As he talks, I'm looking at him – T-shirt, jeans, trainers, gold Rolex, but not very flash, modest gold chain tucked into the T-shirt.
At first this may appear to be a lowering of the readers' expectation out of modesty – but then, later, he tells us: "I am not a very modest person".
When Alistair Campbell described many comprehensive schools as "bog standard" and Gordon Brown threatened to close schools if they did not achieve the very modest target of 30% of their pupils gaining five GCSE grades A to C including English and maths, it was clear that something had to be done to arrest the rot.
You'll be amply, if not excitingly, fed at very modest prices.
Hey Will, we know until you ascend that throne you're gonna work your fill We know your highnesses both will be pluses not minuses on that very modest civil list.
A former teacher at Yarm, Liz McDonald, said of Mrs Fairhead that she had "amazing grit" and was a "a very clever girl, not loud or pushy, very modest".
"When you say 'It's not about me' and that you're not interesting, that's a very modest way of talking about yourself".
Let me give you an example of what the rubbish part of the press don't like about the very modest Royal Charter: equal prominence of apologies.
To be sure, they all support things like expanded day care, more affordable housing, and better transport links, but they appear to have accepted that the city can't afford anything except very modest steps in these directions.
Not surprisingly, foreign investment was very modest.
