A night out at the Ritz...

Yesterday I felt like I spent time in two parallel universes. In the first one, I was in the office reading about the Bank of England's radical moves to try and halt the economy's slide into a total meltdown, whilst pondering (for about the millionth time) my own financial future.

Next thing I know I'm sitting having dinner in arguably London's most opulent restaurant, the Ritz, sipping champagne and dining on some very fine nosh (big thanks to Perrier-Jouet by the way for a top night out).

If the bar and restaurant trade is feeling the squeeze at the moment, the Ritz certainly doesn't seem to be showing any outward signs. I got chatting to a regular diner there who told me the place is still full to the brim for afternoon tea most days (and that alone is apparently around £50 a pop) - and yesterday evening the place was certainly no ghost town, with what looked to me like all of the tables in the main restaurant occupied.

In contrast, another restaurateur I got chatting to at dinner, who runs a bar in the City, said he's just had one of his worst weeks ever (he told me that the other day, he had a table of nine come in and they only ordered two bottles of wine all night... now that's certainly not typical city boy behaviour!)

I guess things are up and down for us all at the moment...

• Harpers Says...