Amid all the Election fever - and are those party leader live debates a good thing? - I never predicted a surge in champagne demand from nearly every category of customer we deal with; strange but true!

Maybe it is the time of year;  maybe it is collective joy at emerging from the toughest winter for thirty years, or maybe some of those economic green shoots are for real as opposed to imaginary?

Either way, busy busy in Epernay - field report from France next week when I visit our producers - and busy busy in the UK.  At Park Lane, personalised champagne orders and enquiries continue to arrive at all times of day and night - which is just SO exciting!  I know the internet never sleeps, but why are some users never sleeping either?!

The build process for the totally new website is underway and we should be live testing in June.  This site will offer depth and breadth so usability will be much much better - and thank you to everyone who does send feedback to us as this really does make a difference.

The technological advance also includes state of the art label production on the very best material available coming soon.  This new equipment and technology is an enormous leap - think Rolls Royce Phantom from Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (both brilliant in their context) - and is fabulously exciting for us.   The quality of the personalised champagne labels will actually be better than photograph output from next month so what more of an excuse is needed to break out the bubbly?

I am delighted to announce that James Ingle will be joining the team from 10 May to concentrate on building and reinforcing the bridges we maintain with all our corporate customers.  James is a hugely dedicated and capable gentleman and, above all, someone you really want around as he is just so nice!  The Park Lane quality and service ethos is second nature to James and I know he will be very popular with customers and fellow employees alike.

And what about the Premier League football shoot out?  As I have said before, we love working for Barclays Capital as league sponsors but there is certainly something of a sweat on at the moment within the BarCap sponsorship team:  at the time of writing, any one of the three league leaders could carry the trophy away!  Barclays contingency plans - obviously including personalised champagne! - are being drafted for winning presentations at any of the three possible grounds.  A bit like the apparent Buckingham Palace contingency plans for funerals of leading Royals - except rather less gloomy and with less obscure project names!

As a regular importer of goods from France, there is a certain satisfaction to me that the delicious Hélèna (and hubby Patrik) are buying 20 of our highland cows for live export to France next month!  Vive Le Republic…

And on that bombshell, today’s 8 year old birthday celebrations beckon.  Pip pip.