The Power of Five
The Commonwealth Games are here again. They incite a curious kind of interest. Obviously they don’t really matter or mean anything, but we feel strangely compelled to watch and cheer. The swimming is mandatory viewing because we are actually good at it. But without the big, important, non-Commonwealth countries around, we are actually good at other sports too. And so we come to care about things which are generally not part of our sphere of interest because we are usually crap at them. Diving, gymnastics, the important athletic events, bringing people to the surface of the earth in a small metal cylinder…oh wrong channel. Anyway all of these triumphal tears have caused me to reflect on my first CG experience.
The year was 1978. I was six years old. The venue was Canada. The sport was swimming and her name was Tracey Whickham. Tracey was the Golden Girl of the pool du jour with victories in the 400 and 800m freestyle. In heats and finals she was often in lane five and such was my patriotic fervour that the number five became my lucky number.
The number five is awesome! Many awesome things are connected to the number five. Chanel number five (which smells not awesome on me, but lovely on my BFF). The TV show Party of Five. Lou Bega’s Mambo Number Five. High 5 (original line up). The list is endless. …Well I can’t think of any others at the moment but the number has had a huge impact on my life.
From 1978 onwards, five, and all multiples thereof, became important features in my life. I was born on the 25th, which is an even luckier number than five because it is five fives. I completed five years of university. My street number is five. My brother’s street number is five. We are now a family (party) of five. My brother and sister in law like to high five each other. These are all coincidences, but it has become my talisman.
To this day I will only get out of bed when the minutes are a multiple of five (which used to be mocked during high school sleepovers when I tried to enforce this rule on houseguests). I prefer to stop reading when the chapter is a multiple of five. Treadmill goals are measured in fives. I will always select a multiple of five when requested to select a number. Some might (unkindly) suggest that my lack of mathematical ability renders me unable to cope with numbers in a more complex formation, but by beloved five has served me well over the past 32 years.
Today I was shat upon by a bird. It got me all the way down my back. While barely suppressing their laughter and horror, everyone in the near vicinity reminded me how “lucky” this was supposed to be. So after shedding my ruined top, I decided to test the theory and buy a scratchie. I have rarely done this and displayed my ignorance to the newsagent lady by asking how much they were. “one, two, three or five dollars”. Naturally I chose the $5 one. The card allocated me four numbers and to win I had to scratch one of the four. My allocated numbers were NOT multiples of five, so I knew my chances were slim. Had 25 been one of my numbers, I would have won $50. Alas I matched number 38 and won $6. Massive profit of $1. Oh well. Next time I will buy five $1 tickets instead.
Twins & Roundabouts 
Also worth a mention are of course the Famous Five as well as the Jackson’s. Who could forget “and Timmy the d o o o g”. Love that you are so 5 centric. The twins were meant to be.
How could I forget the most famous 5 of all? Or the 5 band I loved so much I named my son after them?!? Thanks for refreshing my memory babe! Xxx