HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Family Money

Snap Shot

Modern Medicine

Heart to Heart with Hillary

A Slice of Thai History

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Personal Directions

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Women’s World

Family Money: Guaranteeing Your Pension Part 5

By Leslie Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.

Because retirement funding is the one area of financial planning that the majority of individuals tend to look at too little too late, in recent weeks we’ve looked at various ways to safeguard a retiree’s pension capital.

Only a small percentage of workers are fortunate enough nowadays to receive an adequate pension directly from their employer. An even smaller number contribute enough to private pension plans to fund a decent standard of living in retirement.

As an example of how inadequate most people’s retirement planning has been, in 1999 the UK’s largest supplier of personal pensions, Prudential Assurance Company, paid out an average personal pension of only £800 per annum. This is a staggeringly small figure - equivalent to about B4,000 a month. Could you live in UK on this figure? I couldn’t!

Why am I dwelling so much on retirement planning? Because people frequently come to see me all the time asking if they can retire on woefully inadequate amounts of capital. Many individuals naively believe that frozen pensions with previous employers, or personal pension plans that have languished forgotten and neglected for years, are going miraculously to provide an adequate income in later years. But at least they made the right first step in coming to see me, and ask the right question.

Seek professional advice

The first thing everyone should do is take professional advice from an experienced financial advisor to evaluate what they currently have in place (few have even the foggiest notion of what their pensions might be worth at retirement) - and what shortfall there may be if nothing else was put in place to ameliorate their retirement fund.

It is then possible to start looking at suitable personal pension programs which will provide the income you’re aiming for in your Golden Years. This will involve putting a realistic, flexible and affordable solution in place as soon as you are able to do so.

Quantify your needs

Before discussing what to look for and what to avoid in setting up any sort of retirement plan, you need to quantify how much money you will realistically need in retirement.

For many couples living in Pattaya, an annual income of £12,000 (roughly B62,000 a month) may be adequate to cover their current cost-of-living expenditure. Some live on less, some need much more. Educating children, holidays, trips overseas, replacing the wife’s family’s buffalo that got hit by a train will of course add to that figure.

A factor which most neglect to include in their calculations is inflation. Yes, it’s low right now. But it certainly wasn’t 20 years ago. The likelihood is that inflation will creep upwards over the next 20 years, not fall. And your retirement could well last 20 years or more, couldn’t it?

For the purposes of this exercise, though, let’s assume that inflation remains at only 3% for the rest of your lifetime. And again for the purpose of this exercise, let’s say that you are now aged 60 and about to retire. Let’s also assume that you live out a ‘normal’ life expectancy (according to actuarial statistics) to age 76. So without getting into the complications of providing for surviving family members, other heirs and charities after your demise (which means another calculation should be done to determine how much additional capital reserve would be needed to take care of these requirements), the big question is: How much capital, conservatively invested and producing a realistic long-term average growth of 8% a year, is needed to fund a draw down of £1,000 a month, over a 16-year period starting now, adjusted for inflation at 3% p.a.?

The answer to this question is: you’d need around £134,000 vested in your retirement fund right now. (Over those coming 16 years you’d have drawn down a total of over £240,000 - a goodly sum! But that doesn’t diminish the capital required to fuel this.)

If your retirement is still some years away, or your family history would tend to indicate you might live longer than to age 76, or you have to make provision to support a young family well beyond your own demise, then the amount of capital required to fund your retirement has to be adjusted accordingly.

In addition, costs could increase substantially if you or members of your family encounter ill health and are not adequately covered by medical insurance.

Protect your best interests

As previously mentioned, the first and vital step is to take professional advice. However, to find quality advice you can trust can be a little daunting. Regrettably, some financial advisers are motivated not by how much "best advice" on the plan they persuade the client to sign up for. So before making any commitments let alone transferring any money, ensure your advisor:

* is acting in your best interests as intermediary broker for a number of reputable financial institutions located in well-regulated regimes (such as the Isle of Man);

* is able to offer you several alternative investment vehicles from a number of providers, appropriate to your particular needs & circumstances, and explains their relative advantages & disadvantages clearly to you;

* is willing to commit everything in writing;

* never holds or has access to your money;

* will, once the investment program has been established, furnish you with investment documents in your own name from the investment institution;

* makes it very clear what costs are involved regarding any plans or investments he recommends, and any penalties that might be applied should you decide at some stage to discontinue the program (whether capital investment or savings plan).

