Impulses can be dangerous. I was browsing at an auction on Saturday morning, not looking for anything special, when I found myself enthralled by a baby grand piano and before you ask, I can get a few bad notes out of a piano, but no, I can’t actually play one.

Before I knew it, I was waving my number in the air in a demented and determined way to secure what had now become an object central to my very being. The really odd thing was that I was suddenly at war with my fellow human beings and I had to win. Common sense had ‘left the building’ – along with my wife who, many years before probably, had given up trying to reason with me. The next thing I know, everybody has dropped out of the bidding and I have it!

4am Sunday morning I wake up. I realise instantly what has woken me: there is no way that a grand piano will get through my front door. Panic sets in and I stumble over the dog, banging my toe badly on the door. The toe starts to bleed. Lights go on around the house as the family hears my cries of anguish – the dog gets his lead as he sees it as an opportunity - and I make it to the computer to see if grand pianos come with detachable legs. They do. I’m saved but now truly in the doghouse for waking the family, buying the piano in the first place and literally with the dog who was miffed he didn’t get an early walk. It’s the same with our health. You may get the urge or the impulse to do something that will harm your health, such as excessive smoking and drinking, but unless you want the grand piano experience, think through the consequences, work out all the angles and then you might just make the right choice. Anybody want to buy a grand piano with detachable legs?