h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read that when Mike Oldfield broke the news that hiring tubular bells would cost £20, Richard Branson was supposed to have said 'They had better be worth it'.

Tubular Bells has probably now sold over 20,000,000 copies and without it there may well have been no Virgin empire.

So what will YOUR life changing £20 be spent on?

PP.

...but would the album necessarily have failed without the noise of the tubular bells? They only turn up at the end, after all the ground-breaking composition has already taken place, and I can certainly imagine alternative instruments taking the bells' place.

But to answer your question; probably £20's worth of fuel to take me to somewhere unexpected.

Although it must be said that since it was his LSD experience drove him deeper into his music (admittedly at the expense of his sanity), £20 spent on that might prove more effective (I'm not advocating it). I've heard quite a number of people who put their success done to a hallucinogenic episode, like Joe Zawinul and the Moody Blues; and even Larry Hagman praised it. Of course, people like Syd Barrett did less well on it.

It was £30, and it was a dog.

I was working at the BBC, now I'm running a business and working about 3 hours a day, swanning about being the boss.

Of course, I'm still pretty skint, but my life definitely changed when I got that dog. I still have plans for building the business so I can work even less, but start to get paid much more.

I don't think I could trump the bottle of fizz that I got my sister for her 30th birthday

this resulted in unplanned rumpy pumpy and 9 months later I got a beautiful nephew

I once bought a young lady a bottle of champagne. She was not my sister I hasten to add. It was on an ocean liner in the middle of the Pacific. It was her twenty first birthday. After dinner we went to the ship's ballroom for the dancing. I asked if she would like to dance. She said no, she would rather walk on the deck. I said that wasn't a problem I would dance with someone else.

I was incredibly stupid. That's why I don't live in California.

Best 20 quid ( actually 18.50) i ever spent was the night I renewed my membership to my local martial arts club, I'd damaged my knee and wasn't going to bother whilst I was on crutches. That night a young lady arrived to try the club out , we fell instantly and hoplessly in love and 18 years later she's still the love of my lives. £20 for a wife, great deal!

Nowadays could spend it on ten lucky dips for the lottery, but would I really want to change my life that much? Think I'd prefer a nice bottle of red.