During my years at Eduserv I have managed to earn a reputation for opulence. This was mostly due to frequent holidays, a love of good eating and a penchant for “fine wines”
This teasing has continued unabated, particularly from Tim and Charlie to the point of annoyance. This prompted me to take a closer look at their life styles and once under the microscope it became clear that these chaps were no strangers to the finer things in life themselves.
Frequent holidays, luxury goods and expensive restaurants, their levels of opulence are certainly up there with mine if not above! The two of them continued to deny their opulence and gang up on me but the evidence was beginning to speak for itself.
The end result was that it was deemed necessary to judge this properly and find out once and for all who is the most opulent of us!
The scoring system has not been nailed down but I suggest that each person gets judged on three topics per week
Luxury goods purchased
Eating out and eating in general
Outings/holidays
Each contestant is judged out of 10 for each topic, the person with the most points loses that week and is given 1 opulence point. The person with the most opulence points at the end of 2013 will be crowned the opulent champion for 2013 and must take the other two frugal contestants for an opulent meal at the Pony and Trap in Chew Magna.
But first an introduction to the contestants.
Charles ‘Lockhart’ Llewellyn
He may dress like the kind of person you would expect to see peddling copies of the Big Issue on some God awful street corner but do not be deceived, this man has a penchant for the good living and spending normally associated with the rich and famous.
The last couple of years of his life can be described as a whirlwind of international travelling and excessive good living.
Not content with 6 months of world travelling last year, he also managed to fit in several other international holidays as well as engaging in a spending spree of luxury goods, things such as bikes, projectors and buzz saws! Not content with his current perfectly good projector or bike he has to have the latest and greatest.
A day seldom passes in work without a delivery of something or other and his habit for cooking a new recipe every night means his monthly expenditure at Tesco’s is large enough to make your eyes bleed.
This man does not just dip his toe into opulence he is steeped in it but he does need to be watched closely. He was recently rumbled for withholding information concerning an excessive restaurant meal out. What he had previously described as a youth hostelling weekend actually turned out to have climaxed at an expensive hotel including a dinner consisting of Lobster and Champagne. That’s not like any youth hostelling i’m familiar with.
Any lies will be penalised severely.
Tim Lawrence
The arrival of a daughter whilst Tim was still relatively young perhaps initially held him back from the kind of opulent life style that would land you in this kind of competition.
In recent years however his meteoric rise in the IT industry has turned things around and the cash is flowing along with his love of the good life! He has tasted opulence and he wants more.
Recent actions clearly show that this man is contender in many ways.
Exhibit one – the purchase of a large flat screen TV two days before the boxing day sales clearly shows that money is no object. As we all know flat screen TV’s are the symbol of an opulent life style.
Exhibit two – Not content with his perfectly good car he had to go and out buy an expensive new powerful BMW!
Exhibit three – Tablet computer purchased on a lunch time whim.
Exhibit four – As we speak he is currently engaging in a weekend break at a boutique hotel and Michelin star restaurant. Once upon a time this would have been considered out of the ordinary, not anymore.
Perhaps he feels he’s making up for lost time? Perhaps he feels he has something to prove? All I know is this man is living the dream.
Olly Portingale
There was a time when I could put my hand up and openly admit to an opulent lifestyle. World travel, European city breaks, weekends away and fine dining were the norm.
The recent arrival of a baby has however changed my lifestyle quite dramatically, we’ve had to cut back on the finer things to divert our cash flow to little Alfie.
I honestly cant remember the last time we ate out and I havent flown out of the country for a number of weeks.
Right now I imagine my life is very similar to that of a Monks, frugal, spiritual and not excessive in anyway.
I can already taste the free meal at the Pony and Trap!
Let the judging begin!
portingalesponderings 