A gentle but bitterly cold breeze blew over London’s Heathrow Airport this morning.

But Louise and I are off to warmer climes. India, in fact. We are en route from London to Delhi via Amsterdam and we are some 2,800 miles from our destination. 37,000 feet below, Russia is looking very white and very cold.

It is high time we were visiting suppliers old and new again and looking for new ideas as well as specifying and designing some of our own.

For Present Company’s website shoppers you will notice little or no change while we are away. For those who visit our shop in Burgess Hill, West Sussex we are operating slightly shorter opening hours than usual for the remainder of this week and next. Mondays to Thursdays we will open 10:00 am until 2:30 pm. Friday and Saturday will see our usual times of 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this causes you.

We shall, of course, as always, gently bat away the customary jibes of, “Have a good holiday” with our usual good grace and humour. In reality, those who are labouring under the misapprehension that business travel is tantamount to holiday, have clearly not done business travel. However, we are mighty privileged to do this and try hard never to forget it.

I will try to find some time to update you in due course . . . . .