Two out of three

First, the exhaust falls off the car, then the toilet gets blocked.

As I drove with the kids out of the museum car park, I hit the kerb and dislodged the remainder of the exhaust from under the car. Necessity is the mother of invention they say, even though I have breakdown cover because the car is so old, I had to do something just in case help came but I still had to pay for something other than what is covered under my policy, so I crawled under the car and sorted the exhaust out. All that happened was that the exhaust slipped out of the hook that was holding it under the car. Crisis averted, no need for a mechanic and the inadvertent bill that would follow.

Then the toilet gets blocked. Cause of blockage was a whole reel of toilet paper stuffed down the pan: the stuffer; one of the said kids fresh from a trip to the museum. Once again, I rolled up my sleeves and went in there, dug and poked and prodded and eventually, whatever was holding things up moved and the blockage cleared. Another possibly expensive venture also averted as call out charges alone for plumbers is more than I can afford right now, not to mention parts and repairs. I have no breakdown cover for domestic plumbing.

These things happen in threes they say; I will discount the wet spot on the living room carpet that mysteriously appeared at the same time the toilet got blocked (strange), so what next I wondered. Well I bought a scratch card from the corner shop in an attempt to get change for parking. I only just remembered it and so I took it out, read the instructions and scratched as directed. Match two symbols on each line it said, and win the corresponding prize. The first line contained two mismatched symbols, nothing new there; I don’t have this kind of luck. No matter, I carried on. The second line had identical symbols, as did the third. Result. I looked at the prize, it was a tenner for each line; a £20 scoop, all for the grand investment of a pound. Not bad going. I am going to cash it in as soon as possible before it expires, or before it becomes clear that I misunderstood the instructions

All very strange, two out of three lines, eerily similar to the two out of three things that went wrong in one day. People say when things go wrong, it happens in threes, just like buses, you wait and wait and then suddenly, three come along. In this case, only two buses came along; I desperately wished the third ill away and in return, a limousine came along instead of the third bus. Well not so much a limo, more like an available cab. I do suppose it is true that you make your own luck, no use crying over spilt milk or sitting in the dark, it is better to light a candle. I took matters, literally, into my own hands and things worked out alright in the end. Except the lottery win, that was just pure luck.

Most time, we make our own luck, other times, we get tossed a freebie. One notices the freebie more if one chooses to, to be honest, that can be said of any good fortune, man made or natural. So here's to more freebies, may they continue to come, thick and fast, in threes in fact.