20 MARCH 2004, Page 50

It's Not So Bad

'You are your job,' said a friend to me. I stopped and pondered what he'd said. 'Am I really morning meetings and cups of tea, A few long lunches and then I'm dead?'

'If not, you're the journey to work,' He grinned, warming to his theme — 'You're the bits of admin you try to shirk, The weekend's mowing, your annual leave.'

'Oh no, I'm not' — and this is the truth — 'I'm wherever my mind might wander. I'm in Timbuktu, in the bloom of youth. I'm Fred Astaire, I'm Henry Fonda.'

Harry Mount