Gone skiing again.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I'm fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go skiing again. So I have. A more sedate affair than the Austrian trip as Mrs P is with me this time. We are in Italy, in the three little know valleys of Champoluc, Gressoney and Alagna abutting the southern side of the Monte Rosa Massif a vast high terrain of wonderful off piste adventure married with unspoilt Italian mountain refuges and villages. As one of my party noted "not only is it stunning skiing but the coffee up the mountain is cheaper than at a Starbucks in Hertford". There, the old Polemic coffee PPP style index so often used to indicate the necessity of continued Greek pricing adjustment is wheeled out again. 1 Euro for an Alpine coffee in Italy, take note Kefalonia.

I would like to be able to comment on perceived changes to local demand and business but I would imagine that the place being near empty has more to do with it being late in the season and out of school holidays than a collapse in European disposable income. Or it could just be that the likes of Ischgl, where it was so packed when I visited a month ago that the poor girls had to dance on the tables and bars, have soaked up the flash cash.

So I apologise for the fact I won't be commenting on FOMC, or Chinese Tobin tax proposals, or even joining the hoards of 'well it will all end in disaster one day, even it's not today' army in a spume of commentary. Instead I will be supping Bombardinos, lamenting that my thighs don't work as they did 10 years ago and that these damn ski trousers don't do up anymore.

Back next week