Click on the image to view Jean-Paul’s Lucky Penny Journal all the way from Seattle.

Click on the images to see Joe’s lovely Lucky Penny Journal!

Thursday July 29th 2004

Opened the envelope from Michael Leigh. I’d forgotten that he was sending me the Lucky Penny. It’s our wedding anniversary today. Jill and I have been married for 15 years. So it’s an auspicious occasion to start this lucky diary.

I slipped the Lucky Penny into my pocket at 10.25.

Plans for today. Continue writing the children’s story I’m currently working on. Update my blog. Ring Gaby, my poetry publisher, to see where we are regarding proposed children’s poetry books planned for 2006. Lunch in garden as iIt’s a lovely hot summer’s day. Go to Battle, our nearest town, with Jill, to take her glasses into opticians to be mended, take library books back. Buy food. Possibly mow lawn if there’s time. Go to the cinema to celebrate. Will I be lucky. Let’s wait and see.

Well the first thing that happened was our cleaner left. She’s got herself a proper job. So bad luck for us, good luck for her. Maybe we’ll find an even better cleaner. Which will be good luck. Maybe we’ll find time to do our own cleaning. Time?

Not much else in the lucky stakes. I won at Scrabble this evening but I prefer to put that down to skill rather than luck.

Friday 30th July.

This morning I wrote more of my children’s book. Another 1000 words. That’s not very much, but the trick is to write that amount every day. It soon mounts up. In a month that’s 30,000 words. The length of a short children’s novel. In two months a reasonably sized adult’s novel. No luck – good or bad.

This afternoon I visited Battle, took Jill’s glasses in to be fixed – found parking space almost outside opticians – awarded myself one lucky point – I visited library – didn’t buy parking ticket – luckily I wasn’t spotted by traffic warden – went to supermarket to buy organic free-range chicken. They didn’t have one. Don’t think that’s a lucky issue as it’s a very small store and they rarely have anything as wild, crazy or extravagant as a free-range chicken. It would have been lucky if they had had something.

Sorted office some more ready for recording equipment. Have moved desk to create space. Moved piles of papers and stuff awaiting attention into neat piles. Didn’t find any lottery tickets that I had forgotten all about and that are worth heaps of money.

Saturday 31st July

Paper delivered. This was our first paper delivery. He managed to find our house, which is way out in the countryside. Lucky, maybe.

We went to Brighton where we are meeting my son and his girlfriend. Paul is a computer whiz kid and is going to help me set up my digital recording studio. In the afternoon we went hunting for a rug with Joe and Steff. Joe’s Jill’s son, my step-son. Steph knew of a carpet shop very close to where she worked. In it we found exactly the rug we were looking for. I think that counts as lucky. I phoned Paul, who had come down from London to do some shopping with Anne. They were in the area of Brighton we were heading to – the North Laine. We were having a drink in the Curve Bar and they walked past. Kind of lucky. Maybe.

Sunday 1st August

Work on recording set up. Things went right. Things went wrong. Things went right again. It took all day. Not a lot of luck involved – although Jill burnt the carrots. Bad luck Jill? Took Paul and Anne to station.

Monday 2nd August

Did some writing. Not a lot. Went to see Sheila, our holistic healer. She said I no longer have intolerance to wine, sugar and chocolate. We’re off to The Fat Duck in a couple of days – so that might be deemed as lucky.

On way home visited Fiona and Geoff where not much luck took place. Then a brisk twenty minutes along sea wall at Camber.

Tuesday 3rd August

Jill’s gone to see an old friend in Dorset. I spent the day writing. Got quite a lot done. Don’t think there was any luck involved though. I also did all the washing. A guy came round offering to cut hedge. He was a bone fide hedge cutter and showed me his card. It does need cutting. Lucky I was in then? Not sure.

Wednesday 4th August

Went to Fat Duck. Recently voted the second best restaurant in the world.

