Focus: THE COST OF A FANTASY LIFESTYLE
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Your support makes all the difference."Flashy flunkies everywhere" pounds 15,000 for a valet, far less for a waiter or cleaner. Say pounds 1m for a staff of 50 dressed by Armani.
"A country estate" pounds 2.5m to buy one in Oxfordshire. pounds 100,000 to heat it. Then you have to furnish it...
"To wallow in champagne" Rare Bollinger is pounds 150 a bottle. The Savoy offers 1989 Roederer Cristal Rose at pounds 300 a bottle.
"A supersonic plane" No chance; they all belong to governments. Best private jet: Gulfstream V at pounds 23m.
"Uranium to spare" Try buying uranium and the security services of numerous countries would soon take an interest.
"To journey on a gigantic yacht" Not much change from pounds 30m for a top- of-the-range model.
"A fancy foreign car" Say a pounds 103, 000 Mercedes SL6000?
"To tire of caviar" A 200gm tin of Imperial Beluga from Fortnum & Mason costs pounds 390.
"A marble swimming pool too" pounds 100,000.
"A liveried chauffeur" pounds 30,000 a year.
"An opera box" (for Wagner at the Met) ... Forget the Met, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden re-opens in December with Wagner's Falstaff. Will cost about pounds 750 for
a party of five.
"To corner Cartier" pounds 305,000 for a man's watch; for her,
a mere pounds 198,000. Both have diamonds on the face and bracelet.
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