Life & Style | Travel

Come fly with me: Joy for rent

"They say you can't buy happiness but it might be possible to rent it"

  • By Meera Ashish
  • Published: 00:00 February 5, 2011
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"They say you can't buy happiness but it might be possible to rent it," stated an article in The New Yorker last week. In Japan, there are agencies that supply adult actors to clients who need impersonations of a blood relation, a loving grandchild or reputable parents, another company that provides wedding guests to create that extra buzz and in the US, Canada and now in the UK, you can even "rent" a friend for a day.

That aside — I only mentioned all that because it seems so ludicrous that it's fascinating — I liked the concept of fashionistas being able to rent their ounce of happiness through a company called Rent the Runway, which allows women to rent the most expensive haute-couture dresses for $50-$200 (Dh183-Dh734) for four days. If I was in America and I had a party to attend, I might do this if only for the thrill of it but I'm the type who would buy a $50 dress that I love and that I can keep and wear several times.

What makes me happy is staying in plush hotels and getting pampered once in a while. This time, being in New York longer than a couple of weeks and wanting to stay in a room that gave me ample space to move around rather than the usual cramped hotel rooms, I was relieved when I found a fantastically spacious hotel apartment to rent at the Cassa Hotel, giving me a piece of happiness, where I could cook, lie on the couch — or rather, spread my clothes and books as I ended up doing — and have a large bed while having access to all the normal hotel facilities and in quite the perfect location, minutes from Grand Central, Times Square and the rest of the Manhattan shebang.

And even though I could literally pop into a Broadway show down the road, I still had a radius of quiet around me — apart from the sheets of ice which plonked down one morning and made me realise I was in dire need of some Dubai sun.

For more from Meera Ashish log on to www.meera-ashish.com

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