The Life Of Luxury(Green With Envy)

It is always nice to see how the other half lives, take for instance there is the Life of Luxury: the George Hamilton way.

This is a TV show which looks at the lives of the Super Rich in which the first episode looks at the PlayBoy Mansion, a collection of multi-million dollar homes, hip-hop half-billion dollar empires and some queens of shopping.

Tom Delay's Life of Luxury over the last six years:

Public documents reviewed by The Associated Press document his 48 visits to golf clubs and resorts; 100 flights aboard private company planes; 200 stays at hotels, many world-class; and 500 meals at restaurants, some averaging nearly $200 for a dinner for two. Not all paid for by Tom Delay.

ARCHESTRATUS: THE LIFE OF LUXURY

ARCHESTRATUS was a Sicilian Greek who wrote a poem that was an actual cookbook describing styles of Greek food in antiquity In travelling throughout the Greek world - Greece, Southern Italy and Sicily, the coast of Asia Minor, the Black Sea - Archestratus shows us how the ancient Greeks were extremely cosmopolitan.

His influences - ingredients, combinations of flavours, techniques - are drawn from a wide Mediterranean background, taking in a diversity of ideas unrestricted by the topography of the Greek mainland.

The Life of Luxury: Check out the Robb Report: Luxury Homes

The Robb Report features this Beverly Hills house. The owners, a retired industrialist and his wife, who is a trustee of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, wanted the architect to maintain a simple palette that would not compete with their art collection, which includes a beautiful collection of contemporary art.

The Life of Luxury's Most Expensive ZIP Codes

From Beverly Hills to TriBeCa, from notorious enclaves of mansions and lush lawns to little-known niches of wealth, this is where the most expensive real estate in the country can be found.

Many of these neighborhoods are rarified places, of course. They are close to beaches and golf courses and prime yacht moorings--or at least within spitting distance of the power centers that are the sources of great wealth.

They have high tax bases, expensive private schools, exclusive restaurants and they are not all located close to Rodeo Drive.

The Life of Luxury; Some Expensive Must-Have Items:

We must be getting richer. Designer items are becoming more and more popular, we are no longer happy with a cheap watch but want an Omega or a Tag Heuer.

According to the Federal Reserve, the net wealth of American households hit a high at the end of last year, increasing from $46.59 trillion in the third quarter of 2004 to $48.53 trillion in the fourth quarter.

Rising real estate and stock prices helped push the country's household net worth up 4% between the third and fourth quarters.

You can now buy a $67,000 hand-crafted bathtub; Luxury is no longer confined to the affluent. To enhance people's lives they are willing to pay more for luxury items like expensive perfumes and designer handbags.

Sometimes it's hard to justify spending much more on an item when something considerably less expensive offers the same functionality.

You can, for instance, buy a watch for $10 and you can buy a watch for $20,000 that offers the exact same functionality so where is the rationale for buying the expensive watch?

Still, the expensive watches get sold and people are proud to own them. The exclusive maker of mattresses for the British royal family will reject a container of cashmere if it is deemed to be clumpy or defective in any way, says the director for the American division.

For each bed, workers cover thousands of springs in calico cotton; the damask cases are hand-woven in Belgium. If you have to ask how much these mattresses cost you can't afford them.

Life of Luxury: living on your own Cruise Ship.

The World is the only private luxury community at sea. It is a Cruise Ship built with apartments and studios for long term residency rather than vacation cruises.

For sale originally were 106 apartments, 19 studio apartments and 40 studios, with square footage starting at 675 for studios and maxing out at 3,242 for a three bedroom apartment with optional jet pool.

With the exception of studios, which have more limited amenities, The World's residential accommodations include fully-equipped kitchens, living room, veranda and all furniture and audio/video equipment. Studios an Apartments can be had from 1.4 million to 4.8 million dollars and annual maintenance costs start at $100,000.

This is a 40,000-ton ship which could easily carry 1,500 passengers but the World Residensea carries an average of 285 guests plus a crew of 252.

The passenger distribution is about 40% Americans, 40% Europeans and 20% from other nations. The price of a "home" on board the ship includes furniture, appliances, carpet, draperies, linen, china, cutlery and crystal.

Maintenance charges will cover daily housekeeping service, repairs and replacement of appliances, fixtures and fittings supplied by the builder.