fridge, and added them to the line.

When I asked him what he was doing, he said: “I’m drying all the cans! I have to make them all dry!”

“How long’s that going to take?” I asked.

“Fourteen hours”, he replied.