Some clever people have taken much time to come up with this formula to determine the likelihood of you being affected by Sod's Law:

((U+C+I) x (10-S)) x A x1/(1-Sin(F/10)), where U=urgency, C= complexity, I= importance, S= skill, F= frequency and A= aggravation.

My notion of Sod's Law is when you've spent a fair bit of time and effort doing something, but it turns out that you've made no progress at all, AND, in fact, you've just wasted a lot of precious time.

Like going to the effort of washing the winter salt off my little white car, and then repeatedly looking at it proudly every few minutes like a teenager, who's washed and polished his pride&joy to within a millimetre of removing the entire paintwork, only to discover, half an hour later, that the noisy seagull cackling on your neighbour's chimneypot is actually announcing, 'Ha ha! I've splatted your lovely clean car. Direct hit! Clever me!'

That sort of thing.

It's beside the point that I own a small car without any fancy extras, so it's remarkably quick and easy to clean.

That reminds me - I once had a c&b (compact&bijou) flat, where I could plug the hoover into a socket in the hall and comfortably access the livingroom, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. Unfortunately, it only had a communal outside space. So, sitting on a garden chair in the suntrap by my neighbours' downstairs flat, meant I was privy to all their arguments and intimacies. Not a comfortable experience. And it defined a priority for my next purchase - a Victorian flat in Inverness with thick walls and my own garden!

But I digress.

It doesn't really matter how easy a task is - it's the fact you've put the effort into doing it, instead of something else. So, with a scowly face, I sloshed a bucket of cold water over the roof, windscreen and bonnet of my wee white car, and left it to dry in its own time.

I have often spilt stuff down the front of a neatly pressed shirt, or cream jumper (never a dark one). And I've been known to to spill coffee down my front while talking to a friend. Confusion over when to open my mouth and when to keep it closed, I suppose. (Ongoing problem!) Rather like a wilfull child with pursed lips refusing to eat brocolli. But it's quite inexcusable in a grown woman. Especially when your friend expresses that look - like she's formulating assumptions about your senility!

Or, have you ever been in a queue at an ATM and you've allowed yourself to toy with a silly notion: what if you suddenly forgot your pin number? And your turn comes and you get the unsettling heebiejeebies and you really can't remember it? And you think your fingers will subconsciously remember the order? And they don't. And it's now twice wrong. And you can't remember what numbers you've already tried.

Only one try left.

Well, when that happened to me, I looked at the little old lady behind me and blurted out my dilemma, she said calmly, 'Just go to Markies for a cup of tea. Then you'll remember it.' I was in a hurry but it seemed like a plan. So I did, and it worked!

Recently I debated whether I had time to wash my hair before meeting my arty buddies for a chinwag. On closer inspection, my hair looked quite shiny at the back but kinda greasy at the front? I compromised on dry shampoo. But when I caught my reflection in the mirror, the dry shampoo had given me a dusty grey look. Not flattering. So, with little time left now, I decided on a full-head shampoo and a very quick blowdry.

Have you ever tried to dry your hair but it still looks lank and wet with no natural bounce? Yes? That's probably when you realise you've washed your hair with conditioner. Straight full-fat conditioner. So that's why it didn't lather, despite you putting on extra? So, time to start again. Double check. Definitely shampoo this time. But now late. Very late.

Sod's Law.

Slow intake of breath + a large dose of positive thinking = time to try again : )

Take heart. Worse things can happen.