The food was very good and well worth the second mortgage we had to take out to afford it. On the way Jill had to correct some writing over the mobile phone with her secretary. Jill was driving and I was acting as an in-between person. Holding up the fax to Jill, saying – Does this say a monkey ate a pomegranate? Jill swerving too and fro. Very unsatisfactory. Then we hit upon the notion of me driving – thus allowing Jill to talk to her secretary at leisure.

Much better. Not sure if any luck was involved, though.

In the evening I looked at my blogs on a friend’s old Mac – only to discover they were all over the place. They just didn’t fit the screen. Lucky I saw them there or they would still be looking odd on the screens of people with old Macs.

Summing Up.

Having the Lucky Penny did get me thinking about luck and what it is. I have to say I didn’t feel I experienced any particularly good or bad luck in the week I had the penny. Nor could I be sure that the luck I did experience was in any way related to the penny. Which was really a tuppence, by the way.

Yesterday (Thursday) I was going to hand it on to Jill, who is having it next. But – unlucky! I lost it. I hunted absolutely everywhere. Luckily it turned up this morning in my pocket with some loose change.

It’s a blog! http://rogerstevens.blogspot.com

Visit The Poetry Zone
http://www.poetryzone.co.uk

THE LUCKY PENNY LOG OF JILLY JARGON

Saturday 7 August 2004

Mandy and Rik got married, or at least had yesterday’s civil marriage blessed in church, at Willingdon, near Eastbourne. Hot sunshine all day long framed a lovely wedding and a great reception at a very pretty and old church hall, decorated throughout in pink and white. Very tasty and upmarket finger food was served by waiters all afternoon. We arrived in time and left at 7.30ish, getting home to feed Judy-dog and finish packing for our holiday tomorrow. Steph, our Joseph’s girlfriend, was a very beautiful bridesmaid. Mandy and Rik were a very happy couple. Perhaps they were ‘lucky with the weather’. We had a super day. But – any luck involved for us here? I don’t think so!

Sunday 8 August 2004

We left home on time to take Judy to Sittingbourne and for us to catch the ferry at Dover. The road at Hawkhurst was closed, however, so we had to take a detour. No problem. Dropped Judy off and arrived at the port on time. Ferry was late due to engine failure. Fast crossing. Good drive from Boulogne. Took wrong turning only once, at Amboise. Arrived at Mouzay to find parents in a terrible muddle, father in a lot of pain from a bad back – mowing a large expanse of grass with a heavy mower when you’re 84 is not always a good idea – and the interior of the holiday cottage covered in plaster dust. It began raining as we drove down through France. During dinner there was a violent thunder storm. Torrential rain continued through the night. Luck? Not particularly.

Monday 9 August

This was a grey day. The sky was grey and it rained all day. We were grey by the evening, having spent all day cleaning the cottage (every piece of china, every knife and fork, every surface, every curtain, every loo roll, every tile …) and shopping at LeClerc in Loches for provisions. Luck? Is weather luck related? Was it bad luck that the builder finished off some plaster work after the cottage was furnished? Where does planning stop and luck start?

Tuesday 10 August

Most of the day spent finishing the cottage cleaning and then turning our attentions to the very muddly and grubby main house. Cottage now looks lovely. House is better, too. Family friends Nicolle and Francis arrived from the north of France in their motor home. We entertained them in the cottage. Good supper and a lovely evening catching up on news. Luck? Was it luck that we were here when Nicolle and Francis visited? I suppose so – particularly for mum and dad as otherwise place would have been a mess and they would have been exhausted! For me? Well, it was good to see them. Maybe a glimmer of good luck here.

