Last Friday I made the bold
statement ‘I’m gonna be a millionaire’ and I’ll bet some of you are wondering if I indeed
won the lottery.
I must say, I had every
reason to be hopeful, there had been signs of good fortune to come and when I
received an email from the lottery commission saying ‘You are a winner’ I
thought ... this is it.
When I checked my account my
hopes and dreams were once again smashed to smithereens. No penthouse condo, no Lamborghini in the garage, no giant diamond on my finger, not able to help those in desperate need.
I had indeed won, but
not nearly as much as I had hoped for. I had won $40 and a free ticket. Okay,
not enough for Dieter and me to quit our jobs, but enough for four weeks of
free play. Better than nothing, right?
Maybe it’s for the best that
I didn’t win. Would I survive winning millions of dollars?
Many years ago I bought a
family magazine every week. At one time the magazine ran a competition. Inside
the magazine was a number followed by two letters, for instance, 277 AB. Week
after week I checked the provided sticker but I was never the lucky one.
And then one week it
happened. I checked my sticker, 934 TN and the winning number was 934 TM. Holy
shit, I screamed like I had seen a monster and started jumping up and down.
Alerted by the noise, my
then-husband came running into the living room to see what was doing on. “We won! We won!”
I kept repeating. He grabbed the magazine, checked the sticker and ... “Hold on
a second,” he said. “You didn’t win. The winning number is 934 TM and your
sticker number is 934 TN.”
Oh, the disappointment of it.
The thing is though, in that competition the winning amount was 1,000 Rand ($87,25). If I had such a reaction to
$87,25 can you imagine what I would be like if I found out I had won millions?
I'm liable to give myself a heart attack and drop dead on the spot.
Still, I'll take the chance and play again next Friday. One day (hopefully soon) I will get it right, right?
For the past few weeks, the jackpot of Max Millions stood at $60 million dollars. Week after week, nobody won this jackpot, until yesterday which means that someone or a group of someones are celebrating this weekend as he, she or they are $60 million dollars richer.
During these past few weeks, people who otherwise never bought a ticket now did and they didn’t just buy a ticket, they went all out and bought $20, $50 or even $100 worth of tickets. Which makes me wonder … does the jackpot have to amount to $60 million before people get interested? Is $5 million, $10 million or $20 million not enough?
I also hope it’s not an undeserving person who won. You know the one who says … “Oh I never play, this was the first time I bought a ticket.” I find this terribly unfair. There are people, like me, who play every week without fail. Most of us have a firm set of numbers we use every week like birthdays, anniversaries, and other dates with a special meaning. So you can imagine, when some jackass wins millions who otherwise never plays that we feel betrayed.
As for me, I had high hopes of winning and plans of helping friends who could do with some financial assistance. Unfortunately, my hopes and plans turned to dust. Other than two free tickets I won nothing.
Not that this came as a surprise, I never win anything (other than free tickets and the occasional $10). Although, I must admit, many years ago – about a month after we arrived in Canada - I did win something.
Back then Max Millions was known as the Super 7. As the name implies, gamblers would pick seven numbers and then hope for the best. That particular Friday night I watched the draw of the numbers on TV and wrote them down on a notepad. Once the draw was finished, I retrieved my ticket and moved to the dining room table.
When I checked my ticket I had not 1, 2, 3 or 4 numbers right, I had 5 numbers right! Dieter and I were besides ourselves, thinking that we had won thousands of dollars. How much were five right numbers worth … $30,000, $50,000, $75,000 or even more?
Since results were not posted online back then, Dieter put on his coat and shoes and went to the nearest convenience store to pick up a ticket with the winning numbers and the money breakdown.
When he came back I immediately could tell that he didn’t have good news.
“Not $30,000, $50,000 or $75,000?” I asked him.
He shook his head.
“How much then … $10,000?”
Another headshake.
“$5,000 … $3,000?”
More head shaking.
“Well, how much then?”
Dieter put the ticket on the table so I could see for myself. The payout for five correct numbers was … $131,57.
