The worst is over’, I said. ‘Once it’s still light when you leave the office, all our hard work is done,’ I added sagely. There were company drinks in the pub across the road from the office. It was a pleasant evening and the annual accounts had been signed.

A group of younger accountants had formed around me as I ran through my repertoire of hilarious work-related anecdotes. I had gone through the incident in the ski lodge on the Group Finance ski trip (pre-credit crunch).