Saluting a lone Magpie. The right shoe always going on first. Avoiding those triple CATV (Community Antenna Television, if you were wondering) covers on pavements. Superstitions I’ll generally try to hide or at least not draw attention to. It feels a bit daft. A slightly embarrassing mental disfigurement I want to cover up. Yet that reticence is in itself a bit silly. It would be much better to embrace these quirks because in doing so I suspect I’d free myself from the strangely compelling burden they exert.
It’s why boldly saying ‘hello fairies’ feels so refreshing. Catch the bus from the Isle of Man Airport down to Douglas on the A5 and there will be a chorus of greetings to the Mooinjer Veggey (Little People, in Manx) as you cross a small bridge decorated with flowers, ribbons and photographs. It’s a tradition or superstition I was introduced to the first time I went to the island, 20 years ago. We weren’t even due to pass Fairy Bridge on that occasion, but we had to make a detour (as many TT riders do) to go and visit nonetheless. Some won’t say anything of course, but there is no stigma attached to this superstitious salutation.
It’s a similar sense of breaking free, when you accelerate past a white circle with a diagonal black line through it and keep going… 60mph, 70mph, 80mph, 90mph, 100mph. It feels strange the first time; like a wary wild creature being released back into its natural habitat, you feel like there might be a trap. Surely this is too good to be true? But it’s not and it’s wonderfully liberating, not just physically but, more importantly I’d argue, mentally.