Wednesday 11 August

A glimpse of sunshine. A less hassled day despite a few family squabbles and Roger’s bad back acquired while scrubbing cottage floors. Did a bit more work on cottage. The rain returned with Stéphanie and her parents Jacques and Odile. We had tea in the cottage – but had a long wait for the food as Mum and Nick disappeared into Loches and took three hours to do a simple bit of shopping. Lots of cakes had been baked and were exchanged. Lovely to see the Prévosts. As soon as they had left, unexpected visitors arrived in the shape of builder Michel and his wife Pascale and son Julien. We discussed the cottage and many other things. Good evening. Luck involved? Not really. Prévosts’ visit was by invitation; Michel knew I would be in Mouzay and so had planned to visit me.

Thursday 12 August

We moved all our things out of the cottage and into the main house. Last minute preparations made in the cottage for the paying visitors who would arrive tomorrow. It rained for most of the day but cleared up in time for Le Marché Nocturne in Loches. We went fairly early and had something simple to eat in the old part of town – merguez sausages with frites and a nice pastry thing for pud. Met Andrea and Alain but they didn’t manage to get a table near us. Bought some red Moroccan slippers for Roger. Dad’s back a little better but he still needed his stick. Roger’s back a little better. Luck? Where?

Friday 13 August

An auspicious date for a lucky penny! We went out for the day. Drove to Chinon, stopped on the way to buy special honey. Had a nice lunch in Chinon, looked around the town, visited the chateau. Weather quite warm and sunny. Went to a ‘cave’ on the way back – we chose from two close together featuring the same surname and picked the one owned by the elderly father. Mother took us to the tasting room and we tried their 2001, 2002 and 2003. Bought some of the first and last. Also a painted magnum. Had dinner in restaurant of Tour d’Antoine overlooking Loches square. Yummy. A good day, but a lucky one? An interesting week, but a lucky one? This particular week I actually felt more cursed than blessed, more exhausted by my holiday than rested. Sorry. But on a positive note – penny or no I am ‘lucky’ to be the wife of a wonderful person, the mother of a great chap who has a fabulous girlfriend, the friend of so many lovely people and to have somewhere comfortable to live, plenty to eat and to have a grand life.

Opening a package at 5.17pm on Sunday 11 July 2004, I could tell was from Hazel and Michael and was intrigued to find the ‘Lucky Penny’, which in this instance is a two pence piece.

We had just driven back from Marlborough Jazz Festival, where The Fat Cats were headlining on Saturday night. (photos on their web site www.thefatcats.net). We had had a great time and no traffic jams on the M5 or the M6. -a rarity for us. Was this the work of the lucky coin already in operation, even though I was unaware of its delivery? The test will be when I drive to London later in the week. (We recently sat in a traffic queue for over 2 hours on the A50 missing our flight to Barcelona.)

I’m looking forward to testing the luck of the coin. Should it be taken out of its case to reveal its full power to mingle with the contents of my pocket?
Does it bring luck, or do I bestow it with lucky powers? Is it a lucky coin because Adele found it?

Monday 12 July 9.00am.

The coin is in my right hand pocket, in its case, taking its chances with some other object I would not like to be without. I am thinking I must finish the work I have to do before Wednesday. I will take the coin out of the case to see what happens. Here goes! It’s quite a rough coin to touch, Hazel has stuck a little cryptic sticker on it ‘3.35 pm’.
I will have to undertake some simple experiments with the coin this week and repeat them next week without the coin.
Re-reading The Dice Man (coincidentally), I will throw a number of dice seeking maximum score. Here goes, I have 6 dice. I threw a total of 18 comprising: 1X6, 3X3, 1X2 and 1X1, that was with the ‘Lucky Two Pence’ in my pocket.
I will try now whilst holding the coin in my left hand: 2X6, 3X5, 1X3 totalling 30. What a result!

