Friday 12 March 2010

Did I ever tell you I once met Miss World's legs?

I once met Miss World’s legs. Rosanna Davidson’s. Her knees to be exact.  It was a surreal day, a few years back, when I took a jaunt down to a nearby car dealership. Lotus had just started selling its sports cars in Ireland and I thought it would be nice to have a look at its new Elise, and maybe get a test drive.

When I got there, the very nice saleswoman told me that Rosanna Davidson (who had been crowned Miss World a year or two before) was arriving for a photoshoot, but yes, a test drive would be no problem.

As it happened, I had just managed to shoehorn myself into the driver's seat of the tiny Elise R-111 (they are about the height of a pedal car) when she came along. Well, her knees at least, because that is all I could see from where I was sitting, peeking out of the car’s little slit of a side window. 

I went out for the test drive with the saleswoman in the passenger seat and we passed Miss World on the way back as she was walking towards town after finishing the shoot. She noticed, waved, and gave us a  big smile as we drove past. Not every blogger can say they’ve been waved at by Miss World now, can they? That's about as glamorous as it gets in the world of blogging, I’m afraid.  The reports in the showroom, by the way, were that she was very nice and pleasant.

But what about all the stuff in the gossip pages? A €60,000 trip on a private jet to somewhere or other with a developer, whose company owns the very building that Nama is based in. It seems the same developer once had Pavarotti sing to him and his friends on one of his birthdays.  Ah yes, the Irish elite – such class and taste!

Now I wouldn’t be one for celebrity tittle-tattle. I’ll admit my life is boring enough, but it’s enough to keep me occupied all the same.  But you really have to marvel, that even when the developers’ loans are being taken on by the taxpayers – who are being hit from all angles, assuming they still have jobs at all - that this elite does not even have the grace or PR sense to tone it down a bit. Do they still think it’s 2006?

Sure, due to the secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding Nama, it is not currently possible to comment on the state of each developer’s relationship with the bank's loan book - sensitive information, you see.  But you’d have to wonder if any developer has possibly been unscathed, given the scale of the collapse. And you’d have to wonder if any of them will really have to change their lifestyles, even when it is all done and dusted.

Probably not. It’s Ireland after all.


PS. Didn't get the Lotus in the end  -  not with the waiting times for orthopaedic consultants.  And VRT.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

jazus GM thats a grand gural altogether 100grand for a weekend is agreat bargain and when the taxpayer is buying its sooooh sweeet,all the begrudgers will be out in full force dont you know what they are like bunch of loosers, my second girlfriend was the spitting image of rossana her name was farrah she thought me everything i know but that was then, now i have a more mature discerning eye for wimmmin of substance like oirlands yummmy tanaste,what an awsome lucky little country sooooh many grand wimmmin

The Gombeen Man said...

One thing we have to be grateful for here in Ireland, Mr BH, is the high calibre of our leaders. We have been truly blessed with great men and women since the heady days of '16, when stamp sales were disrupted for a couple of days and the city was flattened in retaliation.

From Paddy Pee and Countess Markievicz, in an unbroken line of heroes right up to Brian Cowen and Mary Coughlan.

And sure members of our property developer caste need a bit of ostentation now and again, in order to keep their genius levels replenished.

Sure there are far too many begrudgers around ;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh what a grand little country it is !

Nice car GM, such things, eh, if only the workers were allowed such things?

Speaking of wage differentials, nice to see cut throat laissez-faire is alive and well in Eire....What about this?
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0312/nama.html

Dakota

The Gombeen Man said...

"Grand" isn't biiiiiiiigggg enough a word, D.

And imagine having all of Johnny R's money and buying a Maybach. A jumped-up S-Class Merc taxi.

Says it all.

;-)

Anonymous said...

Yes GM they have (ahem, had) all that money and NO class! Nice to see NAMA execs are taking on the mantel of faux celebritys though? Demanding more money - and of course getting it!!! Next thing you know they'll be modeling designer ware on some crappy TV channel.

Fantastic little country for giving a laugh!

Dakota

Bernd said...

Stray thought ... if Rosanna's dad had been with her, standing next to her as you spotted her knees ... would you have looked straight into his eyes then? Or over his head? Just musing ...

By the way, well done to Lotus for actually having both cars finish the Bahrain GP yesterday!

The Gombeen Man said...

Gazing into the eyes of Chris de Burgh... I will try to dispell that thought immediately, Bernd.

One thing I'll say though: The pint-sized warbler and Irish Times letter-writer would have no trouble getting in and out of a Lotus, anyway.

Anonymous said...

is it just me or does Ronan look like Louis Cyphre?

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/movie-twists-angel-heart.jpg

http://www.theinvestor.ie/images/Johnny%20Ronan2.gif

Ella said...

@ atoast2toast, he definitely does look like Louis Cyphre. Well spotted!