Page 80 - It's a Rum Life Book One "In the Beginning 1947 to 1960"

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A story from “It’s a Rum Life”
Book Four ”The Northcote Diaries”

CHAPEL FLOOR HEATING
It was at about the time of our greatest trial, the winter of
1994.
Following the introduction of the National Lottery, the whole
country had quickly become lottery mad. In the first week of the
Lottery over £120,000,000 was taken out of the national
economy and spent on lottery tickets; animal sanctuaries of all
types began to suffer from dwindling funds and support as the
lottery simply swelled and swelled. This has continued every
week since although from time to time we hear that the Lottery
people are concerned that spending has dropped a little,
perhaps to £110,000,000 per week. The Lottery money does find
some good causes, but no thought has ever been given to what
happened to those places all over Britain where the general
public spent their “spare” cash previously!
Our income had dropped like a stone through lack of visitors
and was going to total a loss of over £38,000 in the 18 months
following the beginning of the Lottery. We had few assets and
our accountant told us we were insolvent but HE still wanted his
pound of flesh!

A TIME OF TRIAL
Our bank were trying to foreclose on our mortgage because
it had not been paid for over six months, we owed huge
amounts to our feed merchant and vet as well as countless
smaller suppliers.
I was about to fight a small claims court injunction brought
by the firm who had supplied the second-hand portacabin we

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