Tuesday 13.um? July

Decided last night to drive to London to drop Noz’ off at Josh’s and then to Southend-on-Sea today, to see my Dad for a few days. (I finished my work at 1.15am and e’mailed it)
Will the journey be another opportunity for the 2P to offer its good fortune? Will it keep me free from traffic jams? Should I be expecting this coin, just because I have it for a week, to lessen my potential problems?
We left home at 9.15am (having made some sandwiches) and drove to TESCO to get some diesel for the big car. That was fine, no waiting and very straight forward. We decided to get some shopping while we were there, that was also a dream, no waiting, very friendly check out assistant.
We left and decided to drive back a to go down the M6 and M1 route rather than the A50 that had been so problematic recently. We left TESCO about 10.15am and had a good journey along the M6. We decided to try the new M6 toll road, which cuts out the Birmingham slog. It was very fast, a very smooth road surface. At the barrier where we had to pay it said, ‘cars were £2 and vans £5’. When we arrived at the auto’ booth, I put my £2 in the bin and nothing happened. A man immediately jumped out from behind the booth and said, ‘it says it needs more money’. We ended up paying £5, not so lucky? Or very lucky to be able to throw more money in the machine and see the numbers come up on the display.
Arrived in London after about 3hours 20 minutes. Excellent, the best journey time in ages!
Had a nice cup of tea and chat with Josh before leaving for Southend.
Left Hackney about 3pm into a traffic jam, which continued to Gants Hill. It took 2hours 30 minutes for what should normally be a 1 hour journey, I eventually arrived safely at my Dad’s house, that was lucky?

I threw some more dice:
Dice with coin in pocket 1X6 1X5 1X3 2X2 1X1=19
Dice, with coin in hand, 1X6 1X5 2X3 2X2 not so convincing=21 um!

Wednesday 14 July

I spent all day cutting up a quite large tree (about 20 foot high) that had blown over in last week’s gales, (in the South East).
Having filled 11 bags with pieces of tree cut into 6inch pieces, without cutting or injuring myself (that was lucky). At 4 pm we found out where the tip was and took it all to the tip, 6 miles away. My Dad and I went for a late lunch in a pub that happened to do all day lunches. That was also lucky.
On the way home I bought 3 Lottery Tickets, 1 random numbers, selected by the machine, the other two made up of birthdays and significant numbers. I held the lucky coin whilst filling in the numbers and thought no more of it until next day.

I threw some more dice: see pic’s

Dice with coin in pocket=16-holding coin =20

Thursday 15 July

-Woke up at 6.45am and suddenly remembered the Lottery tickets. I checked on ‘text and found that only 1 number was apparent, from those I had selected, and none from the random selection. I was quite surprised??????

I went into town with my Aunt to buy a Birthday present for my big brother. Traffic was light and we readily found a parking place near Southend High Street. My sister in law had asked me to buy him a towelling dressing gown and specified the colour. Dutifully I went to M&S and found that there were no towelling dressing gowns, only velour or fleece. We went to BHS and found, not only a choice of colours in towelling but they were £10 off in the sale. This was beginning to be lucky. I bought one and then felt I should buy another present as I had got it relatively cheaply. We went into Debenhams, which also had a sale on. I bought him a thick bath sheet which I hope will go with his refurbished bathroom. Well that was all very lucky and fairly painless. We had a coffee and returned home for late lunch.

I decided I would leave Southend and go back to London today instead of tomorrow, to avoid early morning traffic jams and what might result in a 5 or 6 hour drive back to Cheshire. I left at 3.30pm and found lots of traffic jams at Rayleigh, by the M25 Turn Off, and most of the way along the A127. Eventually I arrived in Hackney at about 5.30pm and was welcomed with a chilled beer. We chatted and looked around the garden at the devastation the slugs and snails had caused to the plants put in at the weekend. (bought freshly from Columbia Road Market).
Josh had arranged for the neighbours to meet Bree who had moved into his flat and we went off to the Pub on the Park at London Fields. Had a great evening, met lots of friendly people and a not so friendly, snappy, dog called Scudder. Josh and Laoidhe went off to catch a train, we went back to the flat and Bree made a lovely meal and then I went off to sleep. What a lucky day.
In the morning I discovered Josh and Laoidhe were in the flat as their train hadn’t arrived.

