Ladder quandary

Today is thankful Friday and mostly I am thankful for our work Christmas party, which is today!

With the hustle and bustle before Christmas we couldn't really fit it in so it was decided that we'd go for posh afternoon tea in Mayfair to cheer up grey January! Except the sun is shining, another thing to be thankful for… and it’s pay day!

My morning routine was much the same as it usually is, except I put on a dress

*gasp

And while munching on my toast and watching the news, the BBC once again came through in delighting me in the shockingly terribleness of their subtitles! It announced that one million tonnes of robbers are dumped in the capital every year...

Hmmmm, does a broken heart make a robber rob more? And does what they weigh really matter?

Anyway, I then journeyed to work on my usual bus and had a window seat. In a traffic jam I watched the most extraordinary thing... Human panic!

You see, there was a ladder blocking the pavement and a railing preventing people from walking around it, which meant that to walk along this main arterial route you had to go under it!

Now I have Googled the origin of the walking under ladders superstition, and this is what it says:

The early superstitious thought is that to walk under a ladder, and through the Holy Trinity, expresses disbelief in the trinity and that one is in league with Satan. Performing such an act, especially in early Christian times, could have gotten one labelled as a witch. Thus it could be extremely dangerous to walk under a ladder.

Well, I am pretty sure there are easier ways to be labelled a witch these days without having to walk under a ladder, but people really did seem quite spooked by the situation.

In the time that I was afforded a glimpse at the situation, several people walked under without batting an eyelid, more than most paused for a moment to consider what they were about to do, and one or two actually doubled back on themselves and took the considerable detour in order to avoid it!

As a fairly superstitious person – I never walk on three manhole covers, touch wood about most things and am never quite sure whether black cats are a blessing or a curse – I wondered what I would do in that situation...

Now I know the origins, I would probably walk under it – as long as there were no visible dangers, such as a wobbly pot of paint that could land on my head. But then, if anything bad did happen that day, I would wonder if perhaps that was to blame…

Odd isn't it! Especially as my lucky number happens to be 13!