I have a good friend who was for a long time a gamekeeper on an Oxfordshire estate belonging to a Middle Eastern minor royalty type. The whole estate existed purely for this guy and his friends to fly in on the helicopter and shoot some birds in the Autumn.

One time i visited and whilst doing the usual burn around in the 4x4 my mate asked me to see if i could spot what was different about the estate. I knew there was something different from the previous trip up of 3 years previously but couldnt quite put my finger on it, Turned out that the 4 acre island studded pond/lake we were driving round hadnt existed. The owner had flown in one season and decided he was bored of the view from his mansion so decided to have a nice new aquascape sculpted by JCBs etc and then beautifully landscaped as well as stocked with some rare breeds of water fowl and lots of those posh carp.

I still to this day cant really get my head round the whole "I'm bored of the view, change it" kind of ostentatiousness.

The following year year the estate manager was given a somewhat luxurious tip of a brand spanking new Range Rover, one which had been bought purely for the one trip over by a friend of the owner and who couldnt be arsed either shipping or selling the thing after the shooting jollies were over. Its only 60grand of truck after all, not worth fucking about with for that kind of small change. My mate did alright out of it too as he inherited the estate managers 2 year old Land Rover
(Matty73, Wed 3 Aug 2011, 17:13, Reply)