Friday 13 April 2007

Oh yeah and THAT date....

I laugh at Friday 13th. Well, no. To tell the truth, I say I do in my blog posts and then spend the rest of the day looking surreptitiously over my shoulder in case a lioness or a whole zoo has suddenly materialised behind me to add the third news story. And cross my fingers a lot.

I think I've figured out why some people are "lucky." It has less to do with luck and more to do with total lack of normal survival instincts. I mean, I was watching a TV ad for some furniture or white goods place, where they said that four people would win their purchases for free just for shopping there.

Okay - so a "lucky" person is the kind of person who says to themselves "Geez, I've been wanting that new bed/fridge/whatever, and it costs $2100. And strike me, I've got $2100 right here in my hand, it's all the money I have in the world until next month, but I'd be in with a chance to win it back anyway!" and then they go off and spend their last dollars. And dammit if they don't win.

The problem is that people like that make me look positively anal. I'd be checking to make sure I had groceries, fuel money, and - if that really was my last $2100 - if I could borrow some money off a friend in case of any emergencies. I'd make sure all my bills were paid up, and that I owed nothing to anyone. Then I'd make a list of the things that I need that cost $2100 and under, and then pick out one that seems most urgent. If by chance that thing turned out to be the bed/fridge/whatever, you can bet your last dollar that I'd pay for it, and - nothing...

See, because I've done silly things like that before, I know that I will end up spending a very broke month, and therefore I'm less likely to do it. A less self-preserving person might not learn, and therefore they enter more competions like that, and because they enter more of them, they - paradoxically - end up winning more, which reinforces their devil-may-care attitude...

So if you want to be lucky, send me all your money, and I'll send back one lucky person's money. Come one - what have you got to lose?

1 comment:

Iris Flavia said...

The highest I ever owed someone were five euros and I paid them back the next day. There is a quote that says, friendship ends when it comes to money and I think that might be true. Nah. Actually I just feel bad when I have no control over my money.

To "the" date - my Mom says, it´s a happy date for her.

And she also says, think positive - and that helped me once a lot :-)