The hedonistic lifestyle...

So, it seems I have almost managed to overcome the creative differences I have been experiencing with myself, and settle on using this blog to make account on my pursuit (for your pleasure of course) of the hedonistic lifestyle, and my attempts to define, capture and observe this elusive trophy in words and pictures.

Google defines hedonism as the pursuit of pleasure or the ethical theory that pleasure is the highest good and proper aim of human life. Wikipedia was unfortunately unavailable to quote due to the SOPA protest and I consulted the Urban Dictionary but was unable to get a sensible answer from them.

So I guess it is down to me to describe my interpretation. An article in the Business Special section of February's GQ magazine titled 'last of the famous international playboys' sheds some light on it. Unlike the self styled fame and bling seeking 'Playboys' of today, the international playboys of the 60's were cultured, stylish and well mannered. They were both a ladies man and a mans man, and had buckets of charm backed up by a mischievous smile. Don't misinterpret however, these men knew how to respect and treat women.

They enjoyed sporting pursuits, the more dangerous the better such as horse polo. They enjoyed the most amazing locations, partied and admittedly did some silly things, but where always careful not to be vulgar. they were connoisseurs. They never sought fame rather it found them. These men had what I would describe as a hedonistic life. This article:  http://tinyurl.com/7vghsuj  titled death of a playboy is very interesting and I recommend reading it.

I guess you could say actually then, that the Hedonistic lifestyle is what you make of it, and not what others define it as.....

Monaco the hedonistic capitol of the world?

-Alex

Montenegro, Finance

This post was meant to be about Montenegro, a country who only recently gained its independence and that is fast becoming a hot spot for the wealthy. I decided to write about Montenegro because of its advantages of being far larger than Monaco, having far cheaper house prices and benefiting from hot summer climes to even a ski resort in the winter. After some reading I had also been lead to believe it was a tax haven and potentially the new Monaco.

However writers who had under researched, failed to understand that in 2010 and 2011 new tax laws were passed increasing taxes payable in Montenegro. One of Monaco's biggest advantages other than the weather and scenery is its 0% income tax and 0% capital gains tax. However after looking a little further Monaco has other taxes that are high. Despite this if you sell your business for millions and are looking to retire in the sun, 0% capitol gains tax as opposed to 28% in the UK is attractive. For example if you have £10million pounds, George #toryslittleritchboy Osborne and the tax man will relieve you of £2.8million entirely at their pleasure. These discovery's made me decide to establish exactly which country you're best to move to if you don't want the tax man getting his grubby little fingers on your ill gotten gains.

This however proved to be too difficult. Forbes have a list of their top ten, http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/06/tax-havens-delaware-bermuda-markets-singapore-belgium.html but I think you really need a degree in economics or a financial adviser to find the country best for you. It also depends if you are running a business or if it's for personal wealth. This left me with the new challenge of rescuing the blog post before it became entirely boring, unfortunately I have to finish writing as I have a meeting with Patrick Bateman my financial agent. I'm looking to move my Tesco shares to an offshore account in the Cayman islands. All 120 of them.

-Alex

2011 and 2012

So 2011 is over and we have our feet firmly planted in 2012. The world is ready to forget 2011 it seems... there were some awful natural disasters (make no joke about it) and the worsening debt crisis among other things. But I doubt we've seen the last of either of those.

The January issue of GQ magazine named Boris Johnson, Mayor of London as the most influential man in Britain in 2012. I like Boris (cue memories of chanting his name through a pub in his former parliamentary constituency one new years eve) but I still fail to see how realistically he is no.1. I cant remember seeing Prince Phillip on the list at all either. I do however like the thought of the 'playboy toff' running the playground of London and I guess with the Olympics coming up he will have the ear of some very important people and they his. The following photo is taken from http://www.boriswatch.com/ a Boris fan club;

Today's metro news paper featured a house in Greenwich, south London which the owner is renting out during the Olympics, for £37,500 a week!!! It is a five floor town house with a temperature controlled wine cellar so for all you Olympics fans this is where you'll be wanting to stay. The property is reported to have been worth £225,000 in 1997 but today is worth £2.5 million! I think that's a little bit more of a return that you get from the banks at the moment! For that price I think i'd trade it in for a country pile #lordofthemanor.

