Gambling NEVER pays.

I only spent an hour in the raspberry patch today.  Other things cool things distracted me from my efforts. Which was probably just as well, as I was heading towards a burst foo foo valve. What I really needed was a night out.  Luckily such an event presented itself in the form of a casino night.

As a bit of a back story¸ our boys, Tim the Helper and the Joeyosaurus go to a very small country school.  We love the wee country school as it offers so much more for our kids than a big city school ever would.  But being a small country school, they have to do a bit of fundraising from time to time to help out.  So the PTA decided a casino night would be a great idea, and it was.

The whole community rallied round and loads of people came from all over the area and a great time was had by all.  But the thing is I’m not a great gambler and with my allocated chips I found I had trouble risking it all.  I’m not even sure how much we had to start with, but the lowest denomination were the red ones and they were worth $25,000.  The white ones were worth $50,000, the black ones were $100,000 and the green ones were worth half a million dollars.   So we got a handful of chips for the princely sum of $20.00.  I am so risk adverse that I only bet one red chip at a time.

As the casino part of the evening drew to a close, they announced that the spot prizes would be mystery won by the highest bidder.  This is where being at a small country school is the best thing ever.  Some of the prizes were gardening implements and I had my eye on a shiny new orange hoe.  But as an even greater prize there was a preserving kit, the perfect thing for making jam and canning and things.  It was worth at least $200.00.  So I dropped some not so subtle hints that I really wanted to win the preserving kit and failing that the hoe.

This is where it was demonstrated quite generously that charity was much better than gambling as people could see how much I wanted these things and gave me their chips.   I hadn’t really added anything to my original stack, but when I went to cash it in I had amassed $25 million and fifty thousand dollars.  Not bad for a nights work!  I was in with a shot of achieving my dreams.   Then they announced that you had to pick a card to get the corresponding prize.

My total ‘winnings’ earned me the right to choose second.  Sadly the first place winner picked well and won the preserving kit.  That’s ok I said to myself when it was my turn to pick – there is still the hoe.  I hovered over the cards for long enough for people to start yelling out “hurry up” so a grabbed the card in the middle of the arrangement and the lady went straight past the shiny orange hoe and picked up a small item I hadn’t even noticed and handed it over.  It was a voucher for $30 worth of tea.  The shiny orange hoe went to a great home and one of the last people to take their chance at winning a prize.

I learnt two things from this:  I’m not a gambler, and gambling really doesn’t pay.  If you want something specific and don’t want to pay for it then it is much better to ask for it for your birthday.  Now Hubby the Un-Gardener knows what to get me for my birthday and probably Christmas as well!

Come again soon – you can’t beat hard, honest graft.  I must get the raspberries finished.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )