Queuing at the petrol station this morning I noticed the old man who was being served before me paid for £20.00 of petrol on the nose, not a penny more or less, and handed over a single crisp note as payment. Pretty smooth I thought. He clearly knew exactly what he was going to do, and in fact he probably left his house with only his car keys and that 1 note. He was obviously gambling on his keen reflexes to halt the flow exactly as the digits rolled round to zeroes. But what if an event outside of his control had thrown his plan, a gust of wind, or an arthritic twinge, or wind? I like to think he would have produced a zippo from his pocket, turned the hose on his bald head and performed self-immolation. At least that's what I like to think would have happened, but who knows?