Before putting pen to paper, ensure that you fully understand the commitment you will be making to the program your adviser recommends, and feel entirely comfortable with it and any risks associated with the investment strategy he will have (hopefully) explained to you.

And what about his commitment to you? How frequently will he report to you or meet you after the program is set up? How long has he been with that firm? Living in Thailand? In financial services?

You may also like to ask what alternative investment vehicles were available and why he recommended this plan rather than another.

Remember that it’s your comfortable retirement you’re talking about, not a flutter on the horses. If you’re in any doubt, there’s no doubt - seek a second opinion.

Snap Shot: I have this guitar growing out of my head!

by Harry Flashman

Well, even if you haven’t got something growing out of your head, I will wager that you have a photograph somewhere that shows you do! Take a look at the photographs this week. Both portraits of Ann, one of the vivacious staff members of the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya, but in one, she has a guitar growing out of the top of her head. Now I must admit that I purposely made this shot to show you what can go wrong - it is a simple matter to forgot to look at the background, because he, or she, was concentrating so much on the subject matter, and that is the kind of result you will get.

With people photography, it is most important to look at the background before you pop the shutter button. This requires you to practice looking through the viewfinder with the critical eye. It means that you look beyond the breathtakingly beautiful model posed before your lens and stretch your focus through to the background. Number 1 rule - make the background contrasting where possible.

This simply means to try and select a light background if the person you are shooting has dark hair, and the reverse for those with blonde or white hair. Now to get this may require you to move the model, move yourself or move the location. And let Harry here assure you that this is worthwhile. No matter how good the shot looks as you try so diligently to get a pinpoint focus on your subject - if there is no contrast between subject and background you will be disappointed in the final photograph. The person’s hair will disappear! This is especially so when photographing the very dark haired people of Thailand. Just look at some of the news photographs in this issue of the Pattaya Mail and you will see just what I mean.

So what can you do if you are stuck with the wrong background? OK, there are several things you can do. The first is to turn on your electronic flash and position the subject as far away from the background as possible. Get in close to the subject and take the shot. What happens here is that the flash will light up the foreground subject, but run out of power by the time it reaches the background. By selectively lighting the foreground subject you have achieved that contrast necessary.

So you haven’t got a daytime flash facility on your camera - what now? Well, again move the subject forward, away from the background and Mother Nature might supply you some light to lift the subject. Even direct overhead light can provide a rim of light around the hair, enough to contrast with the dark background.

So what else can you do? Well, if you have an SLR and can manually adjust the lens aperture you can use selective focus to help you. Use the longest lens you have (or the zoom at the highest number), and move in as close as you can to the subject. In this way you have used the optical qualities of the lens to keep a sharp focus on the subject and throw the background into a hazy, out of focus blur. Try f4 if you are unsure.

Probably the last item to consider is colour. When all else fails, or is impossible, position your subject against a contrasting coloured background. This time, it is often better to place your subject very close to the background, rather than away from it as we have been doing so far. You want to illuminate the background just as much as the foreground, so you highlight the colour contrasts. A yellow dress in front of a red door, for example.

Still in trouble with the background? What you do now is to walk several yards closer! Make the subject person, your "hero" fill the frame in the viewfinder. This way you have now almost totally eliminated the background. No longer is it a problem. In some ways it is the perfect solution.

Modern Medicine: Dupuytren’s Contracture

by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant

This is a wonderfully named condition that most people cannot even pronounce. I call it "DooPOYtrens" but some doctors call it "DOOpatrens" but whatever, this condition was named after a French surgeon who first operated on a coachman with this ailment at the Hotel Dieu in 1831.

Dr. Duypuytren was not a very pleasant chap by all contemporary reports, but was apparently a hard working and shrewdly observant surgeon. He was also more than a trifle weird! He insisted that following his death his post-mortem should be performed in front of his own medical staff and published in the local weekly journal. So you can see, we medico’s have our fair percentage of odd bods too (I am excluded from that list obviously)!

