As I stare across a sunlit Galway Bay, I see a strong westerly wind sending a steady stream of white-capped waves rushing towards the Irish coast. It's great weather for sailing, or perhaps a boat trip to the Aran islands.

I promise myself that this column is the only piece of writing I am going to do while on vacation. Of course, I'll take a few minutes to log on and pick up my e-mail. Oh, and I'll phone into my voicemail and catch my messages. It is, after all is said and done, best not to let those two message stores get too full.

There has always been a noticeable slowing of the European business pace in August. And so I've always told my editors that it's a good month for me to take a week or two of vacation. But with the ubiquity of mobile-phone connections, e-mail and the Internet, perhaps that slowing won't be discernible for much longer. The distinctions between time at work and time at rest and play are being eroded.

There's no doubt that the Internet and e-mail are a business boon. I can be constantly in touch. I can write my column and file it via a mobile phone from almost anywhere in Europe; even here on the Atlantic seaboard of an island on the uttermost edge of the continent.

But in another sense they are a blight on a well-ordered life.

The Internet community never rests. The United States wakes as Europe hits its mid-day stride and as Asia pauses for sleep. Information circles the globe, sucking the online executive into a world that is always active, always working.

In the United States, the desire to excel seems to drive people and businesses to always go full tilt, winter, spring, summer and fall. By contrast, in Europe we have always taken our vacations seriously.

It is a tradition that Paris empties in late July as everyone goes to the country for August. The London stock exchange has a saying, "Sell in May and go away." And we have numerous one-day holidays dotted throughout the year. These practices are remnants of an earlier age, but business still slows in the summer, although perhaps less than before.

There's no doubt that as Europe catches up with U.S. business practices — in the use of the PC and connection to the Internet — we are becoming more like the United States. The question then becomes, in terms of vacations, perhaps the United States should become more like Europe?

There, it is done.

If the weather holds, tomorrow will see me exploring Inishmore, largest of the Aran islands. Ireland's western coast is famous for its unspoiled remoteness and slow pace of life.

If I can get a GSM mobile-phone signal, I should be able to file my copy from Dun Aengus, a circular stone fort built by the Celts some 2,000 years ago.

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