In contemplating this paper, it occurred to me that the topic I had selected was so boring that I ought to rename the entire event before it started in case I ended up sounding like the really boring priest in Fr. Ted whom I think was Fr Austin Purcell. Fr Purcell was so boring that Ted claimed that an entire village in Nigeria once sailed to their deaths across a crocodile infested lake to escape him!

I thought about calling it something far more interesting like, ‘From California to Key Largo by Canoe’ or ‘Chevy Days’  but gloomily, the best sub-title I could come up with was ‘Global Warming for Lawyers’.  Now if there was ever anything to overcome the boredom of a group of lawyers on a Friday afternoon and to penetrate into any last signs of consciousness or life that might remain in our heads or indeed elsewhere after a long week, it is the thought of being sued by some disappointed beneficiary or enterprising chancer who spotted a soft hundred thousand on the back of our insurance premiums!

It is with that in mind that I intend to start with the shortest periods.