So what is this contracture that our Dr. friend described? It is in the hand, and occasionally the feet, where the 4th and 5th fingers are slowly pulled over into the palm of the hand, until eventually the fingers cannot be opened out at all. This takes many years and usually makes itself apparent in your 40’s or 50’s. You first start noting a thickening in the palm of your hand, close to the base of the 4th and 5th fingers. After a few years, the fingers then become hard to fully straighten out and finally remain closed over. Generally this is painless, though forcibly trying to open the fingers out is painful.

Many people feel that there is something wrong with the tendons that work the fingers, but this is not correct. It is a layer of tissue, called the palmar fascia, which contracts - the tendons are not the culprit.

In the search for culprits, your job has also nothing to do with it. Carpenters who use hammers all day will naturally suppose that their occupation is the cause and attempt to gain workman’s compensation, but to no avail. Any occupational group can get this - even doctors! Yes, I have got Dupuytren’s Contracture too. And I never attacked my patients with a hammer.

What does predispose you towards this condition is genetic, and in this case, Scandinavian heritage - those Norsemen have a lot to answer for! In my situation, with my ancestry being from the north of Scotland on the coast, the marauding hordes of Norwegians in their longboats would pull in for a round of rape and pillage, leaving behind the genetic predisposition to Dupuytren’s Contracture, as well as several unwanted children! I am the great-great-great-great (go on for as long as you like) grandson of one of those. I am not alone, of course. Many others with a UK background have had this condition handed down to them, including such luminaries as Maggie Thatcher, the ex British prime minister.

The treatment is, at best barbaric, with apologies to all the great hand surgeons out there who are now up in arms, to coin a very apt phrase. It is basically the same as performed by my favourite nutter, Dr. Dupuytren, 170 years ago. Slice open the hand, dissect away the palmar fascia and sew you up again, using a technique called a "Z" plasty. The results I have seen are not what I would call brilliant, so I am currently hanging on to mine, while patiently waiting for medical science to come up with something better!

Heart to Heart with Hillary

Dear Hillary,

My husband is having a silly fight with four of the people in his office. This has been going on for months and now he has begun to spend his evenings at home working out ways to get even with them, instead of relaxing in front of TV as he used to. I do not know what started this off, but it does sound unfair that all four of them should pick on one person, especially as he is the junior. This is starting to affect our relationship, and since we have another 18 months of the contract to run, I want to do something about it now. I know the wives of the four men involved - should I confide in them and ask them to help? My husband doesn’t want to talk about it.

Worried of Naklua

Dear Worried of Naklua,

You may have to stand back a little and take another look at this situation, Petal. Have you ever heard the saying, "Everyone else in the army is out of step, except me"? Looking at it from my desk, there are five people in the office and four are on one side and one on the other. Which side is out of step? By this stage it may not be possible to fathom what prompted all this in the first instance, but there is no doubt that your husband’s evening plottings are not conducive to maintaining a healthy relationship with you or his fellow workers. You are going to have to let him know that you are worried about this situation, and even if he cannot get back to a good working relationship in the office, he must not take this home with him. A night out with the other wives is not a bad idea, but do not make it the reason for the social outing. However, I am sure you will glean some background information. The cat network is generally very efficient at spreading the news!

Dear Hillary,

We have been here for just over a year and it is amazing just how popular we have become with the people from our hometown in England. People who hardly spoke to us, or who hardly knew us, have suddenly become our greatest friends and wish to stay with us when they have their annual holidays. So far we have had three couples stay with us already this year and my husband tells me there are another three coming. We do have a large house, but I would like to pick my own houseguests. Am I being unreasonable, Hillary, or should I just shut up?

Angela

Dear Angela,

No, you are not being unreasonable. While one will always accommodate friends, there is a difference between friends and acquaintances. There are plenty of guesthouses, hotels and other rooming enterprises in Pattaya where these people can stay. It is time to talk this through with your husband. Both of you live in your house, so both of you should make the decision as to whether to accept another call for accommodation. Communication is the most important factor in living today - start the dialogue with your husband tonight! Before you have a family of fourteen and three dogs staying with you for the next three months!

