like to get the candelabra out and have the butler play some Wagner when I eat my beans on toast.
Does that count?
No ....must be smashed avocado to count. Beans...how pleb
I couldn't afford a new Merc either but the price was right for the company and it
needed a car, the Merc was pretentious...
and the Concorde was a present - at the time it was $850 for the three hour jaunt over the Atlantic with all you could drink. I suspect there's not a few here wouldn't jump at that ...DINKs often had / have income far in excess of their basic requirements....
One thing that did strike us....and one member mentioned it in th Scotland trip thread ...said public employee/travel/frozne wages .....
Well got me checking out median family incomes in UK versus Canada and Australia and I was shocked....
$32k sterling $52k cdn
Canada was $88,000 cdn
and the US 60,000 US. >$75 k cdn
and Australia also about $75k Cdn .. ( the two currencies are near par often enough )
You blokes in UK make your $ go a long way....
Pretentious can cover anything from the wine you serve to the size of the snowblower to your car choice or where you live ...anything that is meant to "show off" or is one-up man ship....
So yes Fallible it is "showing off" - that's the nature of ostentation and I'm pretty sure we've all done in ways, small or large. Regrettable in hind sight for a variety of reasons in the two cases I mentioned ..the 80s here thrived on conspicuous consumption and at the time we had enough income to participate in a few ways......
Travel tho is very much a norm for Canadians and Australians and what might seem extravagant is the norm ...flying to Copenhagen via Iceland Air is about $680 return.....and both country citizens fly frequently ( me mainly on points ).
But Jude and I are frugal in other ways...splitting meals etc.....we WILL spend on adventure ...that is a primary aspect of our long distance relationship - so we are being selective on spending to reach goals.
Jude has to fly what I call Princess Class ( business ) because of her back but she happily ( most times ) took the tube.
That's a decision she makes and it hurts financially for both as I tend to pick up an offsetting amount in shared costs.
One person's pretention may be another's norm ......serving an Australian wine in Europe might be pretentious but not in Australia......and of course there are the superb Canadian vintages that are oneupmanship writ large anywhere
by 
