He wears stonewashed jeans, a dirty T-shirt that says ‘NASA ROCKET SCIENTIST’ and has the pallor and belly of a man who gave up on himself at least 10 years ago. As far back as 1998, a report commissioned by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service found there to be 10,000 marriages a year instigated by IMBs, 4,000 to US men, the rest mostly to people from Europe, Australia and Canada. They’re more eager over there, if you know what I mean. “Philosophy, literature, politics, science.” Linda shakes her head. Where I thought I’d be picking taloned fingers off my crotch I have only been shyly passed email addresses on torn-off squares of paper. When asked if she’d miss her family the response she gave was the defining moment of my strange weekend.