counter

I know web traffic tends to be measured in millions but I'm still oddly pleased that my counter has hit 10,000. I just noticed it was on 9,999. I used to occupy myself on long journeys by avoiding looking at the milometer and trying to guess 5, 10 or 20 miles. 99s and 999s were always special somehow. Logically they shouldn't be but then logic and numbers, although natural bedfellows, have to combat the powerful force that is some sort of combination between superstition and the attractive aesthetics of sequences and patterns. As far as probability is concerned 1,2,3,4,5,6 may as well be your lottery numbers but I bet there aren't many people that choose those. I suspect that if they actually came up there'd be an outcry and claims of a fix. I always used to use that notion to help illustrate why buying lottery tickets was a stupid waste of money. Of course a massive jackpot win by someone very close made me look pretty dumb. Likewise we go bonkers on December 31st and especially bonkers when the year counter hit 2,000. Nerds all over the AD world deseprately tried to point out that the new millenium technically didn't start until 2001 and that's when the big party should be but surely they missed the point: why celebrate at all? It's just another day surely. We like to mark time, lives, events and web pages so decimal landmarks are easy to target and then celebrate I spose. I will try to break that mould and henceforth look forward to 14,324. What a day that'll be.

Superstition

I have just read that Juande Ramos: "is reputed to avoid using the telephone on the day of a game, puts his right foot first on to the turf before each match and would have avoided touching or looking at the Carling Cup until it was won or lost at Wembley on Sunday."

I'm glad these things affect the elite as well. My boy has taken to wearing several layers of Spurs shirts in a particular order at each match. Lucky we don't play in the height of summer. He also has a flag that's lucky for goals and one that ensures we win. I had to take that one to Wembley on Sunday and take a picture of it to send to him.

I used to have a lucky scarf that I'd had since I was a boy. In those days you got boys' scarves so this one barely went round my neck. it was moth eaten and had been chewed by my dog and I used to trail it out of the window of the car on the way to a game. One day a couple of seasons ago it worked its way loose and was in some puddle somewhere by the time I'd noticed. Once I got over the trauma of realising that all future defeats would be my sole responsibility, I decided to buy a similar scarf. This one, though, is thicker and hotter. It's a right pain actually but I still have to take it to games.

My girl (why doesn't this surprise me?) had a cup cake on Sunday while watching the match. She rolled and rolled the wrapper in her hand until it resembled a small rabbit dropping. This wasn't deliberate; it was just one of those nervous things you do. Apparently it was down to this 'lucky poo' that we won and this now has to be handled on the occasion of each game.

All the talk in the press about Ramos' genius is a nonsense. So long as no-one phones him and we have poo and scarves and multiple shirts all in the right order, we can't fail to keep on winning.