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Luxury is a cool beach

Ok, this is going to require a really BIG creative leap: imagine that you are not fighting off yet another bout of flu/sore throat/ revolting chesty cough and the sun is shining. You are lounging on the beach. You want to walk, perhaps take a stroll, or even paddle at the sea... but No! The sand is just too damn hot!

No, I can't imagine it either. But apparently it's such a problem in Dubai (where it can, admittedly, reach 50C) that the new Palazzo Versace Hotel - as in Donatella - is being built with a refrigerated beach. A network of pipes, constructed below the sand, will act to cool the beach, and there may also be a refrigerated pool and a selection of giant fans to create a breeze.

When asked about the environmental impact of the scheme, Soheil Abedian, founder and president of Palazzo Versace, told The Times: "We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want."

Normally this would make me wail and beat my chest but it's such a useless answer that it makes me think that perhaps he didn't quite understand the question, poor man. So perhaps he also doesn't realize that walking on hot sand was precisely what flip flops were invented for? And that if Dubai is too hot, then perhaps those clever 'top people' might simply go somewhere cooler?

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