Pembroke: Cresta Run rider runs into problems in the taxi

I UNDERSTAND that Julian Tregoning, the dapper investment director at Save & Prosper, has been having quite a busy time of things. Last week the former naval officer was in St Moritz doing the Cresta Run. Dressed in his usual plus twos and long stockings, he sliced a few seconds off his best time. 'I'm rather a wet rider,' he said, confessing to starting his run a third of the way down.

Back in London, the unit trusts expert got himself into a bit of a financial fix. After speaking at the Money Show he jumped into a taxi outside Olympia only to find he was light on cash. 'I seemed to have more Swiss francs and US dollars than pounds,' he recalled. The enterprising Mr Tregoning then struck a stamps for cash deal whereby the cabbie accepted 20 second-class stamps in part-payment for his fare. 'He was actually quite nice about it,' he said.

THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS, the illustrious business organisation run by Peter Morgan, has flung itself into the heady world of graphic design with a new logo. Not that you would notice. Judging by the new flag fluttering outside the group's Pall Mall headquarters, the new logo looks pretty much like the old one, only it cost pounds 60,000. Instead of a boring old IOD in capitals, the spanking new image is, well, a boring old IOD in capitals except the letters interlock and the D is bigger.

'We were trying to emphasise that while there are many institutes and organisations, there is only one for directors,' explained a spokesman.

Mr Morgan took umbrage at the suggestion that only a designer or someone with very good eyesight would spot the difference. 'What can you do with an I, an O and a D?' he protested.

The new design would, he said, lend itself to all sorts of new possibilities, like IOD ties. 'Not natty, but tasteful.' T

THE FINANCIAL plight of Euro Disney is reflected in the company's new and obviously more economically produced annual report, published yesterday. Gone are the glossy pictures and gone too are the translations that repeated each announcement on the opposite page in French.

This year's effort is a small, plain offering in which the only picture is a modest black and white mugshot of the chairman Philippe Bourguignon.

The one concession to amusement is the small line drawings of Disney characters alongside the page numbers. The designer obviously has a sense of humour. The first page of figures comes illustrated with a drawing of Dumbo.

YESTERDAY WE HAD Birmingham bidding to turn itself into Britain's premier conference centre, now London Docklands is trying its luck. The development corporation has produced a glossy brochure introducing its wonderful conference facilities. The list includes the Scandic Crown Hotel, HMS Belfast . . . and Rotherhithe Youth Hostel. Here, nothing is too much: staff, the blurb enthuses, 'are happy to take telephone messages'.