Australia has a lot of lotteries - there are national ones and federal ones and it seems like there's one every day of the week. They can reach pretty high stakes, and recently the prize pool topped $70million. We bought a ticket , but we didn't win. Fair enough - it is, after all, a lottery.
What does annoy me, however, is when people say, 'oh, it won't change me'. Well, clearly you don't 'deserve' to win it then - give it to me! Of course I would pay off my mortgage and that of any other of my family members who need it, I would buy an E-type Jag and another couple of houses somewhere, preferrably one in Park Crescent, and indulge myself in my dream holidays.
But I would make changes to everyday life as well. If I had unlimited funds, here are the ways I would change:
5 Lottery Winning Changes:
- I would always fly first class
- I would hire a cleaner - housework would be a thing of the past for me
- I would always get taxis home from a night out, rather than having to plan for a sober driver or leaving on the last train/bus home - or if I were in a decent city, I would just stay in a hotel overnight
- I would donate money to every charitable organisation I walked past (as long as they weren't supporting right wing politicians)
- Every time I had a health niggle, I would go straight to the relevant practitioner (doctor/ dentist/ physio/ massage therapist) rather than saving up all my ailments until I felt I had enough to justify the consultancy fee.
There are a lot of things not to like about flying. But the Friday Fives are relentlessly positive, so, as I embark on a thirty-six hour plane journey around the world, here are some of the things I do like.
5 Things I Like About Aeroplane Travel:
- The films – often really up-to-date pictures that you were planning to see on terra firma, classics that you always meant to watch someday, or sections of TV dramas that you missed out on because you were busy doing something other with your life.
- Duty free – even if you don’t buy anything (and you know you’ll end up with a Toblerone), it’s fun to sniff all the perfume and check out the free gifts with litres of gin or whisky.
- The little stuff – from mini packets of nuts to pocket-sized g&ts, somehow all the packaging on the aeroplane seems cute.
- Famous people – occasionally you glimpse them as they waft through the airport in a cloud of photographers and bad disguises – sometimes you even get to share a plane, although of course they always sit up front in the big seats.
- The warm hand towels – nowhere else do you get this luxury, apart from maybe massage therapists. The situations could not be more incongruous. You may be cramped up with your knees digging into your chin and your back unbearably jack-knifed, but your face feels fresh and your pores cleansed.
