Mercury Retrograde!

Living Mural by The National Gallery

Some days you have to go with the flow.  Yesterday was one of those days.  A friend and I had arranged to meet in London for the day.  We knew the weather was going to be wet so we planned to 'play it by ear'.  We met and had lunch at our usual haunt, The Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Field, and then crossed over to look at Trafalgar Square where we took some photos (the living mural is pretty stunning, I think you'll agree.  This was to the left of the National Gallery).

We made our way along The Strand as we were looking for Twinings Tea House/Museum which I'd come across on the internet.  As we walked along it began to rain and this was when I discovered I'd left my umbrella at home!  We shared my friend's which hardly covered us and as the rain became heavier I decided I should buy one.  I found a newsagent/tourist shop and bought a nice bright red brolly.  As I opened it I caught my thumb on the catch at the top.  I thought it was okay but as we walked along I realised that blood was running down my thumb and my friend hauled me into Barclays Bank so she could put a sticking plaster on it! Off we went again, passing Somerset House, getting very wet, until we found Twinings.  It was a narrow shop with paintings of the family on the walls either side.  I have never seen so many teas!  However, the Tea Bar was closed because they had just had a delivery!  Back out into the rain and into Fleet Street where I saw directions to the Temple Church (of  The Da Vinci Code fame).  I had seen it before but  my friend hadn't.  We turned off, me going on about how fantastic this place was, only to find....it was closed!  We made our way into Temple Place where all the Barrister's Chambers are (I used to deliver Briefs to Counsel here many years ago so recognised a lot of Chambers - Paper Buildings, Dr Johnston Buildings) then made our way to the Embankment and came round to the other entrance to Somerset House and decided to go in and see if they had a cafe.  They did!  Here we dried off overlooking the Terrace with its wonderful fountains watching kids running through them with brollies!

By the time we left it was just spitting with rain and we made our way back to the station.  Despite the frustrations and the rain we had lots of laughs.  With friends nothing ever seems quite so bad.  So where does Mercury come in, I hear you asking.  Well, both my friend and I are Gemini's and our ruling planet is Mercury, which at times is in retrograde.  This means it appears to be going backwards.  It isn't really but the motions of the other plants makes it appear that way.  When this happens it seems life is full of frustrations and stagnation.  I have learned over the years that you just have go with it and ride it out!  Maybe it is just coincidence but I am always wary of it.  It certainly appeared to be conspiring yesterday (we both also forgot our London maps and my friend also missed her train by a whisker, the doors closed as she got on to the platform.  The subsequence text she sent I misread which confused our initial meeting up! ).

For those interested here is a website that explains  Mercury retrograde - click hightlight.