Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby is clearly enjoying the lifestyle of a big civic boss, with or without his chauffeur-driven Jag.
When the X-type was off the road earlier this year and with important business to attend to, Whitby did the sensible thing and booked a private hire car. But what was the "business" that required a trip to Manchester?
Erm, well, an invitation to watch Aston Villa play Manchester United, actually.
Whitby and his close chum Alan Rudge, the cabinet member for equalities and human resources, donned their claret and blue shirts and put themselves at the disposal of Woodlands Chauffeur Services for the return trip to Old Trafford, at a cost to the public purse of £200.
The fee is neither here nor there in the great scheme of things, but the invitation to the game came from the chairman and directors of financial consultants Deloittes who you might have thought would have been able to afford to send their own car for Whitby. After all, the firm gets plenty of business out of Birmingham City Council.
In 2003, admittedly before Whitby became leader, Deloittes signed a deal to become the council's financial partner for three years, promising to bring private sector expertise and help deliver new projects.
A year later, the firm was appointed to examine the costings of Coun Whitby's doomed Brumderground project, an underground railway for Birmingham.
Since then, Deloittes has also been hired to undertake an inquiry into rationalising the council's property portfolio and has given the council specialist advice on the sale of Birmingham International Airport.
Clearly, then, there was much business to talk about over the prawn sandwiches as United stuffed Villa 3-1.
But should council tax payers really be picking up a £200 bill for a football match?
There is no problem, according to council chief legal officer Mirza Ahmad, who says he is very comfortable with the trip.
Mirza's view is that gifts and hospitality "so long as they are properly declared and there is no impropriety" are acceptable under the council's code of conduct.
Mirza adds: "As invited guests normally pay their own travel to get to the event, I see nothing wrong with the leader and the cabinet member choosing to go together, by car, to avoid two separate journeys and in order to discuss council business."
That's as may be, but you could think of worse places to do business than the theatre of dreams.
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Crumbs. The curse of Iron Angle has struck again.
No sooner had this column exposed the rantings of teenage Tory blogger Gary Sambrook, aka Brummie Tory, than his website mysteriously disappeared. The official explanation is that Sambrook is devoting all his spare time to studying for his exams. But that hasn't prevented the thoughts of Brummie Tory appearing in the past.
Even more mysteriously, anyone attempting to access the Brummie Tory site is redirected to a blog about early forms of Chinese art.
Strange. Very strange.