From what I can tell, everyone agrees. The difference between 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th prize is too big. See for yourself …
Prize
Matches
Amount
Winners
1st
7
$60,000,000.00
1
2nd
6 + Bonus
$202,003.60
5
3rd
6
$5,536.80
194
4th
5
$107.50
12,678
5th
4
$20.00
288,496
6th
3 + Bonus
$20.00
276,488
7th
3
Free Ticket
2,537,042
Still, come Friday, I'll play again because as every gambler knows ... you have to be in it to win it and perseverance pays off. And if nothing else, I am persistent. I live by the slogan NEVER GIVE UP!
Over the past few days, I’ve been spending time with the rich and famous, the very rich. Well, not actually spending time ‘with’ time as much as helping them decide which yacht to rent or buy by way of describing these superyachts. It was an eye-opener, to say the least.
Usually, I’m not interested in yachts. If I can’t afford them, why go to exhibitions where these ships are on display or watch TV shows that feature these things. However, on this occasion a number of writers were required to give a detailed description of several yachts and since the job paid well I decided to join the team.
I just about fell in love with the first ship I did, the Northern Star. On the outside, she’s just about like any other ship, but on the inside ... OMG like I said, it was love at first sight. It didn’t even look like a ship, it looked like a home. A beautiful, tastefully decorated home. Writing about it was a breeze.
The Northern Star
One of the dining rooms
One of the sitting rooms
One of the bedrooms
One of the decks
Unfortunately, I will never have the pleasure of vacationing on such a ship because, while I have no idea how much the Northern Star costs to purchase, even renting her for a week is way out of my budget. Just in case you’re interested, renting the Northern Star will cost you $768,000 per week. Per week!!!
Following the Northern Star, I wrote about several other ships. Also beautifully decorated, but not quite too my taste. Too modern.
And then I came across the Al Salamah, a mega yacht previously owned by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. If you’re interested in buying this ship you better come up with $300 million. For this price, you and 39 of your friends can revel in the lap of luxury and be waited on hand and foot by a crew of 92.
And then this morning I came across a plea for a donation from a man whose daughter has blood cancer. He is working, but he can’t afford the treatment for his daughter on his salary.
Now isn’t this ironic? On the one hand, there is a man who can spend $300 million dollars on a ship, and several more millionaires who can fork out over $500,000 to spend one week on a yacht. Yet here is a man who can’t afford to keep his daughter alive.
And he is, no doubt, not the only one.
My guess is that there are tons of people who can’t afford the medical care they need. And I’m not just talking about cancer treatment. Here in Canada for instance, medical care is free, but dental, eye care, hearing, and medication must be paid. Thus, lots of people forego going to the dentist, do without glasses, without hearing aids or without medication.
Others have it even worse. The can’t afford housing, warm clothing, or even decent food.
Where it comes to money distribution, the folks who waste their money on million dollar homes, luxury cars, yachts and other outrages expenses should be forced to share their wealth with the less fortunate. And I’m not talking about the poor people in Africa (although they too can do with some help) or those on welfare. I’m talking about the average working class. Folks who go to work every day and still struggle to make ends meet or who barely get by.
Wouldn’t it be nice if those rich wasters were forced to donate an equal amount of money to what they spent on frivolities? If they pay $300 million for a yacht, they should be forced to donate $300 million. If another waste $40 million on a house, he should contribute $40 million to the people fund. If another still spends $2.2 million on a car, $2.2 million should be donated, etc.
Not only would the rich think twice before wasting their money, the economy would benefit from their donations. Do you know how many people live in million dollar mansions, drive luxury cars, and vacation on superyachts ... tons of them.
With more money to spend, the working class would be able to afford a house/condo, a car, furniture, clothes, groceries, and anything else they might want or need. With more items needed production the economy would go up and unemployment down. Even the crime rate might go down.
Then again, who would oversee such a donation fund? Charitable organizations have notoriously sticky fingers and with millions coming in it’s only a matter of time before someone or several someones would nibble on the fund for their own gain.
Still, fixing the economy this way is a nice thought, isn’t it?
As a rule, I avoid social media like Facebook, Twitter, and others for the simple reason that some of those posts annoy me. But every now and then I still get confronted with articles or news headlines and they do more than annoy me, they make me bloody angry.
