A break abroad can be dead relaxing

Cliff Richard once sang: "We're all going on a summer holiday, no more worries for a week or two" - aside from horrendous airport delays, unfinished hotel developments, stomach complaints, and pot-bellied lager louts from Essex, of course (if, like Guru, your travel agent of choice uses brochures from the 1980s).

But worse things often await when you get back from your summer break, as Romanian worker Valentin Lefter can testify.

The 20-year-old returned from holiday last month only to find he had lost his job because he had been declared dead.

When he arrived back at home, Lefter found a letter from wine-bottling company Prodecam Vanatori on his doormat.

"The letter - addressed to my wife - commiserated my passing away, and said that any outstanding payments would be sent to her within the next month," Lefter said.

When he rang his managers, they apologised and said the letter had been sent out because of an IT error. However, they said he could not have his job back because they had already employed someone in his place. Lefter now plans to sue the company for 10,000.

Perhaps Lefter had not made it clear enough he was going away. Guru for one is in his Bermuda shorts and oversized sun hat in the office at least a fortnight before he goes away, quietly humming Macarena to 'get in the holiday mood'.