If I had a million dollars

I bought a lottery ticket yesterday. Second time this year. Like the first one, it will sit in my wallet for several weeks before I check it, basking in the highly unlikely possibility that I could be a millionaire.

As I’m still consumed with panic about learning my panto lines and thus unable to give much thought to worthy subjects for my daily writing, I figured I’d spend a few days fantasising. So…

If I won $100… Well, that isn’t even a drop in the ocean of my inherited debt. I’d probably get a haircut and buy a bottle of Grand Marnier or cognac (depending on how much change I had from the haircut).

If I won $500… Hmm, not sure. Again, a drop in the ocean. What could I do with $500? It’s not a plane ticket to England (or anywhere else I might like to visit). It’s not a week in Havana or Mexico or Hawaii. What does $500 represent? It is, to me at the moment, a princely sum. I could get a gym membership, but would I really go? For all the talk (including by my doctor) of the importance of physical exercise in combatting depression, I really had to force myself to go to the gym the last time I had a membership. Oh, but wait! Pilates or yoga. Now that I wouldn’t mind doing. Five hundred dollars would pay for a lot of sessions. So maybe that. Actually, I’ve just got my calculator out and find that $500 would pay for 33 lessons. That doesn’t seem like all that many. Still probably good for me, so, yes, let’s say that.

If I won $1000… Okay, now we’re talking. A week in Havana or Baja or Maui. Nah. As lovely as that might be, it wouldn’t buy me a major result. I know what I’d like to do with $1000.

A decade ago, I rented a cottage in Wales for a week. The bedroom had a skylight over the bed. On clear nights, when I turned the lights off, I could stare up at the stars. It was wonderful. I’ve wanted a skylight over my bed ever since.

There are skylights in every room of the house, except the bedroom. With large windows on three of the walls, there seemed no need for a skylight when we bought the place. That was before my week in Wales.

So, yes, if I won $1000, that is what I would want to spend it on more than anything else.

From a purely practical point of view, what I would actually spend it on would be a new generator to replace my broken one.

If I won $2000… Both of the above.