You know that game you play when you're a kid? The one that goes "IfIWasReallyRichLikeREALLYRichIWouldBuy....." presuming that money is infinite and of the scale that could easily purchase everything from a magic pony castle populated by talking monkeys to a live-in French patissier/sex wizard, depending on the player's age. Some sad cases continue to play this game until way past the age where it might do them any good whatsoever.
I am 29, and I am still playing it.
Moreover, I am proud to advise that I have now come up with the definitive list of what I would buy if I were magnificently, massively, amazingly, pant-wettingly rich. And here it is.
1. A Rembrandt. A really massive one. I've spent years of game-playing time hesitating between a Rembrandt or a Vermeer. So I've decided that I would have a huge Rembrandt on one wall of the enormous castle I would build to contain it, and a Vermeer facing it on the opposite one. That way, I have all eternity to sit and contemplate which one's prettier.
2. A Peter Scott painting. After careful deliberation I can now advise that this would be the remote and unlikely one entitled one entitled When The Tide Turned The Brent Geese Came In Against A Background of Showers
3. An Indonesian island one which gibbons and orang-utans could live undisturbed by humans.
4. A lake with reeds and ducks by it. I could pick it up by the corners and move it to just outside the massive castle I would build to contain my Rembrandt (see no. 1)
5. A holiday to go whale-watching in the Arctic. The elder small person and I would love to do this. Even Mon Geek has expressed halting enthusiasm. And the unborn will go where I take him, at least for now.
6. A bookshop. No one would be allowed to buy anything from it, though. It would be for housing my huge collection of first editions, and other stuff. And I would sit in it working my way through a case of Pol Roger.
7. A library with a wing back chair and a walnut desk where I could look at the lake (see no. 4) whenever I wasn't feeling sociable enough to be in the bookshop.
8. A harpsichord with a goat grazing nearby. No explanation is required for this.
9. A diamond-encrusted mechanised root vegetable dissecter, to stop chopping swede being such a frigging workout.
10. A skywriter to slag off all the people who irk me daily. "WANKER ON THE BUS - STOP SHOVING PAST PEOPLE" "VICTORIA CENTRE SHOPPERS - MILLING RANDOMLY WILL EARN YOU A KICK UP THE BUM" and so on.
There, that's my top ten. Of course, there are loads more, like the employment of a tutor to teach Mon Geek to be a top patissier and Escoffier-ranked chef, a permanent rotisserie in the kitchen, and an elephant to ride through the forests picking peachy fruits from the back of, but it's a start. Now, when my lottery numbers come up, I'll know where to start. It's a strategy I tells you.
Sounds like a very sensible plan indeed. :) I keep trying to think of what I would buy if I had all the money in the world, but I keep limiting myself to a modest herd of llamas, a slightly larger telly (ie above 14 inches) and the little gift shop of dreams. Oh and employ someone to change my duvet cover every day for a nice fresh clean one and put hot water bottles under it a bit before bedtime in winter. Nice big hot water bottles. Is there a reason why they only ever make them a certain size? True, you can get smaller ones now, but not larger, properly huggable sized ones. Why is this? Hm?
ReplyDeleteMy dear, your ideas are ace! The duvet cover one and the llamas are definitely on my list :D Because then I would have yarn for ever...ok, maybe they'd better be alpacas :D I did buy a reasonably sized hot water bottle from Boots the other day, it was in a white furry cover and cost like £12 though, which seemed slightly overpriced :(
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