Another strange few weeks…! Has anybody ever known an erupting volcano to have such far-reaching effects?

The world most definitely is getting smaller. A fairly minor volcanic eruption in Iceland has managed to ground airlines all over Europe, with the knock-on effect of stranding passengers all over the world and leaving airplanes in the wrong place once the flying ban was lifted.

It’s only when something like this happens that we realise just how dependent on flight we are these days. I know environmentalists drone on about the possible downside to air travel but the alternative is extremely inconvenient, not to mention financially crippling.

To explain: our political classes constantly talk about imposing ever higher taxes on air travel to curb our enthusiasm for exotic travel and encourage us to use public transport that is more environmentally “responsible” such as rail travel.

I am in fact writing this blog as I sit on a train to London to travel on to Brussels for a meeting with some Commission consultants. But I’m doing so only because my flights last week were cancelled due to the “threat” of a smattering of volcanic ash nowhere near any of the flights I would be taking! And I’m doing so at great inconvenience to me and my business.

To fly to Brussels for a morning meeting I can normally fly over late on the day before, which allows me to work the day before the meeting. This time I’ve had to leave my home at 8.30a.m. to catch a train to London in time to catch the Eurostar to Brussels. So a whole day’s business lost.

To make matters worse, because the meeting will continue beyond early afternoon, I can’t get the Eurostar back early enough to catch a train home to Scotland that gets me home that day. So I have to take a sleeper train back and won’t get home until 7a.m. the day after the meeting. Although I will be able to work the day I get back, it isn’t exactly ideal preparation for a day’s work. So frankly I don’t care what the environmentalists say: I will most definitely be flying again as soon as possible.

Not that rail travel is necessarily a bad thing these days. Commuter problems in the South East of England aside, rail travel from Scotland to England isn’t bad these days. Comfortable carriages and edible food are a far cry from rail travel in the ‘70s, and there are no long security queues to contend with and no over zealous security guards wanting to touch you up!

But it’s still not enough to persuade me that a wasted day travelling couldn’t have been better spent earning money.