The Queen of England, Elizabeth, will be out of money in three years if she continues to spend more (which she has been doing) than her allowance from the government – 10 million pounds a year. She is an example of a totally wasted life.

Troops are being withdrawn from Iraq and there are celebrations among the citizenry. There will, it is being predicted, be some initial violence, then things may well calm down. I hope so for their sake. But despots love a vacuum. Watch for another strongman to take control and violate his people.

Tempus fugit: I’ve been coloring my hair for some years now and because it is short, it gets over-processed. So I let it grow out these past three months to give my hair a rest and regain some natural bounce. I use a dark blonde L’Oreal product and it fades. Well, maybe I don’t need to color anymore. Underneath I am mostly platinum. Hollywood starlets kill for this color. Why don’t I feel lucky? Hey, there goes my pigment.

Ed and I had lunch with newish friends last Saturday in a gated community near Sarasota, at their country club. I had gazpacho and some kind of Mexican chicken, and a home-made chocolate chip cookie. We saw other high end homes. The landscaping was spectacular. Must take 100 gardeners year-round, working every day, to keep it like that. A golf course and tennis courts. What, I wanted to ask, no bridal path? This was our second social get-together and I started to like them. The first time was a bit bland. Turns out she's a tennis ace. Around our age, I am guessing. We got on well.

Afterwards they drove us to Casey Key, on the Gulf, lots of beach and surf and super homes just yards from the water. Not so manicured, more old Florida, but definitely pricey, perhaps $5 million for a fixer-upper to $10 million or more for a larger, newer house. One of them, a white fortress type place, used to belong to John Gotti.

We also walked along a public beach filled with sun and surf bathers. No beaches in our area – some in Fort Myers, Sanibel, but none on our island – just docks. Ed says that is a good thing or we would be over-run with visitors. Well, I would love to live on a beach and I would be kind to the visitors.

They took us back to their house and we picked up our car and got lost getting back to the highway. "We can't leave," I said to Ed, "we are on a moebius strip." We were almost totally swallowed by Lawn Heaven, but a security guy happened by and helped us out. Close call.

xx, Teal