For the first six months of our acquaintance, the boy who lived next door to me in my first home-away-from-home - a university dorm run by sadists with a penchant for 2am fire drills - was a human puzzle I couldn’t solve. I never quite knew what to expect from my neighbour, Rob. Rob was often friendly, enthusiastic and generous but sometimes, for no particular reason I could see, he would swerve into a mood of intimidating grouchiness, bec...