Mouton and Pol – perks of the job

I have a new mantra: less work and more perk. I seem to have spent 43, nearly 44, years being invited to wonderful events and refusing the most tempting of invitations because I was too busy working.

So now I am deliberately trying to experience as many as possible of the manifold treats dangled in front of me. Not if they are blatant carrots dangled in the hope of making me feel more kindly disposed towards the dangler of course (see our ethical policy). I have recently declined with...