Seven years bad luck?

I've come to the conclusion that I'm the least superstitious person I know. I rarely cavill at walking under ladders (unless there's someone up them with a bucket!), don't throw salt over my shoulder if I spill it and generally give little credence to the idea that our destinies are controlled by such arbitrary actions.

So I was amused to discover that I work with a bunch of people a couple of whom salute magpies if they see them, and one of them even says "Good morning Mr Magpie, how's your wife today?" if she sees one. To the extent that, on a car journey with me when she didn't know how I'd react to her behaviour, she admitted later to actually sitting on her hands so she wouldn't do it when she saw a magpie.

This must be local to where I live, because I'd never heard of it where I was before, and one of my co-workers is Hindu so she's obviously absorbed it from locality, rather than ethnic background.

Anyone else got superstitious associates or is it just me? ;)