The most pressing choice I faced over the past week was whether to swim in the pool or the sea. We lounged our way from lazy lunch to long dinner, occasionally mustering the energy to stroll to the boulangerie.

As I put the key in the front door of our south London home last night it dawned on me that I was swimming in the sun just five hours earlier, and I paused on the front step thinking, “is this commutable?” Then the sight of HMRC’s unmistakeable brown envelopes on the doormat snapped me back to reality. As did the unpaid congestion charge fine.

I wouldn’t be the first person to return from holiday thinking “how can I get a bit more of that........

© City A.M.