Dear Hillary,

My 24-year-old brother has just returned from a trip to your "wonderful" city. This was the first time he has been out of the States and he was away for just three weeks. In that time he managed to meet a young woman, date her and now he is so besotted that he wants to bring her out here to America to marry him. He dated regularly over here and did have a steady girlfriend of sorts before his holiday. She does not want to see him anymore now that he has told her about this other woman. Do you think my baby brother has flipped or has been taking illegal substances? I have never seen him go like this before? I read in your newspaper of this going on all the time. How do these girls do it?

Big Sis

Dear Big Sis,

You are a nice Big Sis, thinking about your baby brother, a man who at 24 years of age is hardly a baby any more. Flipped or into the Ya-ba? My Petal, how would Hillary know this? I am not your brother’s keeper, nor are you. At 24 he can look after himself. However, I read in your letter a hidden agenda, where you say "How do these girls do it?" Does Hillary detect a note of jealousy here? A reference to our "wonderful" city. So your brother dated many girls in America but comes over here and goes back smitten. Perhaps this does make our city "wonderful", or perhaps it makes the residents wonderful? All Hillary can suggest is that you come over here and see for yourself "how these girls do it" in this "wonderful" city. You might just learn a trick or two that could work for you and your American sisters.

A Slice of Thai History: First among Equals: Phraya Manoprakorn, Thailand’s First Prime Minister (part two)

by Duncan Stearn

The new constitution allowed for the creation of a unicameral legislature to be known as the National Assembly. Half of the members were to be appointed by the government and the other half to be elected on a limited suffrage. It was planned that the entire National Assembly would be elected after a period of 10 years or when half of the electorate had received a minimum of four years schooling, whichever came first.

The National Assembly, through the Cabinet, took control of the budget and could override a royal veto. Real power resided with the likes of Pridi Banomyong, Pibul Songkram and Phraya Phahon with Prime Minister Phraya Mano more a figurehead than a genuine leader.

On March 1, 1933, with the country, like the rest of the world, in the grip of the Great Economic Depression, the Finance Minister Pridi Banomyong presented a National Economic Policy for the consideration of the National Assembly.

The policy, among other elements, called for the nationalisation of natural resources, and touched off a crisis within the ruling elite with his military rivals Pibul Songkram and Phraya Phahon accusing Pridi of being a communist.

Apart from Pibul and Phraya Phahon, Pridi’s plan was completely unacceptable to the prime minister and in response Phraya Mano sought and received the permission of King Rama VII to suspend the current session of the National Assembly and rule by decree. This action took place on April 1 and, as Pridi’s support base was centred on the National Assembly, he resigned from the People’s Party and went into exile.

Emboldened by this political success, which turned him into a virtual dictator, Phraya Mano began to overreach himself. One of his first acts was to declare adherence to communism illegal and punishable by a prison term of 10 years.

Believing that his position of prime minister gave him a genuine mandate to control the direction of the country, Phraya Mano let it be known that he planned to shackle the military by denying them direct command of troops. It was clear that he intended to wrest control of the military and pass it into civilian hands, specifically his own.

This proved too much for the military and army officers opposed to the civilian prime minister staged a successful and bloodless coup on June 20, 1933. Colonel Phraya Phahon was appointed prime minister and quickly restored the National Assembly.

Phraya Mano, who had been at a decidedly difficult helm for less than 12 months, left Bangkok and decided to go into exile in Malaya, settling in Penang where he was a neighbour of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, who had left Thailand after the 1932 coup.

Thailand’s first prime minister died in Penang on October 1, 1948, aged 64. In Penang there is, apparently, a street called ‘Mano Road’ named after the former leader.

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Personal Directions: The tip of the iceberg

by Christina Dodd, founder and managing director 
of Incorp Training Asssociates

For those of you who saw last week’s column, did you find that empty field and let yourself go? Did you do something completely different to what you normally do? Perhaps some of you did and some of you didn’t. It is just like some people can and some people can’t. Some people do and some people don’t. Some people will and some people won’t. Which are you?

It’s very true to say that most people find it extremely difficult to break out of their usual way of doing things to take on a new focus or direction. We talk about adopting positive thinking and living life with a positive mental attitude and of making changes. But to some this is too unconventional and alien and impossible to even contemplate.

Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that they are first and foremost individuals. This is something they have forgotten about. And as individuals they have tremendous ability which is mostly untapped and under-utilized.

