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Post by perrykneeham on Mar 29, 2024 18:59:08 GMT
I'm a decade or more away, but I'd pick San Diego, Perth or Cape Town, for a combination of culture, scenery, climate and language reasons. Perth is a bit too remote, Cape Town is cheaper but has the potential to turn to sh*t quickly. San Diego would be way too expensive if we didn't already own a small house here. If I less of a moron in younger days and actually learned to spoeak foreign, Crete or Morocco or Spain would have a lot of appeal. Maybe when I'm older the brutal heat of the US southern desert would become less repellant, but I'm pretty sure I'd never handle anywhere that's got hot and humid like the US south or South-East Asia. I'm all in for Mediterranean dry coastal climate. Start learning Spanish on Duolingo. Piece o' piss.
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Post by flatandy on Mar 29, 2024 20:00:46 GMT
Toro mierda.
No language is easy for me. My brain works OK for some things. Foreign doesn't seem to be one of them.
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voice
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Post by voice on Mar 29, 2024 20:17:48 GMT
I'm aiming to retire in 7 years, looking at Vancouver Island, still has wild places lots of canoe opportunities and as the mountains are not quite as rugged as here on the mainland, will still be manageable as I get older.
While I love desert environments the heat is too much now for me to do more than a brief visit.
In other news, got the 3 new chicks today, nearly a day old, cheering away in the brooder in the livingroom surrounded by the cats and dogs who are very very curious
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voice
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Post by voice on Apr 1, 2024 16:19:29 GMT
Beautiful long weekend here, been working on the grounds at voice acres, weeding, planting, though the big improvement is stripped down the old chicken fence and built a much better looking cedar fence around a bigger area. Happy chicks mean happy eggs.
A cold beer in the hot tub topped off the days. Life is sweet
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 1, 2024 16:23:59 GMT
Usual Friday evening drinks and tapas with the folks. Back up to London for dinner with friends on Saturday. Easter roast with folks last night. Manchild and proto-DIL here tonight for curry.
Days spent dogwalking and DIYing. Electrics this morning: preparatory to a new shower pump.
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Post by flatandy on Apr 1, 2024 22:12:36 GMT
Just landed in Fort Lauderdale before heading off tomorrow for ridiculous tacky luxury “yacht” week in the Caribbean. Fort Lauderdale really shouldn’t exist. Looking out as we landed it’s so obviously built in subsiding swamp. It’s just a massive sprawl with canals and lakes everywhere that looks like everything is flooded.
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Post by flatandy on Apr 3, 2024 14:35:15 GMT
Well, here I am on my “luxury motor yacht”. Frankly, the whole think seems utterly pointless. Like an extremely expensive and big caravan. There are more crew than guests which just feels oppressive. I’d rather be on land, in a hotel with bigger rooms. The boat doesn’t actually go anywhere with us on it. Why do billionaires buy these things?
Just to be clear, it’s not actually bad, sitting in the Caribbean sun on a boat deck. But it’s just a bit boring, and makes me feel restless.
That said, flying here on the private jet was nice. I could get used to private jet as a means of transport, removing 95% of the queues and airport and crowds and annoyances of normal flying. Sitting backwards is a bit strange and nobody ever tells you that on films with private jets in them, but the rest of the experience is a definite step up from Ryanair out of Stansted or even EasyJet out of Gatwick.
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 3, 2024 14:40:53 GMT
I think the whole concept of "luxury" revolves around waving it in the face of other empty-souled cunts, while simultaneously trying to hold down feelings of social inadequacy and self-contempt.
Present company excepted, natch. It's actually quite a challenge for very wealthy people, because the kind of people they would like to be with, can't afford to join in.
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voice
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Post by voice on Apr 3, 2024 15:42:50 GMT
So is this a junket of some kind or are you moving up in the world?
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Post by flatandy on Apr 3, 2024 18:20:17 GMT
Pure junket freebie, off the missus’s job. It’s so ridiculous. You stay on a massive boat, but the boat doesn’t go anywhere. So, effectively, you’re just in a rocking, awing, yawing, hotel room, where it’s harder than normal to go into town. If you like being waited on hand and foot, didn’t want any choice in your food, and wanted to just get hammered, it would be a treat. But really, it’s completely silly. It might be worth having one of these if you have 10s of billions of dollars and wanted to be able to run away in the case of global collapse. But for the average billionaire who’s not paranoid about the end of the world, it seems just a weird way to get rid of your excess capital.
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Post by flatandy on Apr 3, 2024 18:22:42 GMT
I don’t completely agree with Baloo on luxury. Some luxury is really nice. But this is ostentation without value.
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 3, 2024 18:52:13 GMT
I'm not sure which luxury I particularly hold dear or enjoy. A decent piece of chocolate?
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 3, 2024 18:58:09 GMT
I prefer quality to luxury. I genuinely cannot think of something "luxurious" that I would take over simple good quality. Odd.
It's possible that I am just a bit of a spartan, and I detest wastefulness (I'm less pious about gluttony). I wouldn't drive a luxury car if you gave it to me.
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mids
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Post by mids on Apr 3, 2024 18:58:47 GMT
I don't know if I've had or done anything "luxurious". I suppose it's a bit subjective and relative. I've always thought some aspects of the billionaire lifestyle must be crap- like having a huge mansion but always having to have staff under your feet and not being able to just lounge around on your own.
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voice
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Post by voice on Apr 3, 2024 19:50:21 GMT
yeah quality is the thing.
I'm not sure if luxury is a bit of a con, I've had many things I'm told are rare and luxurious such as caviar, but been very underwhelmed by them, I was left thinking its just what they must tell themselves to make themselves feel special.
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 3, 2024 19:54:52 GMT
I enjoy smoked oysters. They're hardly luxurious though. They're not even expensive. I buy mine in Asda.
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mids
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Post by mids on Apr 3, 2024 20:10:51 GMT
I think I've had those and I think I prefer mussels. Also cod roe is better than caviar.
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voice
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Post by voice on Apr 3, 2024 20:17:04 GMT
A bit of a side issue, but I'm convinced so called foodies are just conning themselves there is anything fundamentally better eating something costing a few hundred quid in some fancy exclusive restaurant that could be bought for a fraction of the cost at just a decent place. I think its the exclusivity of eating at mega expensive places and eating exotic or rare dishes like giraffes testicles or some such guff, but its all smoke and mirrors.
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mids
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Post by mids on Apr 3, 2024 20:29:41 GMT
I tend to agree. It just seems like diminishing returns once you get past a decent pub meal. About 40 quid per person for two courses. Drinks extra, of course.
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Post by perrykneeham on Apr 3, 2024 20:44:20 GMT
I fished a book of poetry out of a skip today. Rab Burns.
My Mum had to be physically restrained from climbing in. What a waste of books it was. Gittish too, as there are loads of charity shops within a a hundred yards of where the house was being cleared.
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