Making your own luck

Is it possible do you think? Making your own luck? In the last few days I think this has happened to me twice. Firstly, for some days I had the strange feeling that a bird was going to launch a turd at me from on high. This hasn't happened to me for years and somehow I felt as if I'd been dodging it for so long it was bound to happen; law of averages maybe. Anyway, for several days I was wary of birds flying overhead, especially pigeons, of which there are plenty round here, and sea gulls when I went for a day trip to the beach on Easter Saturday.

I don't like seagulls. They have mad, staring red eyes and are bloody vicious when the mood takes them. It was a seagull that launched a sloppy one at me last time, all over a new (and much prized) T shirt while on holiday in Devon with a mate. The mention of this incident still cracks up my mate as we had just been fishing off the rocks and I was wearing clumpy steel toe capped boots. The sight of me chasing after the offending gull, swearing blue murder and trying to boot it's bloody head off was too much for him (I'd like to apologise to anyone who was around at the time with kids as my language was exceptionally unsavoury. Pretty unlikely they'll be reading this but it's the thought that counts).

On Easter Sunday I decided that since it was a nice day I would take my book (Diaries 1969-1979 - The Python Years by Michael Palin, if you're interested) and go and find a quiet spot in the botanical gardens for a bit of a read in the sun. This I duly did and come 5 o'clock or so, I decided to wander home through the rest of the park. I'd almost left the park when all of a sudden I feel a thud on my shoulder. Yes, that's right, some scabrous bloody pigeon parked it's van load on my T shirt. I guess it could have been worse as a few inches to the right it would have been on my head and I was able to clean off the worst of it in some nearby public conveniences (which were absolutely foul, by the way. BANES council you should be ashamed to have such filthy facilities serving a huge kids play area and park). Luckily, given the proximity of large numbers of kids, I stopped myself from swearing too loudly, although a small boy nearby did look my way when I uttered a very rude word under my breath, or so I thought: I had my headphones in at the time so it may have been louder than intended.

Anyway, example number two was regarding my back. I occasionally get muscle spasm in my back which can last from a few hours to a few days and it is absolutely crippling. All you can do is take pain killers and stretch a bit. I hadn't had an attack for well over a year and I had recently got the ominous feeling that I was overdue for a bout and sure enough, this morning I felt the familiar tightening across the back muscles just above the kidneys. Sometimes it is so bad that you can barely breathe when in the middle of a spasm but I have been stamping on it with a mixture of ibuprofen and codeine.

So, there you have it: two occurrences in two days. Coincidence or is it really the case that you make your own luck and by thinking these things would happen they did happen? As a scientist, the answer to me is clearly that it's just the way it goes, and as an eternal pessimist in some ways I always expect the worst and so I am rarely disappointed (but often happily pleased when something turns out better than expected. Better than being an optimist and always being disappointed I've always felt). Still, it doesn't change the fact that one is annoying and the other is sodding painful!

Listening to: Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy