London's Dorchester hotel is preparing to receive a much noisier crowd than is normal this evening: human rights protesters objecting to Swaziland's king arriving in London.

Gerald Ronson's annual lunch at The Dorchester has become a grand affair. This year, 350 of the commercial property industry's leading businessmen and most influential commentators were looking forward to its courses of salmon and beef.

It was my 48th birthday yesterday and my wife Kim and I booked a little log cabin by the side of Loch Lomond. The trials and tribulations of the Premier League seemed a million miles away. It was beautiful. We went for plenty of walks in the most glorious countryside you can imagine.

A minor league player has been sent off for wrestling a pitch invader dressed as UK comic Sacha Baron Cohen's faux-documentary character "Borat" to the ground.

As the Church of England drowns itself in an ever-enlarging sea of paper and political correctness, so certain individuals from its history emerge, like figures from a skilfully restored painting, and we begin to realise that if the faith is to flourish in the 21st century we need to find once again deans of the stature of Michael Mayne and Michael Stancliffe, and bishops of the calibre of Robert Runcie and Peter Walker. Faith was not a simple matter for Walker, but he succeeded in communicating the excitement of the pursuit. He appreciated the poetry of R S Thomas – "such a fast God" – and of his beloved Geoffrey Hill. He relished the teasing out of the message – "the meaning is in the waiting".

When screenwriter Michael Thomas and I secured the film rights to the lives of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, we immediately invited them – separately, of course – out to dinner. Mandy was first up, groomed and debonair at the Dorchester Grill. When asked why she had waved regally and signed autographs outside the Old Bailey while Christine had dodged missiles and insults, she paused, then observed, "well, I grew up around horses."

Today: The first Cider Route train sets off in Asturias, northern Spain. Passengers will be able to sample regional cuisine and visit a cider museum, a monastery and nature reserve. Further planned departure dates include 2 and 3 October ( trenesturisticosdelnorte.com).

A pensioner on a mobility scooter has been run over by a vintage tractor at a country show in Dorchester, police said.

Today: Check into Matakauri Lodge, which opens on the shore of Lake Wakatipu outside Queenstown in New Zealand. The luxurious lodge features contemporary styling and stunning lake and mountain views (matakaurilodge.com).

It seems safe to say that Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, was not entirely impressed with the US Federal Reserve's limited extension of quantitative easing on Tuesday. Here's what he told the New York Times yesterday: "The Federal Open Market Committee has spoken. What's my reaction? The Fed's current policy is grossly inadequate, logically bizarre, and slightly – but only slightly – encouraging."

A pair of vases left on a bedroom shelf have transformed a couple's retirement after selling for almost £500,000 at auction in Dorchester.

Coastguards warned about the dangers of "tombstoning" yesterday after a 75-year-old man jumped from an 80ft beauty spot and was seriously hurt.