A long climb to join the rat race

JOSH LEWSEY, the former Wasps and England rugby world cup winner, is doing his induction period at Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountancy firm. But before he gets his feet fully under the desk he has two more mountains to climb — literally.

From January, he will take a leave of absence to train full-time to climb Mt Everest, just for the hell of it. A month-long trek to the summit of Aconcagua, a 7,000-metre peak in Argentina, will serve as a dress rehearsal. He will then return to Britain and sleep on low oxygen until departing for the Himalayas in April. When Lewsey gets back, he will be ready to “hit the ground running” at the new accountancy gig.

Does he worry that working for an accountant might be a tad less, um, exhilarating than rugby? “It was a bit of a shock to the system. But do I miss rugby? Quite simply, no. I’m really enjoying [the new job].” There are some drawbacks, of course. “If you’re in the Tube in a suit you get very, very hot,” he said. “I hate that.” Welcome to our world, Josh.

Two long rounds of pleasure

Robert Tchenguiz may have lost a billion or so over the past year, but he hasn’t forgotten how to enjoy himself. The property tycoon was spotted with his wife, Heather, and kids on the merry-go-round at the Natural History Museum last Sunday, according to the blog Slackbelly.

After the £4-a-pop spin finished, all riders disembarked, apart from Robbie, who proceeded to have another go. Why not, eh?

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, seems to have forgotten the meaning of fun. In an attempt to keep a, ahem, low profile, Goldman has told its employees it won’t be hosting a Christmas party this year and is prohibiting them from funding their own.

PS. Has the whole “doing God’s work” gaffe just been a big misunderstanding? One former Goldman partner told me that the phrase is a “colloquialism in the US” that means “doing something well and feeling good about what you’re doing”. Sadly, the meaning was lost in translation.

Cookery school pulls in the bankers

Last week I wrote about David Clasen, the former JP Morgan Cazenove banker, trying his hand in the kitchen. It turns out he is not alone. The people at Middleton Lodge — a Georgian mansion in North Yorkshire — recently opened a cookery school called Lady G’s run by two cordon bleu chefs.

The proprietor, James Allison, is rather surprised by the clientele it is attracting — bankers, lawyers and some accountants.

Allison, a mineral engineer by training, said: “I never thought I’d see the day when bankers were counting canapés instead of cash but come away very relaxed. It gives them something different to focus on.”

Once the cooking is over, students enjoy a lavish dinner — of their own creation — the spoils of a well-stocked bar and a snooker room with a full-size table. Little wonder it’s attracting the boys.

Imps PR is smoked out

Asked last Friday night whether Gareth Davis was preparing to announce his retirement as chief executive of Imperial Tobacco alongside annual results on Tuesday, PR Alex Parsons spluttered: “No decision has been taken.”

His explanation, when Davis’s replacement, Alison Cooper, was duly announced, was that it was all cooked up on Monday evening — presumably in a puff of smoke.

Parsons fell back on that old standby that he was out of the loop. Not good enough: step forward for Prufrock’s ignominy award: Your Pants are on Fire.

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