Guy Henderson Lottery millions a mixed blessing?
WHow many times can you helicopter to and from your South Hams luxury pad before it all becomes humdrum?
E PLAYED the lottery game the other night, just before the balls were drawn, and all our hopes were dashed again.
You know how it goes, you look at the unimaginable riches dangled before you and wonder what you would do with it all, if it fell into your lap for the paltry price of ticket?
It was a record £184 million EuroMillions jackpot, and I even wrote something for the DevonLive website about some of the things you could spend the cash on, and the answer wasn’t quite as inspiring as I thought it would be.
It boiled down to the fact that you could help yourself to Devon’s most expensive home – in Salcombe, of course – and have a top-of-the range yacht, a helicopter, two Ferraris and a business jet and still have a colossal amount of money left over.
Would you be happy?
How many times can you helicopter to and from your South Hams luxury pad before it all becomes humdrum? Can you justify the carbon footprint of all that gas-guzzling hardware?
How long before you and your family start looking and acting like those horrible herberts in the deliciously dreadful TV drama Succession?
In London the other day, we took part in the Saturday morning Hampstead Heath parkrun, and drove there along roads reeking of leafy urban chic.
Every inch of the way, we were watched by scowling security guards standing outside the tall steel gates of homes worth upwards of £30 million each. Hands behind their backs, they narrowed their eyes and weighed us up for our potential as visiting burglars from the countryside.
Behind the gates, the roving cameras and the tall walls are homes belonging to oligarchs and captains of industry, media magnates and minor royals from far-off lands.
The hidden Hampstead homes with their in-house security forces are beyond the reach even of Premier League footballers and reality TV stars.
But how happy can you actually be with all your gadgets and goodies if you have to live your life inside a ring of steel all the time?
You can’t chat to your neighbours over a 20-foot steel fence.
Somebody won the £184 million last Friday night, and it wasn’t me. It was a chap in France, and I’m really happy for him. I hope he spends his money wisely and enjoys it. He could even plough his winnings into his local football club, like our most celebrated local lottery winners did.
Paul and Thea Bristow from Torquay won £15 million in 2004. They bought land to save it from developers, took a plane-load of Scouts to Canada for a jamboree, and invested millions in Torquay United. The main stand at the club’s Plainmoor ground is named Bristow’s Bench in honour of Mr Bristow, who died in 2010 at the age of just 59.
The newspapers dubbed him ‘Britain’s most generous Lotto millionaire’. A banner which flies over the ground’s Popular Side terrace features a picture of him and the Churchillian motto: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”