“And this week’s winning numbers are …..”

Here in the UK we have a national lottery, where you can win, on average, between 2 and 6 million pounds, twice a week, every week of the year.

We also have the Euro lottery where anyone in Europe can win huge sums of money and in the case of no-one winning for a few weeks in a row, the grand prize is often something quite ridiculous (I think one woman in Ireland in 2005 won 115 million Euros (GBP£77million or US$116million).

Of course the poor woman then had to go into hiding for fear of being kidnapped but hey, money can’t buy you happiness right??

There’s a very old joke that tells of a Scotsman (who are apparently very tight-fisted when it comes to money), who once dropped a 2 pence coin and it hit him in the back of the head.

The joke being that in order to save the coin, he bent down so quickly, he reached the floor before the coin did!

(Told you it was old!!)

Now, I am not for one moment suggesting that my Dad is in anyway tight-fisted with his money – although he has been known to watch the pennies over the years – but just lately, his behaviour has been a bit …….. well …….. out of sorts.

I mean, I know it’s my Mums’ 65th birthday which obviously warrants a special treat – it’s just that I didn’t expect that special treat to be in the shape of a new Mercedes estate car.

A real one - not a toy one!

Last week he shouted lunch out for themselves and some friends of theirs and today, he shouted once again for all of us and the friends from last week again.

And the drinks.

I often wondered whether or not someone could keep a large lottery win a secret from other family members.

And now I know they could!!!

Thanks for lunch today Dad – and happy birthday Mum.

Looking good at 65.

I mean …..... 52.