In July 2020, someone took 5 to 10 pairs of black socks with colourful accents – making them so much easier to match, hence saving time – from my dirty laundry while I was out and dumped a bit of what looked like cigarette ash into my laundry basket.

When I was folding my socks away a little while ago this morning, I discovered that I now have more pairs of a particular type of black sock. I used to have 4 of those socks. Two pairs. Now I have quite a few more.