09 Feb

I have to confess if I have one guilty pleasure it is Champagne. I love the taste and the smell, the bubbly effervescence as it tickles the nose and the back of the throat, the lightness, even the way it makes me slightly merry in a more alive way. Opening the cork is an event […]

26 Jan

I’ve just got in from London having attended the Marine Money Ship Finance Forum. This particular event doesn’t usually feature in my professional calendar, but I had been invited by my friend Jamie Freeland to participate in a panel discussion he was moderating, and it seemed rude not to. It was a very interesting day, […]

20 Jan

It’s probably not the greatest way to start the day, but like many people I use my mobile phone as an alarm clock, and as soon as it goes off I see the texts and news updates received overnight. If it’s a message about work, I will rise from warm and enveloping sheets immediately. My […]

12 Jan

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day. Time is short, so shouldn’t I be making more of it? As I get older I am beginning to understand that I need to utilise time better at the same time – paradoxically perhaps […]

30 Dec

The following story is fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. I was eating breakfast when I noticed a man peering at me over his silver coffee pot from the other side of the dining room. He was about my age, wearing a casual deep red cashmere turtleneck, navy wool jacket […]