RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: UK idiots: Three years after winning the lottery a small minded family are moving out of their mansion  Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:34 am | |
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THREE years after winning the lottery a family are moving out of the mansion they bought with their winnings, Britain's Daily Mail reported last week. The house is so big they rarely see each other.
Half their luck, say families in more modest accommodation, who dream about having granny flats, teenagers' retreats and parents' sanctums, ideally several kilometres apart. But for the Chesters, it just didn't work.
"I always wanted to stay at home and raise the [four] children and be with them," Kate Chester told the newspaper.
"In a small house you are always all together. Now I have to make a point of finding them – we don't even watch TV together as we are all in different rooms."
Fair enough. Solo TV viewing isn't all it's cracked up to be. Tickling yourself in an attempt to make yourself hand over the remote, shouting at yourself to get out of the way because you can't see the telly and talking to yourself over the bits you really want to hear is but a shallow imitation of the communal experience, as well as quite weird.
Another problem for the Chesters was not seeing enough of their neighbours.
"We are sociable and we always used to have people popping over all the time," Mrs Chester said. "This isn't the sort of place where people pop in and it's not as if we can chat over the back fence."
The property was surrounded by electric fences and had signs warning that the grounds were patrolled by vicious dogs, the Mail reported. In their previous home they probably just had a welcome mat.
The Chesters may have also gone a little overboard on their renovations. After spending £1.8 million of their £8.5 million ($14.89 million) win on Semple House, a seven-hectare Hampshire property built by a navy admiral with a passion for Gone with the Wind-style architecture, the family increased its size from 600 square metres to 1.2 square kilometres.
The renovated house has five bedrooms, three reception rooms, a kitchen-living room, gym, sauna, two wings, a pool, games room, family room, cinema and two-bedroom flat. There's a dining room that has been used only once and a drawing room that the Mail described as being "like the Mary Celeste".
It wasn't clear whether the comparison was because it was full of cobwebs and smelled of brine but it wouldn't be surprising; just imagine the housework.
The Chesters' lifestyle will resonate with many Australians. "Only one cinema room? Pah," McMansion owners across Sydney are no doubt snorting.
Last year Aussie homes became the world's biggest, according to Bureau of Statistics figures. At an of average of 215 square metres, they surpassed those of the US and measured three times the size of the average British home.
We may gain space when we move to bigger homes but do we lose something? Not just keys, umbrellas and small children, but intimacy and a sense of finiteness: that we should live and consume within limitations, not least because we've run out of cupboard space.
Anyone pondering upsizing could do worse than read A Squash and a Squeeze, by Julia Donaldson. In this brilliant children's book, an old woman complains her house is too small and asks a wise old man what to do. "Take in the hen," says the wise old man.
"Take in the hen? What a curious plan."
So she takes in the hen, the goat, the pig and the cow, and sure enough, all hell breaks loose. Then she kicks them all out again, and suddenly the house feels massive.
In fact, she's full of frolics and fiddle-de-dees. It isn't a squash or a squeeze.
If only getting the kids to leave home were that easy.
Another parable, this time from Zen Questions, by Robert Allen, is worth considering. In this book, a poor farmer finds a wild horse. "Aren't you lucky," say his neighbours. Maybe, says the farmer. Then his son falls off the horse and breaks a leg. "Aren't you unlucky," say his neighbours. Maybe, says the farmer.
Then soldiers come to the village recruiting for the army but the son can't go because of his injury. "Aren't you lucky," say the neighbours. Maybe, says the farmer.
The Chesters weren't the only disillusioned lottery winners in the British press last week. A man dubbed the "lotto lout" sold his mansion after wrecking it with wild parties and running out of cash, eight years after winning almost £10 million, newspapers reported.
And a British court was hearing of the obsessive life of a man given £1 million by his lottery-winning stepfather.
He wasted it on drugs, drug-inspired art, miniature bottles of spirits, green tea from China, comics and hot chilli sauces. He denied drug dealing. (His sister had already been dubbed the "lotto loser" by newspapers after blowing her share on drink, drugs and gigolos, AAP reported.)
Perhaps the stories of happy-ever-after lotto winners don't get told but the risk of good luck turning out bad, of losing more than you gain, is surely too great. Not to mention the media giving you a mean nickname.
To be on the safe side, it might be better just to enter the draws with small prizes and keep our fingers crossed that we don't win.
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