City lawyers who have somehow found time to procreate between 22-hour working days will know that kids are getting harder to impress all the time – especially when said kids are typically relied on to put music on their parents’ iPods, upload holiday snaps to the family PC and pay the school fees online.

North of the border, however, life remains a little simpler. One Scots lawyer was recently chatting with The Diary from the poolside of his Umbrian summer home; your correspondent’s fears about interrupting the idyllic retreat were soon allayed by the partner.