Hi °C | Lo °C Summer time and the living isn't easy. Between banking glitches, banking downgrades and another round of bailouts it's as if we've donned our beach wear only to arrive in the holiday season to find somebody forgot to order the sunshine.
But we're a determined lot in the Northern Ireland business community and will grin and bare the cold in our sunscreen, shorts and, most probably for many out there, sandals until the economic sun shines.
And it will, certainly at the end of this week when one of the biggest sporting events to grace these shores arrives on the north coast, bringing with it a small army of golf tourists with money to spend and tales to tell when they go back to their homelands. There's a chance the sun might peak through for the Irish Open but if we take that as a bonus rather than a given and show our visitors the time of their lives in the next few days come rain or shine, then they will be able to spread the word about our hidden charms better than any brochure.
As any holidaymaker knows, word-of-mouth recommendations are worth ten times more than public forums so we have a golden opportunity to impress golf tourists who wouldn't otherwise venture here.
Certainly the appearance of Caddyshack star Bill Murray illustrates the draw of the tournament but let's hope he's more of an economic Ghostbuster rather than a signal that nothing's going to change in the mould of Groundhog Day.
The latter is unlikely because our tourist industry is already on the up after the opening of Titanic Belfast, the MTV awards and after a marketing campaign spread across the world. That's before you mention the economic benefits which come from having Northern Ireland plastered across the world's media in the wake of the Queen.
Our reputation around the world can't have been higher and it's up to us in business to grab that wave of goodwill with both hands and make hay while the sun shines, without wanting to fall back too much on the metaphors.
Meanwhile, the problems at Ulster Bank are an inconvenient glitch which will impede business in the short term and no doubt cause a headache for accountants up and down the country. As Mervyn King said yesterday, RBS will need to take a long hard look at its IT system to find out what went wrong and there's no doubt that putting it right, both practically and reputationally, will be an expensive process.
Hopefully everything will be working again later this week so our tourist businesses can bank the many millions which are coming our way as the Irish Open rolls into town.
The 19th hole really will be the place to be this weekend.