Forgot to throw the dice. Wonder why???

Friday 16 July

We left London at 8.30am instead of 5.00am as we had intended. Apart from pouring rain, the journey was without incident. Made the decision to use the A50, no problems until we reached the A500 towards the M6. We had to call in at Stoke so it was unavoidable anyway. 4 hours door to door.
In the evening, back down the motorway to see the Fat Cats play in Stafford. Great gig, drove home, without any problems, to bed.

Saturday 17 July

Decided not to buy a lottery ticket, it is obviously not a coin lucky for winning money, perhaps there are specialist lucky coins and this one is lucky for journeying on motorways, for me anyway.

Threw the dice:
Coin in pocket: 1X6, 1X5, 2X4, 2X2 = 23
Holding coin: 2X6, 1X5, 2X3, 1X1 = 24 Conclusive evidence!

Found a Dragonfly loitering in the garden today, that was lucky.

Click on the thumbnails to see images of Archie’s lucky seven days.

Click on the images to see the detail on Michael’s daily postcards, and have a look at Michael’s blog here.

Report on day one
Thursday 17th June 2004

The post came late.
We have a new postal system starting and the post arrives at all manner
of times now.
So when to start this journal could prove difficult.
I opened the letter after arriving back from taking my sister to
town…the letter arrived just after I left the house.
The luck may have started when I was in town as there was a disabled
parking space free (My sister is on crutches) and the weather, despite
threatening rain, stayed quite pleasant.
So perhaps the moment the envelope hit the mat my luck began!
Also I had gone to town to get Michael his birthday present from
Argos. When I checked the availability there was only one left. So that
was lucky too.
My luck increased further…well not so much luck I suppose!
Archie had been away for 3 nights on a school trip, and I had missed him
so much…we went to collect him at 4pm and he had already got back, it
was so good to see him again…I did indeed feel very lucky at that
moment.
He brought me a lovely silly plastic snail that sticks out his tongue
and a chocky mouse….how good can it get?
I am not a football fan, but England won 3 - O to Switzerland
so that was exciting.
A fry up for tea….yummy.
A meeting at Archie’s new school…he starts there in September…. my
order for the uniform had gone to the right person and it was all
organised……We had a nice hot cup of tea …….and a biscuit…..!!!
So all in all a very successful day.
most of this I expect I wouldn’t consider luck usually….
some of it is planning…..or is it?
Archie found a lucky tuppence in the school yard, which he has decided
to test out too.
All in all there was quite a lot of luck…I too consider myself to be a
lucky person….this week could prove it.
Off for a lovely hot bath and an early night ready for a long day
tomorrow (that is lucky having such luxury).

My luck rating for today on a scale of
1 = bad 10 = great
RATING for day one 10

Report on day two (early on)
Friday 18th June 2004

Wrote a list on the train at 7.30am of the lucky things so far
Alarm went off
It isn’t raining
good choice of clothes (its chilly and I am warm)
Hot water working
Earrings went in first time
I had the car so I could drive to the station.
Ticket office open
Train came on time
Regulars got on and sat with me
Nice chat.
Still not raining in Manchester.
Then my luck ran out….couldn’t get in the studio…Cen had loud music
on and I felt really irritated……finally got the code off Laura so I
could get in.
Time for breakfast to revive me…I need a cup of tea.
the studio was tidy when I left it on Tuesday…today it looks like a
bomb has hit it…the opening is tonight!!!
so much for a quiet day planning next year!!!!.
This luck thing is odd when you try and look at your life as lucky
bits….
hope they have some tea bags downstairs…that would be lucky.

