Many years ago while still living in the States, Bella attended a meeting with her then business partner only to learn that she had been essentially ‘taken to the cleaners’ as the saying goes, and was instantly left with no income, no resources on which to fall back, and no direction.
“I went to the bar at Morton’s, one of my favourite places and where one of my favourite people was the bartender, telling the valet on the way in that I was leaving my car overnight and would be back tomorrow to collect it. ‘Are you ok?’ my friend asked when he saw me. ‘Wine,’ was my response. He dutifully poured my wine and I sat at the end of the bar for several hours with my phone and ipad researching all the places in America I wanted to see. It was all I could wrap my head around at the time.
“A few hours later, when I finally told him what had happened, he asked where I was going to go, what I was going to do? ‘East,’ was my response. ‘Yes, but what are you going to do?’ Again, I simply replied ‘East’.
“For the next week I set about buying camping equipment (no, I’m sooo not a camper, but I was preparing for every eventuality), and packing up my classic convertible with an assortment of clothes, shoes, hats, goodness knows what…
“When friends asked, ‘what are you going to do?’, my continual answer was ‘East’.
“That started what became a three-month, 8000 mile road trip, and the start of my nomadic lifestyle – and although that first trip wasn’t exactly ‘luxurious’, it was amazing, and incredibly eventful! (but those are stories for sharing over a bottle of wine some time!)
“Eventually, I needed to come back to Las Vegas, dispose of the house, and decide what I was going to do next.
“Although I hadn’t planned to live out of a suitcase (well, several suitcases!), I did love the freedom of being able to explore so many places, and so I decided that whatever business I created next, it needed to support a nomadic lifestyle.
“…and that is how what became this luxurious nomadic lifestyle came into being.
“Since that day at Mortons, I have built an entirely new life. I have travelled internationally in private jets (btw, I thoroughly recommend Globe Air private jet charter – the service is exceptional every single time), stayed in some extraordinary places, and met some fascinating people – but whether I am staying in a magnificent manor house, or camping beside a lake, I now embody ‘elegantis vitae’ and live an elegant life on a daily basis.
“Apart from the physical health and mobility challenges I have every day, I have had illnesses where more than once I should have died, so for me, I choose to use the “good stuff” every single day – because as Michael Landon said so eloquently, ‘there are only so many tomorrows’.
“Among a variety of hats, shoes, bags, scarves, gloves, and jewellery, I travel with crystal wine and scotch glasses, gold-plated cutlery, linen napkins, a mahogany-handled bottle-opener for the all-important bottles of vino, and a vintage Hammersley cup and saucer (I enjoy tea with honey and lemon, so what better way to enjoy it than from lovely china)…
“…and so, on my Luxurious Nomad site, I share some of the places I visit, some of the things I encounter.
“One day soon I will settle down into a ‘home’, but I will still go exploring – and so will always remain at heart a ‘Luxurious Nomad’.”
