YOU know those daft sayings your mum – or gran – used to wheel out at any given opportunity that you always thought were nonsense.

Well, they're not – and I have proof.

My own mother had several that tripped off her tongue with alarming regularity - “red sky at night, sailor's delight” (I grew up on the coast, and despite it being Cumbria, shepherds were in short supply) and “an hour before midnight is worth two after” were two of her personal favourites.

I'm sure there is some merit in these – I'm no meteorologist but apparently there is an actual reason for the clouds being red at night and this boding well for the following day's weather.

And obviously, more sleep will make you feel better, whether or not it's before midnight.

But my dear old mum's personal favourite mantra was - “bad luck always comes in threes, if you've had two lots of it, break a match and it'll stop the third”.

Despite being a rational, sane (most of the time) human being, for many years I adhered to this.

If two bad things happened – by bad I don't mean life-threatening I really mean mildly annoying, certainly don't try to cure cancer or solve world peace with this tactic – I would automatically snap a matchstick in two.

But as the years have gone on – and I have had far less use for matchsticks – I admit the habit has died a death.

So, when some kind soul decided that after smashing into the side of my car as it was parked in a multi-storey car park (as it turns out with no CCTV), they would “helpfully” drive off without leaving a note and me with a repair bill of thousands of pounds, snapping a matchstick just did not pop into my head.

Later that very same day, I didn't think about breaking a match when my boiler decided now was the time that it felt like going on its holidays and would stop working.

But then, when half a tooth felt the urge to fall out – with no pain, prior warning or indication something was wrong – the first thing that popped into my head was “I should've broken a match”.

Fine, what our mums say may often be absolute rubbish – but from now on, because mine is sadly no longer here to dispense the good advice, I'm always following the instructions of her “daft sayings”.