In my idle moments, like many, I wonder what I'd do if I won the lottery. I'm sure many do. For some reason, when I was walking the dogs this morning, I wondered what extravagences I'd allow myself if I had Elon Musk's wad. Mr Musk has bought Twitter and is planning a rocket to the moon. The relative cost to him of this is the same as me going on Holiday to Brighton for a week. Of course I'd do my bit for world peace etc, but these are the things I'd allow myself.
1. Set up International Rescue. As a kid I was a Thunderbirds fan. Mr Musk could easily set up an organisation to do what Thunderbirds did from his small change. I wouldn't have space stations etc. I'd just lease a couple of large transport aircraft and have a stack of food, equipment etc that could assist in rescues. And I wouldn't call people who assisted in rescues nasty names either.
2. I'd build a brand new Wellington Bomber, as flown by my father in the RAF, from scratch, learn to fly and recreate as closely as possible his final mission from Foggia in Italy to Ploesti in Romania. I wouldn't try and bomb it though, just have a look. I'd also fly it around Vesuvius if it was erupting. My Dad did this in 1944. The RAF and Luftwafffe had an unwritten agreement that they wouldn't attack each other if they were having a look at the Volcano. The I'd donate it to the Battle fo Britain flight.
3. I'd pay to reopen the Mill Hill East to Edgware Line between Mill Hill and Copthall Stadium where Saracens play. It is ridiculous that there is a perfectly good track bed that goes to a major stadium. It bugs me.
4. I would buy 100 Wardour Street and recreate and reopen the Marquee club. I'd then stage a festival of all my favourite bands that I saw there in 1977-80.
5. I would buy Facebook and change it so that you saw the posts your friends post, rather than the crap they show you, such as snakes killing tigers etc and crap ads for stuff you don't want. I don't mind the odd one, but it seems I miss all the stuff I want in the sea of rubbish. I'm sure in the long term it would pay off.
6. I would buy the rights to run a train service from St Pancras to Manchester, reopen the line between Matlock and Buxton, which was closed by Beeching, and have carriages with proper comfy seats that face each other, tables, a decent buffet and a restaurant car, with decent craft beers, kippers and a proper full English Breakfast. I believe that this would prove very popular, even if it was slightly slower than the awful Aventi service from Euston.
7. I'd buy BBC Radio London off the BBC and turn it back into what it used to be, and amazing station that served the cultural life of London properly, restoring Robert Elms and Jo Good to their rightful slots and putting Gary Crowley in the air more. I'd also have proper music shows in the evening, Monday would be Punk Rock, Tuesday Reggae, Wednesday Hip Hop, Thursday Heavy Rock and Friday would be Funky. I'd get new DJ's to present these and have regular guest slots to find new talent.
8. I'd buy EMI records and turn it back into a proper record company, that nurtures talent on long term contracts and puts proper records out.
9. I'd buy the building on the corner of Flower Lane and The Broadway and rebuild/reopen it as a boutique cinema and culture centre.
10. I'd buy Manchester City FC of the current owners and set it up as a properly funded supporter owned club.
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