You could say that we can compare our capabilities and potential to that of an iceberg! From the surface we can really only see about five percent of the iceberg – we can only see the tip of it. And this is about as much ability as we use. Human beings only use about five percent of their total capabilities. The rest of our capabilities lay hidden, just like the rest of the iceberg lays submerged.

Inside each and every person there is enormous ability just waiting to come out and to be used. So why can’t we use our ninety-five percent worth of capabilities that lay hidden? What is it that prevents us from drawing on these powerful resources? Why can’t we or don’t we use these strengths?

Basically it’s because we build barriers and put up walls and obstacles to progressing and to moving ahead. We tend to convince ourselves more of the things that we can’t do than the things that we can do. We surround ourselves with attitudes of negativity, of impossibilities. We tell ourselves that we’re not good enough, not qualified enough, not clever enough, not strong enough, not confident enough. We continue to say we’re not ready, we’re not sure. We continue to be afraid to act maybe because of things that happened in the past. We continue to live with our past failures and relive them like we watch re-runs on television.

The more we think, speak and behave negatively and surround ourselves with our failures, the more suppressed our abilities and our potential become. The deeper they go inside us, and the harder it is to bring them out.

But there is a solution to all of this. There is a way out. There is a way to break down the walls we build that stop us from using our potential to the full. And it all has to do with three fundamental steps, three key steps!

The first step is to give every single ounce of effort that you have to achieving your goals. Put your blood, sweat and tears into it. Don’t just give sixty, eighty, ninety, ninety-nine percent effort – give 100 percent of your effort into reaching your goals. If you give less than 100 percent then you give room for failure and is that what you really want – failure? Of course not - so work towards your goals with every bit of your heart and commit totally to it. When you put this much into it then you will find yourself drawing on strengths and abilities that you never realized you had and that had been "hidden" all this time, just waiting to be put to good use.

"The average person puts only twenty-five percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than fifty percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote one hundred percent."

- Andrew Carnegie

Secondly, never ever give up in working to achieve your goal! Try, try, try, and never stop trying! The more you try the more your abilities will surface and help you along the way. There is so much power in trying and continuing to try. You know this yourself just with simple tasks. The more you persevere and don’t give up, the more likely you are to succeed because you are not going to give in and in adopting this attitude, you find strength and determination and the will to get through. The "success" literature is filled with stories of people who made it because they never gave up! Because they never gave up they were able to find ways to overcome obstacles. They were able to draw on their capabilities and reach their goals.

And the third step and probably the most important step is to use positive speech. Always use positive speech in whatever you undertake in life, in the way you live your life. Using positive speech has a power all of its own that enables you to fight adversity, discouragement, despair and all of the obstacles that will come to you in life. Just by speaking in a positive, encouraging, hopeful, optimistic, cheerful and well-meaning way you will be capable of doing so much more than you ever thought before. Being positive is about the best natural medicine you could possibly use to get through life and all its problems.

It’s not just that you are speaking positively, it’s what happens to you when you speak positively. You begin to gain strength from within yourself and look at things in a different light. You find a source of new energy to drive you. Your mind opens and your imagination begins to work overtime. You find that you can think more and create more. When all of these come into play you are more able to fight for what you want in life and in doing so draw on the talents, the gifts, the capabilities and potential you have inside you!

Turn negatives into positives. Turn minuses into pluses. Turn dark into light.

Some people say it’s easier said than done to speak positively or to think and behave positively. Sometimes the situation is overwhelmingly difficult or perhaps terribly sad. That may be true and of course you have to look at these things with an element of common sense and practicality. But I find that in the face of every adversity, realize that what is done is done. You cannot change the past but you can influence what happens in the present and the future. And the next best thing to do is to set to work to figure out what good can result from the experience. This is using a positive approach and as such it will help in affecting positive results.

Have a great week, and to leave you on a thought-provoking note:

"We become what we think about most of the time. The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives".

