What am I bid?

When I am Rich, I’d love to have beautiful, original artworks in every room of my house. And perhaps a few sculptures for the garden …

But even if I had £115 million to spare, I wouldn’t be tempted to buy a painting by Picasso, da Vinci, Turner or even my favourite, Van Gogh. I’d rather use my money to support living artists than give it away to secretive collectors, dealers and auction houses.

But, at the risk of being hypocritical, I can’t help wondering how much Christie’s would be able to get for this masterpiece:

Do I hear 50p?

Incommunicado

My mobile phone has stopped working. I think it died of old age. Should I send it for recycling, donate it to a museum or keep it until it becomes a highly desirable collector’s item?

And what about a replacement? I suppose I should consider getting one of those all-singing, all-dancing smart phones that practically live your life for you. But as I only want a mobile to use in case of emergencies when I’m away from home (not for checking emails, listening to music, playing games or taking photos) it seems a waste of all that technology.

When I am Rich I could buy what is advertised as the world’s most expensive phone. It’s certainly pretty – encased in rose gold and diamonds – but I wonder if the five million pound price tag includes a guarantee that it can always pick up a good signal?

I’ve got a better idea …

I’ll just make do with my landline but I’ll employ someone to answer all those annoying junk calls about changing my energy supplier, ‘free’ home improvements and claiming compensation for an accident I never had!

 

But does it taste any better?

I’ve just been reading about what is thought to be the world’s most expensive chocolate bar. Cadbury has wrapped one of its Wispa Gold bars in edible gold.

I suppose – if I was rich – I could easily afford the asking price of £961.48 (about US$1637). But for the same amount of money I could buy 1,748 Wispas in ordinary wrappers.

Or a year’s supply of my favourite organic, fair trade chocolate, and I'd still have some change in my pocket.

All that chocolate – or a little bit of gold?

No contest.

A Girl’s Best Friend?

I have to thank Mika of Photos Tricks for drawing my attention to this little gem.

A record price of 10.5 million Swiss francs (that’s US$9.5m or £6.2m) has been paid for a rare blue diamond at an auction in Geneva.

You can find out more about it here

It’s pretty and sparkly so perhaps I will put ‘blue diamond’ on my shopping list When I am Rich. Or a yellow one, or pink … Why not a whole rainbow of diamonds?

But what will I do with it? It’s not the kind of thing you can wear every day. Or leave lying around.

Along with the diamond I will have to

- buy a safe

- install a top-of-the-range burglar alarm

- hire a security guard to accompany me whenever I wear it

- pay a huge amount of money to insure it

- employ a therapist to help me deal with the stress of owning something so valuable

On second thoughts … it’s only a stone, and a very small stone at that.

And just think how many lives £6.2 million could transform.