how wonderful The White Lotus is

Against my better judgement, I once again participated in the State Lottery New Year’s Eve draw. 30 million euros, ‘tax free’, seemed like nothing to me. In the State Lottery commercials, you see various characters excited about the big prize they are about to win. Construction worker, waiter, museum curator, average income. You always see them before the draw, never after. In Lotto, in which Jort Kelder does regular business, they do better. There they strongly suggest that Dutch waters are full of boats for Lotto winners.

By the way, who you also met a lot at Ster near the beginning of the year was Sander Schimmelpenninck, who calls to invest in New Product Day. With interest, I looked at the revenue obtained for New Product Day in 2022: from – 18.6 percent (very offensive) to – 15.51 percent (very defensive). Everything in between is also negative. If you’ve followed Sander’s advice this year, you’re in trouble. But, it is always said, you invest for the long term. In that case, investing is a form of faith in the afterlife and it remains unaffected that someone who started with a ton in BND this year still lost eighteen dollars.

Almost everyone dreams of becoming very rich. That is why many also want to know the wonderful life of the rich. The rich can give us interesting insights into what you can do with money. The State Lottery reported that 30 million had fallen in Amersfoort. Very close, one hour by train. If you win such an amount, is the advice of the State Lottery, it is better to keep it secret. It’s fair to say that you’ve won a ton. That seems to be the amount everyone gives you.

This year I avoided as much as possible the bursts of humor that the Dutch broadcaster traditionally throws at us around the beginning of the year. I preferred to listen to the HBO series WhiteLotuswhich I had read many good things about. WhiteLotus goes, like a movie Sad triangle, about the empty claims of the super rich. But more than that Sad trianglewhich is mainly known for its cardboard characters and its three-cent ideology, is WhiteLotus entertaining, moving and exciting at the same time. It became ‘bingen’, a word I didn’t know until recently, but which means something like being unable to stop eating or drinking. I watched the two seasons that have been made of it so far in one go. Then I fell back on the couch numb.

What a great series!

The first series is set in a luxury resort on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the second in the same hotel in Taormina, Sicily. From my own experience I can confirm that Maui and Taormina are among the most magical places on our planet. The general view is that the super rich are often tired of the emptiness of their lives, but that emptiness is an emptiness that can be intoxicating at times. At first I thought the first season in Hawaii was better than the second in Taormina, but the more I thought about it the more I had to change my mind.

The second season is quite good, although I recommend the story of the opera first Madam Butterfly reading. It comes in without any shame WhiteLotus it worked with all kinds of stereotypes. Sicily is still the island of the mafia in the series. The natives are prostitutes, robbers and thieves. Like WhiteLotus it would have been a painting by Jos Collignon, it would have passed a long time ago from the Volkskrant are rejected. Above Taormina, it’s a group of sleepless, coke-sniffing gays who plan murder, but get their act together at home. The plan is amazing and open to all kinds of interpretations.

If you don’t know that Taormina has been a gay haven since the 19th century, it’s easy to jump to the wrong conclusion. Oscar Wilde came, and DH Lawrence, and of course Louis Couperus, who probably also did more there than just visiting and describing the famous Greek theater. Of Taormina he wrote: ‘Rounding in their almost corporeal form, the intangibility of the azure, the ideal, fades, and the landscape is like the reflection of the ancient Soul of man…. the falls, the endless sea of ​​Life uplifting forever… ‘

Just so you know. The third season is said to be set in the Maldives. I can’t wait.