What if?

EuroMillions fever has found its way to the Tikochinsky household. Whenever the prize rolls over to more than £50m MBH must, positively must, give it a go.

Now as we all know, the likelihood of winning is pretty much nil, zero, nada, zilch. Moreover, I genuinely don't know what the practical difference is between winning £30m and £70m. Unless you want to buy L'Homme Qui Marche, Giacometti's bronze sculpture that sold last week in auction for £58m + £7m for the auctioneer, making it the 3rd most expensive artwork ever.

And yet, I did find myself asking myself tonight: what if I won? What would I do differently? Probably the biggest difference would be not having to worry about money. Now I know that talking about money is not really a British thing. But I bet that even the poshest of Brits does, in a weak moment, think about money. Especially if they don't have much of it.

So, what would I do differently? First, I'd buy any song that comes to mind on iTunes! Sorry, but I cannot bring myself to actually pay 99p for 'Come on Eileen'. However, I will gladly give £1 to anyone who can honestly say that 'Come on Eileen' is not playing in their head as they read this sentence. Second, I'd plan a 6-weeks holiday world for the kids' summer break. I am thinking the far east - Thailand & Japan. The key question I asked myself, however, was: how long will it take before I resign from work? Now I know you are all saying to yourself "not more than 5 seconds!!!" I thought I would too. But the truth is (and I genuinely don't believe any of my bosses is reading this, so I am not writing this under duress) I'd probably stick around for a while. Having spent so long working I guess all of us feel a commitment to doing the right thing at work. To doing the "professional" thing. Dropping everything from one second to the next just doesn't feel right. And, in a way, I find this thought comforting. It somehow suggests that even in the most impersonal working environment, we still feel a connection to our fellow men and the moral obligation to do the right thing by them. And for bringing me to this conclusion alone I am grateful to EuroMillions. Obviously, £56m would also be nice.