So here is a DofG top tip, invest in property. Although if you're house gets repossessed I take no responsibility. Also try and make friends with Boris it seems. It also looks like this post paves the way for slightly more serious postings this year, although I think I may have promised a guide to being an international playboy. I will also hopefully have for you some guest posts and a wider range of topics, so bear with me whilst I try to figure out which direction the blog is heading!

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Old furniture

Recently learnt that my good friend Jack had a job at a local antiques dealer so went down to see him on new years day;

here is the #wheelerdealer himself, you may not recognize him from the recent series of Downton Abby (but he was there). I had a look around and came across this old gun cabinet for £80.

I'm not quite sure what you'd do with it, I don't even think its secure enough to legally hold guns anymore but I think it would house a flat screen TV quite nicely!? I've been looking at Ralph Lauren interior designs and really like them. Stick it in Google images search and see what comes up!

Anyway I have neglected my blog recently, but my new years resolution is to be a lot more thorough with it, and to try and use photos taken by myself.  Happy new year to you all.

-Alex

'icons of cool'

Ive decided to write about iconic men with real grandeur. Before I go on, I would like to try and cover myself legally by saying I don’t own any of these photos, but will be posting the links with them, and will take them down if asked.  This blog obviously doesn’t include every man, but a few that I think are of particular note.

First and in no particular order, is the legendary king of cool himself, Steve McQueen. I own Marshal Terrill’s biography on him and another book compiled by marshal with articles written by those who knew him.  Steve managed to effortlessly ooze cool, and was great in front of the camera. He came from nowhere and at one point was the highest paid actor in Hollywood. 

There are so many awesome photos of Steve it’s impossible to narrow it down but here are two that I thought would be good. 

I chose the second one because it shows a more affectionate Steve with his first wife, rather than the usual bravado that he puts on for many of his films and how he appears in many other portraits. This blog: http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/steve-mcqueen-hollywoods-own-true-son-of-liberty/ has some brilliant photos of Steve, and is where I purloined those two pictures from.

His performance in the Thomas crown affair was brilliant, especially as Steve’s background was a far cry from that of his character.

Second is British ledged Sir Michael Caine. Caine’s hard man with a soft centre look has made him famous the world over. He has a very distinct voice and made famous one of the best film lines ever transposed, ‘you’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors of’. This picture of him looking hard is from the film Get Carter, where a gangster returns home to avenge his brother’s murder.  He also played the lovable rouge in Alfie, and the brilliant role of Aflred in Batman. 

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/gjh5v

Third is JFK, this young president had it all, power, money, looks, women, style. He literally had the world, until his life was ended. The mystery around his murder is still perceived to be one of Americas biggest and exciting secrets.  This photo shows him relaxed on a yacht wearing his signature sunglasses.

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/lq0o0

Fourth is James Dean, James’s tragic death has undoubtedly cemented his name into Hollywood legend.  7 days before his death he had shown Sir Alec Guinness his beloved Porsche spider, Alec told him that if he got in that thing he would be dead within a week…  in James’s portraits he always looks quite troubled, like there is something eating at him inside...

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/jajwl

Fifth is Daniel Craig, in particular reference to his role as James Bond. I have already mentioned Sean Connery in depth in a previous blog; otherwise he would more than deserve to be here. The blond Bond overcame initial criticism to re-invigorate the Bond franchise, and make himself the desire of many women and the envy of many men. The scene of him emerging from the sea in his blue budgie smugglers is firmly imprinted into many women’s minds and at the back of many men’s heads as they head to the gym.

Sixth, and I know I said I wasn't going to, but here’s a photo of Sean Connery, he deserves it! The two tattoos seen here were covered up when filming bond. One reads ‘Scotland forever’.

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/gj706

-Alex

D of G’s guide to making people think you’re a millionaire.

