I had dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight with my friend, former boss and brilliant colleague Janet, her economist/musician boyfriend Hans, their journalist friend Nesha and our colleague, project manager Chris.

Janet, a native of the Liverpool area, is living proof that we do live in a global village where distance has far less meaning than it used to. She works mainly in London but makes her home in Frankfurt and flies in and out of the British capital just about every week.

The restaurant -- Ciao Bella on Lambs Conduit in Bloomsbury -- has a menu with a wide selection, good, moderately priced food and friendly waiters.

It was my first meeting with Hans and Nesha, both charming in the extreme. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Nesha and I had once worked at the same company at the same time and knew a lot of the same people.

Hans is originally from Saarbrucken in southwest Germany but works in Frankfurt. He says that, as Germany's business capital, it's the place to go if you want to work as an economist.

He also likes Frankfurt because its a relatively small city that offers big-city amenities. So I guess Diane, Jay and I will have to pay a visit sometime!