The latest episode in Vicki's odyssey as a young merchant navy cadet comes from Louise Livingston, senior claims director and head of Thomas Miller Americas' San Francisco office.

Vicki came to us on Wednesday December 11th and enjoyed her first day off in four months. It was a busy day in our office as one executive was away travelling on business, another was just leaving on a similar trip and two of us dealing urgently with a letter of undertaking for one of our Greek members.

After our initial hellos claims executives Debbie Bronis and Linda Wright, both of whom have daughters about Victoria's age, took her to lunch at the historic Tadich Grill. The Tadich is a fish restaurant in San Francisco that has been open since the 19th century (that is old by California's standards anyway !), although it started life as a coffee house.

They had a lively lunch together and then brought Victoria back for another brief visit with claims and loss prevention executive George Radu and me. We then sent her off for bargain Christmas shopping up the street where it seems she was successful.

The team were impressed, to quote one colleague: "She is a great young lady and really excited about what she is doing - even the ugly parts ! "