SUBTITLED: THE MONEY WE DON’T HAVE
Just now, few hours to year end I want to write about this for a precise reason: I wish to ideally kick 2011 in the ass and send it far away in the corners of memory, because 2011 is the year of crisis – and was a bad year for me too not only monetary wise-.
It was a friday afternoon some weeks ago when I was slowly approaching the end of the day, I was tidying up my desk, postponing the filing of millions of papers for the umpteenth time, unable to find the will to do it and just piling them in an overloaded folder, I entered my boss office to check if there was anything else he needed and while wishing me a good weekend he hands me over a glossy magazine: “Laura, something for your train ride”. It was one of those moment when the few remaining hours between me and the weekend start were loaded with all the burden of an intense working week.
After the last effort, I switch off the computer, finally leave the office premises, get on the train and open the magazine. And there I am, with my wavering mood of the friday afternoon, I find myself in front of the Friday edition of the Financial Times which is called -in all fairness outrageously- “How to spend it“. Well there we go, My boss reads daily the FT and also the Wall Street Journal, and even though he is a top manager he is totally down to earth and also the best boss I ever had (let me add, just in case he ever finds out about my blog!). But there I found myself offended also in his name, by the fact that the editorial staff of FT is obviously giving for granted that only people that not only have money but also are disgustingly snobbish read their paper! Moreover this magazine is not a normal size A4 but is more an A3, like a slap in the face of the monetary austerity and is a 62 pages of pure and only luxus goods. 
Just after the cover even far before the index there is a 2 page advertisement of a Chanel watch, as big as my face. Follows another 2 pages dedicated to a mobile phone I clearly have never heard of called VERTU (FYI I was trying to find out prices online now and I just can understand they fluctuate between the thousands of euros). Finally after another Louis Vuitton watch we get to the index. In total, out of 62 pages, 12 are about watches, followed by jewels, luxury cognac, clothes, prohibitive holiday destinations, leather chairs and finally a few lines. They even bothered to write down a piece of article!
Well, don’t get me wrong, I perfectly know that the world is populated by rich people too… but lately I happened to notice more and more their big cars in the streets while wondering if their owners do pay taxes in my poor country… Also I think it’s a sensitive time when we reflect on how unbalanced are distributed wealth and power, the rich people are just grasping more and more for themselves, while middle class get poorer. So wasn’t really my favourite reading.
I turned the last page with a smile cause i had no other choice, I assume, unless I win the lottery tomorrow. I am not one of them and I don’t wish to be if this means being the dumb public of such a magazine. In the end I find it quite hilarious and honestly speaking there is even something i would save among their superficial shiny empty contents. There is a good writer, a female reporter who has a very funny and brilliant dedicated column called: “Chronicles of a spa junkie”. Of course she tells stories about places and things we can only dream about. But she doesn’t sound posh. I also wish I was a succesfull writer who gets paid to get scrubbed and rubbed down every second day!
Check it here:
http://www.howtospendit.com/#!/articles/6330-chronicles-of-a-spa-junkie