Day 2 (late on)

Well the morning went well.
There were tea bags downstairs…and a reviving tea cheered me up.
this luck thing seems more and more connected with me getting nice cups
of hot tea…only into day 2 and the trend is there already…so long as
there is tea I feel things are going well.
or so it seems.
This might be why the afternoon seemed a real struggle.
trying to tidy up yet again. (I went through that last week for the
external examiner) and it all seemed a bit deja vu…
wet paint and stuff everywhere and no catalogue…it is on line so that’s
a blessing
I don’t enjoy private views much….never have…so I left early.
The trains weren’t much fun either….the lucky coin was taken out and
shaken….but to no avail.
Luck must be a state of mind…..when you feel tired and cold and
stressed even a cup of tea can’t change the luck…or your perception
of feeling lucky…
Time to grab the plastic snail and realise what a lucky girl I am.
Alex from 3-D has asked me to put my work in the show case in
September….now that is good…..
I had lots of lovely cuddles off Archie.
A very nice macaroni cheese.
and here I am moaning about having no luck today…
I teach on the best course in the college (I know I am biased)
If this journal is too long and rambling please say now…
it could get worse if you don’t stop me!!!

Report on day two (very late on)

I forgot the luck rating for today……7

Report on day three
Saturday 19th June 2004

The Lucky penny worked very well today.
Had a bit of a lie in….lucky me
then up for hot tea and hot buttered toast (you can’t beat it)
A quick clean and tidy ready for a visit from an old college friend and
her family.
So a very lucky day….she has a little girl called Bethan who is the
cutest sweety you will ever meet. She is only 5 but launched into
monologues that Alan Bennett would be proud of. It was so lovely seeing
her, the last time I saw her she was only 3….
Arch and Beth got on well…so more luck there…
Michael made a veggy lasagne that had that lovely burnt cheesy crispy
bit that is so lovely….is this luck?
The tuppence has made up for its failings yesterday and I award today
another 10 in the ratings.

Report on day four
Sunday 20th June 2004

Raining…..so no boot fair…not lucky
Michael’s birthday
Fathers Day
We all went out for a pub lunch with my mom and sister.
Food good…mom happy…VERY LUCKY.
we had the snug all to ourselves which was also very lucky.
Raining very heavily driving back…awful..
But as luck would have it was stopped when we got home.
So all dry and lucky.
Read the papers.
read a stray first year journal..
Did a bit more tidying in Katie’s garden…the rain held off.
All in all the luck today came down, yet again, to food and not getting
wet…and being warm and hot tea when needed.

Rating 9. Lost a point for no boot fair
This coin must be working.

Report on day five
Monday 21st June 2004

Another lucky day
The trains are stopping at Stockport and I had to get off at Altrincham
and get a tram…which went okay…I got a seat and got into college
around 8.30..about the same time as usual.
So very Lucky.
Tea when needed.
looked around the shows.
Good meeting with first years
okay getting home.
and the rain held off..
always a sign of luck that.

Rating 10.
hope this coin does the same tomorrow.

Report on day six
Tuesday 22nd June 2004

Evening
It can’t be day 6 already…I will soon have to pass on my Lucky coin.
Yes The football match was great…and I don’t normally watch it…it
helped the ironing go quicker.
The Journey in went well…very lucky…as the trains were stopping at
Stockport.
Tea when needed.
Quite a long day of meetings…hard work and not lucky.
Met the train regulars at the tram stop…which was extremely lucky , it
would be hard to do even if you arranged it!!!.
Got a seat on the tram…astoundingly lucky.
Another day that I can award a rating of 9.
I have tried to take a photo every day…a summing up one which I can
email all together on day 7.
Time for a lovely cuppa now I think.

Report on day seven
Wednesday 23rd June 2004

The last day with my lucky tuppence
It was lucky, as I didn’t have to go into work and do the open day!
PHEW.
The weather was awful but I didn’t have to go out…LUCKY.
Caught up with a number of household and other chores.
Terrible ear ache which had knocked a few points off the rating.
I wonder if I will be lucky without my lucky tuppence?
I will pass it on to Michael to test it out for a week.
Thank you for letting me test out the luck.
I will e mail the photos soon.

Rating for today 7

Have a look at Hazel’s Blog here