First, there was the news that America’s First Lady bought a $51,000 jacket. In my opinion, it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen and they Dolce & Gabbana would have to pay me $51,000 to wear it, but that’s beside the point. The point it, how can anyone spend that kind of money on a jacket they will wear only once?
If it was up to me, I would enforce a rule that if people spent that kind of money on frivolities, they should be forced to donate an equal amount of money to a worthy cause. For a lot of people, $51,000 is equal to five years or more of rent. So why not give five hard-working families $10,000 each? Or ten families $5,000. Not folks who receive welfare, but people with jobs who genuinely do their best but still find it hard to make ends meet.
A few days later another outrages purchase caused me more aggravation. This time it was David Beckham who bought his wife a $379,261 purse.
Now wouldn’t it have been nice if Beckham would have been forced to donate an equal amount of money to the victims and families of the recent London terror attacks? That would have been money well spent.
Another worthy cause would have been to donate $379,261 to various animal shelters to supply food and medical services (such as spaying and neutering) to cats, dogs, etc.?
Or his money could have helped quite a few people who needed help with their mortgage. Or a particular city could have used the funds to subsidize public transportation.
And this is just the beginning. Middle Eastern sheiks buy diamond encrusted cars and paintings for hundreds of millions of dollars. They should be forced to help others with an equal amount. Not only would this help out deserving families, but they might think twice before flaunting their wealth.
If the rich were forced to share, just how many would benefit?
(CNN) In a sweeping address to the United Nations on Friday,Pope Francispresented himself as a champion of the poor and dispossessed, urging world leaders to adopt concrete solutions to combat war, widespread poverty and economic destruction.
When I read an announcement like that I can’t help but snort. The Pope presenting himself as a champion of the poor … who is he kidding?
The first thing I did after reading this announcement was Googling “How rich is the Vatican?” and this is what I found:
Bankers' best guesses about theVatican's wealthput it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of thiswealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market.
The Vatican’s wealth is not only measured in money though. When I visited St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, I was amazed at the amount of paintings, marble statues, jewel encrusted Bibles and jewelry that was on display.
We’re not talking a worth of millions, but of billions of dollars.
The Pope also implored nations to embrace refugees, but he himself doesn’t want anyone to set foot in Vatican City uninvited. The whole of the Vatican is protected by a huge wall and heavily guarded at every entrance.
The story starts off alright. Ann Grange is suddenly widowed and her whole world falls apart.
After a year of grieving, and with the help of a friend, she returns to the land of the living and does so with determination. She opts for a new hairdo, new makeup and new clothes.
Thanks to her new look comes a new found confidence. A confidence that makes her an independent woman, rather than the pathetic sidekick she was when her husband was alive.
In a museum she meets Alex, a Greek, who sweeps her off her feet.
If Burgh wanted to sketch Alex as appealing, she failed horribly. Right from that first meeting, it’s clear that Alex is an asshole. It’s his way or the highway. Still, Ann (who he insists on calling Anna) falls for his charms hook, line and sinker.
A whirlwind romance follows, during which Alex reveals himself as not only an asshole, but an asshole with a temper.
At this point I started to wonder what Ann sees in him. He’s self-centered, super arrogant, flies off the handle when he encounters resistance, and unreasonably possessive.
To be fair to him, he knows that he’s an asshole, that he’s self-centered, arrogant, and possessive. And while he’s insanely jealous, he admits that she doesn’t have to expect fidelity from him. He will continue to sleep around if it suits him.
Once again I started to wonder just how tolerant Ann is. What woman would agree to have her man on the loose like a dog in heat, while he practically has her on a leash?
I also wondered if his money had anything to do with it. She states that money is not important, but Ann went from being rich to being VERY rich. Would she have felt the same if her beloved was a bank teller, an accountant or an insurance salesman with an average salary?
The story went horribly wrong about halfway in the book where Burch makes a colossal mistake.
When Ann complains to her 27-year-old daughter Fay that Alex is too dominating, Fay boldly states that all women secretly want to be dominated.
Really? All women want to be dominated? This certainly was news to me. I for one most certainly do not want to be dominated and I know quite a few women who feel the same.
