Touch wood

I'm not really superstitious, probably because nothing bad has happened to me (fingers crossed!) on Friday 13th or when walking under ladders.  I use my common sense: if there is a man up the ladder with a pot of paint that might drip onto me, or handling tools that could be painful if they fell on my head, well it makes sense not to walk underneath.  However there is one superstition handed down by my mother that I still observe - bad things come in threes and the only way to break the chain is to break a match.  Today I broke a match.

It all started yesterday.  I don't know whether it was a result of me being absent-minded, a rare "senior moment", or just because it was a hot day and I wasn't able to concentrate.  I was cooking on our touch control hob, stirring some onions and red peppers in a large pan on the front ring, with a small pan behind that was going to contain green beans.  I pressed the + button to increase the temperature of the back ring, and continued stirring.  When I realised the water for the green beans wasn't boiling, I glanced down at the controls and realised the back ring was still on zero.  Had I increased the temperature of the front ring by mistake? Maybe.  Then I saw the glow of the large ring on the left and realised too late that the edge of our electric kettle was sitting on it and the kettle was slowly melting.

Ironically, the recipe I was using was a new one from one of my collection of cookery books: Dinner in a Dash.  The recipes are designed to help you prepare several dishes at once, and the first instruction for this particular dish was "Boil the kettle".  Somehow I don't think the writer meant to boil it on the hob!

Today my husband John was pouring water into his cafetière and somehow (he doesn't know how) he managed to catch a wine glass and knock it onto the kitchen floor.  It broke into what looked like a trillion small pieces of glass.

Two days.  Two accidents.  Only one thing to do, according to my Mum, and I broke a match. So far, so good.

I do consider myself to be pretty lucky: I have three children who I am very proud of; an understanding and supportive husband; John and I live an interesting and enjoyable life in Spain and have many good friends here.  I am also lucky enough to enjoy good health.  Touch wood!