Pembroke: Tonight, Josephine?

Jolly chaps from the Society of Practitioners of Insolvency (SPI) tore themselves away from liquidating companies over the bank holiday to attend a conference at the Peebles Hydro, a Scottish spa hotel. The highlight, we learn, was a French theme evening. No fewer than six Napoleons (ahem) turned up, including Stephen Adamson, co-administrator of Canary Wharf. The outfit of the night, however, belonged to the SPI's president, Mark Homan, senior corporate recovery partner at Price Waterhouse, who - tres amusant - arrived inside a huge envelope with French writing all over it.

The Bristol Evening Post was curiously secretive about a pounds 364,000 charge in its accounts, published yesterday. Talk to the merchant bank, said the PR company. Talk to the company secretary, said the merchant bank. Talk to the merchant bank or the PR company, said the company secretary. If only David Sunday Sport Sullivan had taken it over. At least he's good at baring all.

Kenneth Clarke, the new Chancellor, may have been poring diligently over Treasury papers yesterday but the rest of his building was bathed in sepulchral gloom. It was one of the eight 'privilege' holidays (or 'corgi days', as they are known) that officials enjoy in addition to the bank holidays with which we make do. Treasury concern for national productivity and efficiency does not reach close to home, it seems.

Now that the ache in your legs caused by the London marathon is a distant, if insistent, memory, Whizz-Kidz, the charity that provides wheelchairs for disabled children, is looking for martyrs willing to jigger their hamstrings in November's New York marathon. Raise pounds 1,250 in sponsorship and get your flight and entry fee paid. Call them on 071- 938 4600 - but do it fast before the places go.