I remember once this very odd Catholic person came up to me in Foyles and gave me a plastic pedant of Mother Mary, and said, "this is for you. Keep it close to you always. I sense you deserve it."
"Yeah, OK" I said and stuffed it into my pocket.
A few months later Luke and I spent the morning at Borough Market drinking hot cider and on our walk home I threw the Plastic Mary into the Thames in a mad, half-drunk moment of atheist defiance.
This inaugurated a endless Reich of Bad Luck that only really ended definitively in June 2017, when almost every single thing finally seemed to be in place for success and happiness.
Last January I purchased a Pachira for my house, also called The Money Plant and known to be a symbol of good luck. It bloomed through all of last year as my luck and life kept improving. Last weekend I re-potted it and it looks like it is now starting to die. This is making me feel very edgy.