I have lived in Pretoria for half my life, but even at almost 50, l still am not ready for mornings like this . I step out of home in the morning at 7 a.m., greeted by a warm, gentle breeze and sunshine so golden it felt like summer had arrived overnight. The sky was clear; the jacaranda trees glowed purple; the air smelled of warmth and possibility. “Perfect day,” l muttered, locking his door. By the time l drive out—five minutes later—the sky starts to be darkened. A cold wind came crawling in from nowhere, sweeping dust across the pavement. The temperature dropped so suddenly that l have to switch the heater for warmth. Laughing. “Ah, Pretoria… you never disappoint.” Halfway to the office, the heavens opened. Not soft rain— a storm . Sheets of water hammered the road, street gutters overflowed instantly, and distant thunder rolled like a grumpy giant waking up too early. People scattered, hiding under bus shelters already too full. “Ten minutes ago...
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Inside Xanadu 2.0: Take a sneak peek into Bill and Melinda Gates’s Washington mansion
Bill Gates and Melinda’s 27-year-old marriage has come to an end. Picture: Anthony Bolante/Reuters
Inside Xanadu 2.0: Take a sneak peek into Bill and Melinda Gates’s Washington mansion
By Staff Reporter May 11, 2021
Questions have been asked as to who is likely to get Bill and Melinda Gates’ 6 100² lakeside mansion in Washington State once their divorce is settled.
But it would seem Melinda doesn’t really want it. In a profile in Fortune magazine published in 2008, she said when she arrived in Gates’ life the house caused her to have “a mini sort of personal crisis”.
It was partly built when she married Gates in 1994. She described it as “a bachelor’s dream and a bride’s nightmare… with enough software and hi-tech displays to make a newlywed feel as though she were living inside a video game”.
So with the help of interior designer Thierry Despont – who has worked on the Palm Court of New York’s Plaza Hotel, and the Ritz in Paris – she helped create a home for a family.
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Even then she wasn’t entirely happy. She told the New York Times in 2019: “We won’t have that house forever. I’m actually really looking forward to the day that Bill and I live in a 140m² house.”
So what is the house like? An article in the NY Times, this time printed in 1995 – a year after the couple married – said the house is built as several pavilions into the side of a hill in the super-rich area of Medina, where Jeff Bizos also lives.
It had a 20m indoor/outdoor pool with its underwater sound system, a 230m² gym panelled with stone from a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, a trampoline room, an art decor cinema, and each room apparently has touch-pad controlled lighting, music and climate control.
Oddly for such an enormous home, it has a relatively modest seven bedrooms, but an eye-widening 23 – or 24 – bathrooms, depending on which source you believe. Outside there is a beach with sand imported, according to different reports, from either the Caribbean or Hawaii and a stream for salmon and trout.
It was dubbed Xanadu 2.0 by Gates’ biographers, after the home of the tycoon in the film Citizen Kane. And that, in turn, was a reference to the Coleridge poem that begins: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/ a stately pleasure-dome decree…”
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Fittingly, Gates’ Xanadu library has a dome, as well as two secret bookcases, one of which opens to reveal a hidden bar. And a 20-car garage has been built into the hillside. There are six kitchens.
The whole pile is valued at upward of $131 million. In 2009 property taxes were reported to be $1.063m. The details of the home – which opens on to Lake Washington – have been kept private by the Gates family, although in 2009 a tour of the property went for $35 000 at a charity auction, according to TechCrunch.
It is clad in Douglas fir and was designed by the architects James Cutler and Peter Bohlin. And the piece de resistance? A 40-year-old maple tree close to the driveway is one of Gates’ big loves. It is monitored by computer, and if at any point it becomes too dry, water is automatically pumped into it. Now that is something some of us could make good use of.
Analysis: Bill and Melinda Gates divorce
Tracey Coates joined us with analysis of the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce.
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Here's the story: We sat down with a man who had a harrowing journey with addiction. He began by telling us about his early days in tertiary education, where he would occasionally smoke dagga with friends. However, his focus remained on his studies, and he worked hard to graduate and secure a qualification. After landing a job, he started building a life for himself. He got married, bought a property, and even splurged on a car. Life was good, and he felt like he was on top of the world. But one fateful night, while out with friends, he was introduced to heavier narcotics. At first, the experience was exhilarating. He described it as an elevation from the mild high of dagga to a level 5 high, where he felt invincible and euphoric. The effects would last for days, allowing him to party from Friday to Sunday without sleep. The problem, however, began to manifest on Mondays and Tuesdays every week, when the withdrawal symptoms would kick in, and he'd struggle to function at work....
Home > News > Renderings It's easy to understand why a muscle car or a Ferrari is cool - the big engine and cool body. But car culture is also influenced by television, rarity, or simply a generation growing up with a particular vehicle. The Volkswagen Bus is a perfect example of this because it's slow, not sporty-looking, yet it can cost a lot of money. 16 photos The Bus is perhaps one of the least understood collectibles, right up there with bubble cars. You see them grabbing huge money at auctions, making it difficult to visualize why somebody wouldn't rather have a Ferrari or some 1960s Mustang. Comedian Gabriel Iglesias is known as the VW Bus King, as his collection of Vdubs is reportedly worth in excess of $3 million. The Hoonigan crew recently did a feature video, but we still had trouble picturing the value of these vehicles. Fortunately, there's a set of renderings that takes the visuals of the Microbus to the level where everybody...
May 11, 2021
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