- William James (1842 – 1910)

Christina can be contacted by email at christina.dodd @incorptraining.com or directly at Incorp Training Associates in Bangkok, tel. (0) 2652 1867-8, fax: (0) 2652 1870. Programs and services can be found at www.incorptraining.com

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Joys of the ‘second home’

Now that Thailand has lowered the age for retirees to 50 years, more people are coming to investigate the possibilities of either permanent or part-time residency in the kingdom. Pattaya is a popular choice because it offers a wide variety of lifestyles, caters to the international community and its multi-lingual and multi-cultural mix adds a cosmopolitan flavor to the city. Many people I’ve spoken to in the past months are planning to make Pattaya their second home.

The ‘second’ home is not a new concept. I’ve had friends with second homes all over the world and I used to envy them. One oil company executive was particularly acquisitive. So I will use him as my example. He would turn up in Greece, Geneva, Seattle and Singapore, New York City and Bangkok. Our meetings were brief, since the encounters were frequently in crowed international airports.

But I could always spot him over the heads of the herd of other travelers. While the rest of us were struggling with ungainly bags of luggage and other holiday paraphernalia (ski-boots, tennis rackets, golf clubs, fishing rods, scuba gear) and waiting to claim our battered suitcases, this gentleman strolled through customs with nothing more to weigh him down than a few magazines. He didn’t need anything else. It was all waiting for him at his ski lodge, beach house or yacht anchored in a marina. He was the man with ‘second homes’.

In theory the second home makes sense. It’s always available and in a desirable place in the world where real estate prices should appreciate over the years. Basking in the sun or swooping down the slopes, we can tell ourselves that we’ve made a prudent investment. We can take off at a moment’s notice packing nothing heavier than a few gifts for friends and a passport and know that when we arrive we are not merely a gawking tourist but sort of an honorary native that is conferred by mentioning our condo on Jomtien Beach or the London townhouse in St. James. Not for us the 21-day all-inclusive package tour to which a mere tourist is doomed.

That’s how it seemed to me until I met enough people with second homes. Their collective wisdom and experience saved me a fortune and cured me forever of envy.

The logistics of second homes overwhelmed me. Simple things like books, music and clothes need planning. Where do we keep them? Do we really want all our favorite things thousands of miles away or do we duplicate or triplicate everything? Second homes sit empty for much of the year. Do we rent them out, or let them sit empty. How about repairs, monthly and annual bills? One friend with a flat in Paris returned to spend a few weeks and found that a pipe had burst and the waste from an upstairs apartment had been building up for weeks all over the floor.

Another friend’s tale of woe told of how his one bedroom sea-view apartment in Pattaya (left empty most of the year) was not as empty as he’d thought. When he returned last month, an old girlfriend who had not returned her key had moved in the entire family from Korat and they were making themselves thoroughly at home. All 9 of them. He was livid.

In commiseration I let him know things could have been worse. I just got an email from the oil company executive who now has another home in Tucson, Arizona. He returned from 4 months sailing through the Greek islands to find that wildlife native to the region had moved in while he was absent. Pack-rats had eaten most of his elegant living room furniture and the whole house was infested with scorpions. And to make matters worse local bobcats had gluttonously gobbled his collection of exotic birds. How bad could a family of Issarn rice farmers be by comparison?

Even if your second home is in the same country, there are juggling acts which must be perfected. I have elderly friends in Boston who built a magnificent retirement home in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado as an alternative to the traffic and chaos of big-city living. Different health problems send them on flights in different directions for dental care and medical treatment. Their appointment calendar is more complicated than a stockbroker’s call-book.

Some people are not willing to take ‘pot-luck’ holidays and time-sharing doesn’t appeal to them. Staying with friends and relatives can be an imposition even at the best of times. There is an old Danish proverb, "Fish and guests smell at three days old."

For those convinced that the second home is the answer to their prayers, these days the map of the world is at their disposal. Pick a spot that has the basic facilities you want; tennis, windsurfing, skiing, girls; whatever will sustain your interest in the years to come.

Creature comforts should be considered, but the tentacles of civilization are so wide-spread these days, these are not difficult to find. Whether your idea of heaven is skiing in Austria or sitting under a coconut tree on a sandy beach reading a good book on Thailand’s tropical beaches, go stay at a hotel and have a look around. If you like what you see, there will be a lot of choices as to what kind of second home is right for you.