Very strange for Fay to make such a statement, as she is a successful business woman herself. Makes you wonder if a dominating male had to say to her “Quit your career and stay home to clean my house, cook my meals and polish my shoes” how such an order would have been greeted.
Next big surprise, after the wedding, Ann finds herself pregnant. This was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. This woman is in her 40s, her twin children are 27 and now she’s expecting a baby! Has the woman ever heard of birth control? At her age it’s just plain stupid to get knocked up.
All in all, a disappointing book. It made me wonder where the Anita Burgh was who defended women’s rights and gay rights in “The Broken Gate” and “The Heart’s Citadel”. Since her book “Lottery” was also a disappointment, I’ll think twice before buying another book from Burgh.
Like millions of others, I play the lottery every week. I have a set of numbers memorized which makes it sort of necessary to play. Suppose I don’t play one week and my numbers come up … I would pull out my last hair.
Like so many others I often fantasize what I would do if I hit the jackpot: move to a nicer neighborhood, drive an exotic car, go shopping for clothes, shoes, and jewelry, donate to the local animal shelter and help a few of my friends.
Beyond that, I don’t actually have a clue what I would do with millions of dollars. Do you? Having no money brings problems, but having tons of money would no doubt bring problems too.
To find out a little more about a lucky winner I recently read “Lottery” by Anita Burgh.
Peggy, the main character wins the jackpot and as a result, her life, that of her husband and three children dramatically changes.
While the book was a nice enough read, the alcohol consumption of the main character bothered me to no end. I lost count of the amount of gin this woman guzzled. Gin and tonic in the morning, for lunch, at dinner, and while watching TV. Forget glasses, this woman went through bottles and bottles of the stuff, interspersed with red and white wine and brandy.
She drank when she was happy, she drank when she was sad, she drank alone and she drank in company. I got the feeling that whenever the writer didn’t know what to do with her character, she had her reach for the bottle.
Admittedly, her life was not without problems. Her husband hooked up with her best friend, her children treated her as their own personal piggy bank and friends and neighbors suddenly gave her the cold shoulder. Still, is that any reason to start downing gin and tonics?
Every person with a bit of common sense knows that alcohol doesn’t solve any problems, if anything, it creates more of them.
Fortunately, this is not the first book I’ve read from Anita Burgh. If it was, I might not go for a second.
Has the book altered my enthusiasm for winning the lottery … not at all.
There’s no chance of a cheating husband as I’m divorced and will never marry again (not if you held a knife to my throat).
There would be no children fighting over financial favoritism as I only have one child and he would share in my good fortune.
Friends would most definitely not turn their backs on me, as I would pay them a visit and present them with a nice check.
And if neighbors were to give me the cold shoulder … who cares, I would soon have new neighbors.
Neither would I become a drunken lush as I don’t drink at all.
So, next Friday I’m going to play my numbers as usual, keep my fingers crossed, expect the worst but hope for the best.
Last Friday, the Max
Millions lotto drawing was $50 million.
A jackpot this size
always draws more players than usual.
Some people can’t be bothered with $10 or $15 million, when they win
they want to win big and $15 million just doesn’t cut it.
Me, I play every week,
twice a week. I play the Max Millions on
Fridays and 649 on Saturdays. Having a
regular set of numbers I can’t afford not to play. Imagine not playing and recognizing the
winning numbers as “my” numbers ... I wouldn’t survive the shock.
Yet this is exactly what
happened ... last Friday, I forgot to play.
This in itself was a shock. $50
million up for grabs and I didn’t buy a ticket!
I’m sure there are
others like me, faithful players who buy a ticket every week with a regular set
of numbers. I wonder if they ever won
anything sizable. I don’t mean a free
ticket or $5 or $10 here and there, I mean a sum that makes a difference.
Whenever I read about
Lotto winners I find there are four categories:
people who state that
this was their first time playing;
people who only play
when the jackpot meets their expectations;
the elderly; and
the disabled.
Since I don’t fit in any
of the four categories, I wonder about my chances. I also wonder what I would do with $50
million.
People say that money doesn't buy happiness, but I’d sure would like to put that theory to the test. $50 million would make me VERY happy and I
can think of quite a few people and one organization with whom I would share
that happiness.
