Misery can lead to strange bedfellows

Neil Thapar, the founder of City spinners Corfin Communications, was booked on that British Airways plane from Delhi to London over the weekend that the pilot was too tired to fly. The passengers were put up in Le Meridien hotel, but because there wasn't enough room he was forced to share a double bed with Mark Harris, chief executive of the National Lottery Commission. They had never met.

"I knew we were going to have to share a room," the PR man recalls, "but I didn't think we'd have to share a bed."

There was no snoring (or cuddling) according to Thapar, who eventually arrived home a day late.

"The least I would have expected was a phone call after all this," he fumes. That's from BA, not Harris.