12th September, 2003

I've given you a bit of a break from this missive. I went on holiday and then, frankly, most of our analysts did too. I've been burning to tell you about my week on the South West Coast of Ireland. Apart from the booming market in building new holiday cottages which threatens to blot the landscape, what a wonderful place it is. And Ireland will always be Ireland. I wandered into a supermarket to buy some cream for our evening Irish whiskies. I could only find a stack of Single Cream and so asked a boy unpacking boxes of food if they had any Double. "No sir", was the reply, as he pointed to the Single Cream cartons, " this is the largest size they come in. "