If Wishes Were Fishes

On Sunday while I was attending the

Bangalow Billy-cart Race-day, I had a look at the

Bangalow Primary School Fete and while walking around the school grounds came across the wishing well I wrote about in last year's post about the Bangalow Billy-cart Raceday.

Left click on the photo to make bigger

I took a better shot of the poem written near the well and while standing there decided to throw in a silver coin and make a wish.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 20c piece, then thought I had better not throw that in in case I need it later.

So, I reached in again and pulled out some gold and

silver coins, found a five cent piece and threw it into the well, thinking who would miss 5 cents anyway?
It was hardly a sacrifice to the finances, I thought.

On the long drive home to Brisbane I decided I would get some

fish and chips for dinner, as I couldn't be bothered cooking after a long day, besides all I had at home was pasta and that seemed a bit bland to me.
I was trying to figure out approximately how much I had in my pocket, as I couldn't reach into my jeans pocket to pull the coins out and count them while I was driving.
 I knew I probably didn't have enough for the more expensive pieces of fish, so I calculated a worst case scenario and tried to figure out how much the cheapest fish on the menu would cost with a 

serving of chips.
$3.80 for three pieces of Whiting was the cheapest fish on the menu,
plus $2.50 for a serving of chips.
$6.30 I needed ... and you might have already guessed ... that all I could scrape together was $6.25.
Five lousy cents short of getting a nice meal of fish and chips, as opposed to going home and cooking a plate of boring old pasta once more for the week.
You can imagine what I was wishing for as I recounted and counted again the money in my hand hoping to find more coin, so I could go home with a nice meal?
Alas, it was not to be, all for the lack of a 5 cent piece.

When I thought about it latter, I should have used the 20 cent piece, because it has a picture of a platypus on it and Bangalow is often associated with the platypus in touristy nick-nacks to take home from the town.

Platypus sighting at Bangalow Guesthouse.

I guess the moral for me in this story is to realize what I have before it is gone, or before I throw it away wishing for something better.

“If wishes were fishes, we’d never go hungry.”

Fish and chips?-)