“Who has time to fill up soap dispensers?”

I’M TAKING a city break with my old friend V. We’ve just turned left out of a specialist cheese emporium and right into a designer interiors shop in Amsterdam.

I browse happily in Bathroom Accessories, but after 10 minutes of fondling posh soaps and towels, I’m feeling that it’s all a bit Vogue and aspirational. I wonder aloud, “I mean who has time to fill up soap dispensers?” Though this question is wholly rhetorical, my friend answers it. “Perhaps,” she says, “if you lopped off a couple of those hours that you spend watching Frasier re-runs in bed, you might.”

I sense I might be stretching the limits of her patience with soap.