Bob Brought Home The Basket.

It just goes to show that Mathematics Is Vital...

At first I thought it was his nefarious past throwing off a few good points, you know the time where he and his group of friends went out to their local watering hole throughout their 20's and 30's. Really, at 2 am, how was I to know that Bob had used his ingenious maths skills?

Being a member of the Eisenberg Volunteer Fire Brigade means attending a lot of rival Fire Brigde's functions. The first one was last night and Bob went all spiffy in his dress uniform. It's been a year since he joined and what a great year it has been. A year of new friendships. Simply Fabulous.

As I said, Bob came back home at 2 am and I woke up from my TV slumber to a lot of rustling. There Bob was, proud as a peacock, carrying this huge basket of goodies. Chocolates, biscuits, sparkling wine, sweets and treats. In fact, it made me realize how far we had come.

A year or so ago, that basket would have been needed. Yes, there was a time where we couldn't even afford a bar of chocolate. Butter was a luxury and ham not thought of. Look, that is par for the course when you immigrate. Nothing to be ashamed of. But what this basket made me realize, is that we have definitely turned the corner, because both of us were already wondering who to give these treats to.

If only we would realize how abundant our life is, when we have enough to eat. Pure luxury and yet it seems never enough somehow, does it?

How did Bob garner this basket? Well, he told me that there was a raffle. There was a big glass jar filled to the brim with used beer bottle tops on display. For a euro you could get a chance to guess the correct number of bottle tops in this jar. Look, it was only natural for me to assume that Bob somehow had the innate ability to guess the quantity.

Bob told me how he put his money on the #712. His table neighbour, jokingly decided on #711 and surprise surprise, the winning number was #710. Bob's basket was third prize. ( 1st prize must have been a whole wagon load of goodies...)

Wow, I thought that that was an extreme lucky guess until the maths parlour trick was revealed...Bob told me that he counted the rows and stacks of bottle tops inside the jar and did a simple multiplication. Ah, great stuff...ah, my man!

Biggi