While I was visiting my sister in Sydney last week, she invited me to a lunch with an old friend of hers from Melbourne. I was told she was house-sitting in Mosman. We get to this vulgar modern milllion dollar monstrocity with the great views and I'm already smelling a rat. My sister's old friend was very working class in nature - she sounds like Flo on Psychic TV, and I was surprised a family who could afford such a home didn't have a house-keeper.
Anyway, we knock on the door and she opens it, beaming. I haven't seen her in years, she's not really my friend, but she looked completely different. Nice clothes, an expensive hair cut. She gave us the tour and she pointed out several photographs she says belong to the family who live there - but what was strange was there were about a dozen more photographs of her and her family around the house than the people who lived there.
Checking the wardrobes I noticed no men's clothes at all. I didn't check the children's closets but their bedrooms looked more like guest suites for adults than where teenagers lived - no posters, books, personalised bric a brac...
After a lunch which she says she prepared but I know wasn't, as I found the wrappers in the bin when I was clearing up (from an expensive catering store in Sydney) she showed us the "lady of the house's" jewellery box: diamond bracelets, rings, pins etc... I then noticed the discreet but expensive jewellery she had on. For all I know, the whole lot could be cubic zirconias but there were jewellery boxes on the shelves marked "Cartier" as well as a few art nouveau pieces from Tiffanys. My sister bought the story that the wife doesn't like to travel with her jewels but what kind of woman would leave such a horde at the access of a working class woman or any woman?
After lunch she took us for a drive in a Mercedes owned by the family and didn't seem concerned when I pointed out that she wasn't the insured driver.
I don't really care much if she's won lotto, nor if she's hiding the fact as I would do the same to her, but it made me wonder how many other people conceal their good fortune. Do you suspect anyone of the same?
