Saturday, September 3, 2011

Wheels of (mis)fortune

All those household goodies in the picture could be won for as low as 5 Swedish kronor with the help of luck of course. This was one of the many wheels of fortune at Liseberg amusement park in Gøteborg. Apparently there were three kinds of people at the park. The first group was the living personification of mother luck. The wheels seemed to obey every command of this beatified lot. Unpretentiously carrying their previous winnings, they made their way through crowds of aspiring gamblers, bet on a single number, won, casually picked up the prize and breezed past the not-so-lucky over to another wheel to win yet again. The second group enabled this game to flourish by betting relentlessly and not winning a trifle. They would bet four times in a row on their favorite number only to be hopelessly disappointed and move on to another number to find out later that the number they gave up on won some lucky devil a mega prize. The last set of people had probably grasped the essence of the Swedish saying: Lycka ger aldrig; den lånar bara ut (Luck never gives; it only lends). They preferred to get dizzy on the roller coasters with friends and family. I would rather not say which lot I belonged to :D