High Class Wannabes and other types of trash

What I find really interesting if that in the UK people dislike you if you’re posh (upper class). To people in Cyprus who may not know was posh/upper class is, it’s being high class. But there are differences. Let me get back to the UK first. In India, you have the caste system, and in the UK you have the class system. You are either lower class, middle class or upper class. Of course you have your fractions within this, such as ‘upper middle class’ who are upper-class wannabes or Greek-Cypriots who have made lots of money there. If you are from an immigrant family then you are outside the system but by the time you have second generation Brits, like me, you can squeeze your way into a class depending on what school you went to/how much you earn/who you know. Some of my friends are upper middle, others are upper middle but with the income of upper. However, it’s almost impossible to become the crème de la crème of British society if you’re not married to a Duke or Viscount or someone with a title and a double-barrel name. Ok? Are you following this? Good.

Now, in Cyprus, we have no aristocracy because we have no monarchy. We have an establishment (in Nicosia) which is old money and are people whose families have run the country since the birth of the Republic. Now, apparently, there is new money who like to call themselves high class, many live in Limassol, some also in Nicosia. What-ev-errrrrr! These are people who think that by wearing Balenciaga, going to expensive sushi bars where they sell three pieces of sushi for €80 and then pop to Protaras (also known as Nicosia-by-the-Sea) for a retreat to ‘get away from it all’ are high-class/upper class. They aren’t high-class they are just high!

My classy French friend Laetitia, (and no one does classy like the French) told me that to be high-class or of a higher-class you have to be well-versed in literature, a fully rounded person, good at a sport or instrument, speak a couple of languages and have taste and culture. Why do you think museums have steps leading up to the entrance? To boost the notion that museums (i.e. culture) are higher-places, where you learn about the finer things in life. So a table at Mo with Vodka is not a high class unless you’re there to discuss Milan Kundera’s influence in Czech writing in comparison to other writers of the 20^th century. I doubt that you would do that. Even I don’t do that! And I’m high-class. And how do I know I’m high-class. Well, I’m sitting here by my laptop in my fluffy Balenciaga slippers. And how do I know you’re not high-class? Because if you were you’d be reading proper literature and not this trashy blog!