Taki Taki

High Life | 14 February 2009

All’s fair

All’s fair

Gstaad

At Easter 1215, a young Tuscan married woman innocently flirted in public with a man not her husband. He flirted back just as innocently, and then things got out of hand. A vendetta was declared between Guelf and Gibel, two rival brothers of Pistoia, that resulted in extreme violence, the splitting of Guelf factions into Whites and Blacks with ensuing massacres, 1,400 houses in the middle of Florence burnt, and a feud that brought out every long-simmering antagonism from politics, to money, to envy which lasted far longer than if the flirtation had not been as innocent as it was.

Guelfs and Ghibellines came to mind as the historian walked into my chalet accompanied by our chairman Andrew Neil, and two other beauties, Charlotte and Naomi. But I had eyes only for Lisa, with love being too weak a word to describe how I felt the moment I laid eyes on her. One thing is for sure. If Andrew Roberts lays a hand on her during the next five years I will squash him like a gnat, or better yet shorten him by a foot or two with an ‘empi’ (elbow strike) which will cut him down to Napoleonic size. (Andrew is writing an opus on Napoleon, and Lisa, author of a biography of Madame de Montespan among others, is assisting him.)

Gstaad is now starting ‘la grande saison’, which means those who passionately believe that money is the cornerstone of life have arrived to enjoy après skiing. This year we’ve had the best snow conditions in 50 years, not that we did much skiing over the weekend. It all went quickly, mind you, a blur of alcoholic haze and ‘glibido’ — all talk and no action. What impressed my guests the most were the women around here.

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