One very good idea of a second home is the residential hotel suite for long-stay visitors. First, you will be unlike the multitudes of other guests who pass through the door. With some early judicious tipping, you can make yourself known and loved by the staff. The slight inconvenience of clothes can be overcome by compiling an adequate wardrobe, and the essentials for sport; golf clubs, scuba gear or tennis racquet. Life would be much simpler f you could keep it at the hotel. Your new friend - the manager - may accommodate you regarding this request. Management can also forward your mail.

Once this has been accomplished getting back and forth to the second home will be easy and you’ll be traveling light. In your familiar surroundings the staff will spoil you with special service, and you’ll be immune to ghastly surprises, residential repairs, destructive unpaid bills, unscrupulous renters, shopping for groceries, and household goods.

Your fiends can visit and partake of the hotel’s professional service, and your holidays will be what they should be: fun and relaxing.

Women’s World:How to walk like a lady Part 4

by Lesley Warmer

Optimism abounded during the post-war years of the 1950s. It was quite normal for a woman to wear her high-heeled shoes from when she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night; even household chores were done wearing the heels. Women seemed to want to be feminine from morning to night and made every effort to be attractive for their men. Probably brought on by the lack of pretty things available to her during the war years. Charles Jourdan introduced a new kind of shoe style, the stiletto heel, in 1951. These shoes combined with the points became a craze for quite a few years. Both men and women wore the "winkle picker" points, to the detriment of their toes. As time went on the goal was for the slimmest possible heel, eliminating earlier "chunky" styles.

Embellishments returned with a vengeance and shoes were made in a variety of shapes and material. Designers such as Roger Vivier worked to challenge the conventional ideas of silhouette and construction. The pump was the basic shoe, but its toes might be cut, the vamps curved or cut in enticing Vs, or the heels molded into a variety of shapes. Every color of the rainbow was used; shoes were intended to match an outfit perfectly.

Teenagers introduced their own styles, heavily influenced by the Beatnik culture, which, inspired by authors such as Jack Kerouac, was in vogue. Leather, Levi’s, and Converse sneakers helped create the look. Along with the famous poodle skirts and ponytails, saddle shoes, penny loafers, and colored sneakers were popular with teenaged bobby-soxers. Sandals, ballet slippers, and other casual footwear became increasingly fashionable, as pool parties and other casual outdoor activities became popular.

Ah! The 60’s. Shoes reflected the rampant experimentation with color, texture, shape, and style. Many matrons refused to give up their stilettos, but young people were gobbling up all the boots, sandals, and shoes that designers could throw at them. Everything from citrus-colored sandals to spacey, iridescently rainbow platforms to classic colonial or Edwardian-style pumps were in demand.

Go-go boots were popularized by Nancy Sinatra’s song, "These Boots Were Made For Walking," and soon became a symbol of the 1960s. A leather shortage and the space age craze inspired shoe construction in new materials such as vinyl and plastic.

Then in the 70’s it was the turn of the platform shoe to reappear with a very round toe. The 1970s was literally the "anything goes" decade. For some, the uglier and more chunky the fashion the better. For others, soft and feminine was the answer. Designers took platform shoes to new heights, building 7 to 8-inch stacked heels and covering them in rhinestones, sequins, and other adornments. Late in the decade, the film Saturday Night Fever propelled the disco movement into the mainstream, creating massive demand for strappy platform heels for women and platform loafers for men. The disco movement was short lived, but its effect was so far-reaching it became an indelible symbol of the decade.

The Nike brand debuted in 1972 and has never looked back.

The 80’s saw far more relaxed fashion in footwear as the craze for "trainers" arrived and with it the "name game" with people prepared to pay any price for the brand name of the day. The "trainer" has stayed with us for longer than most fashions, probably due to the comfort and choice of designs available. Both flat and low-heeled shoes in muted colors and classic styles were popular. Moccasins, espadrilles, and other sorts of native shoes were reinvented using these new colors. Even jelly shoes, made of molded plastic in a variety of colors, were a huge fad.

It is interesting to note that these days anything goes and you can go in a shop and buy pointed or platform shoes, stiletto or wide heels (with a choice of heights), flat or heeled sandals and trainers, even jelly shoes. I wouldn’t like to predict what designs and fetishes might appear in the future for our feet. What’s left to do?