Step one.  Clothing. Check out the looks at Ralph Lauren, Hackett and Crew clothing to name a few. You want to look smart/casual, and try mixing in a bit of tweed as mentioned in one of my earlier posts.  If you are on a budget, TK max is a brilliant place to pick up branded clothing, and Marks and Spencer for example offer good quality clothing cheaper because it doesn’t have a branded logo on it. Mix and match, trousers for example can be bought from anywhere as it hard to brand them.  The country/town look is good. ‘An affordable wardrobe’(http://anaffordablewardrobe.blogspot.com/) is a brilliant blog about looking the part on the cheap.

picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/cmxds

picture taken from: www.ralphlauren.com

Step two. Accessories. A lot can be learnt by looking at a man’s accessories. For a start brown is better than black when it comes to leather goods. A gold ring with some sort of crest, usually warn on the pinkie will stand out well and a watch should be well chosen. I could write a whole blog about watches and probably will so for now I will leave it to your discretion. But something that looks smart. Don’t be without a watch. Buying used can save you money. The first watch shown below is a £4,000 Breitling the next watch is a £100 Rotary.

picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/p2x1f

picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/yx3br

Step three. Cars. This bit really depends on your budget. Massive savings can be made by buying a used car and slapping a private plate on it. On a recent top gear episode Jeremy bought a 2002 Mercedes cl500 costing £100k new for just £7.5k (it did however have a few faults).  I quite like Range Rovers in traditional colours such as green and dark blue, definitely don’t buy it in white or you’ll look like Wayne Rooney.  Check out http://www.romansofstalbans.co.uk/ for some used super cars. Land Rover Discoverys and Defenders are also avenues to explore.

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/yx3br

Step four. Activities. Take up shooting, hunting, yachting, Rowing, Polo… anything that a member of the Royal family might be seen to do. Not all of them will cost you an arm and a leg, although shooting might do in every sense of the meaning…

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/29boz

Step five. Dog. Get yourself a dog; it has to be a Labrador/Retriever, a Spaniel, Great Dane, or possibly some kind of big hound.  Then call it something posh… Oliver, Wills, Remington or something like that. Then take it for walks in your Barbour wax jacket.

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/10x1k

Step six. Get yourself a title. Bribe a member of Her Majesty’s Government into putting you on the honours list to become a Sir or Dame.  Pretend you know a lot about something and become a member of the House of Lords. Buy yourself a ‘Lord of the Manor of’ title or Scottish Laird title (the only titles you can actually buy, contrary to what others try and tell you on the internet).  Or become friends with a member of an Arab Royal family and see if he will make you some kind of sheikh. Or you could pretend, but I can’t imagine you’ll get very far with that.  You also can call yourself Esq. (esquire) but that’s quite common these days.

Step seven. Learn the lingo. Watch every episode of Jeeves and Wooster, and say words like ‘what ho’, ‘ruddy hell’ and ‘rather’!

Step eight. Going out. Go out to wherever the Celebes have been seen and get sloshed on champers! Alternatively throw some money around at your local club, use a bit of lingo and the girls will be seeing diamonds. Use terms such as gazeboed. Word of caution, tweed can be quite hot when dancing so maybe just stick to a shirt, a light blazer at most. 

photo taken from: http://tiny.cc/peohy

Stay tuned for D of G's guide to being a playboy and a blog on iconic photos of cool...

Yachts, Boats and Nautical Grandness

For this blog I will be looking at Boats. I realise that this is a very broad subject, and to make this blog readable this will obviously not be the definitive guide to boats and boating, however it should be enjoyable…

Well were to start! In recent times, boats have become more than objects of pleasure, they have become a measurement of one’s wealth.  For example Abramovich and his friends arguing over who has the biggest , he’s currently winning with Eclipse measuring 538ft, only 7 ft longer than the second largest private yacht. Evidently the final costs will reach a billion dollars US. 

These super yachts are far larger than the norm however, entry to the club usually starts around 160ft, this will still cost 10’s of millions. Small change! Might find it a bit difficult to park still however. I think personally I would have something smaller, but still capable at sea, and big enough to hold a party on.  This Sunseeker predator 82 named ‘low profile’ with custom paint job looks amazing!

If you want style, but something smaller, easy to handle and more affordable such as the Riva Aquariva.

These boats are just as much fun on the sea and the river, turn up to Henley regatta on one, with a boating outfit to match and you’ll turn some heads. Fuel for these are expensive however, although you could buy the boat with the cost to fill a super yachts tank.

For anyone not quite convinced that they want a yacht, take a look at the interiors, absolutely incredible and sure to impress. After all, what’s the point in having money if you can’t let others know you’ve got it?..... (I tried writing that in a cynical tone, did it work?)

Before I finish the post, I would like to mention however that I am a fan of  classic boats, and classic things in general. There's no substitute for a piece of aged mahogany!