Hello My Lovelies,

When I was at summer camp years ago (oh those halcyon days of sun and young bodies), Big Dave ran an old frying pan along the outside of the bunkhouses every morning after reveille. "All right girls. Wake up. Get your girdles on," he trilled. Girls? Girdles? Well, he should know. Which takes me to holidays and leisure, our lodestar of the day. When life gets you down, don’t you long for foreign shores, to kick the dust off your feet and switch off that evil phone, so you can focus on the darling next to you?

Well, listen up, dears. We’re entering the golden age. Those boomers we’ve read about are packing it in. They’re having bypasses and selling the box companies their fathers started. They want places to go and things to do. Sure, scads will take a condo in Deerfield beach. Those are great investments for the foolhardy. Talk about risk. All this palaver about global warming and sea levels rising and these lovely people buy property right on the ocean. Well, who would think? Actually, they compromise at the last minute, because their brains are first class. Oceanfront is way too expensive. They buy units with partial views or across the street. But that’s not the point. I had good friends, I swear it, through my wild years. Didn’t you? And they provided little me (how is a great story, I’ll tell you later) with a handful of shekels to toss into a developer’s lap. But I refused to unload cash into beachfront where the sand is regularly washed away and hurricanes destroy what’s left. I don’t know. Call me foolish. It doesn’t appeal to me. So thumbs down on Pompano Beach.

Now, I say thumbs down. But we aren’t idiots are we? We know how to hedge. I bought this tiny darling condo right on the beach south of Deerfield. A tiny thing. The City faithfully repairs the beach every year. The condo board keeps the masonry solid. The hurricanes come and go. And listen up, sweetheart. I have made a hundred percent in five years. Plus the rental income. I call this a bijoux investment. Contrary to good sense, but loving the darn thing anyway. Like diamonds on a cloudy day.

What’s left for the newly leisured if not Florida? It’s, dimly remembered from poetry class. Or Angkor Wat, the holiday excursion that makes up for somebody’s Vietnam adventure. My dears, there’s a bundle to be made in paradise holidays for the newly fragile (and solidly rich). Overseas is nice, but we’re also looking at big money in where piranha and python roam or the Darwin mystery tour to the. A patina of science on the main dish of snorkeling and those gorgeous women. Spanish adds a taste of the exotic and local enthusiasm runs high at festivals, where we can pretend to be one world. Yes, I’ve placed a few pennies in the Ecuador market. I didn’t want to tell you right away, but I’m really excited. My partners are so good looking. And the banks are great. What more could a want? Am I falling in love, or what? And this is American dollar country. Trust it, but never too long.