We set off early with no real plan but to explore and found ourselves surrounded by policemen.

After a trip into the city by Tube (which seems now to have stopped issuing tickets to children to prevent the tickets being passed onto adults, a policy which leaves the gates congested with children trying to race through in front of parents) we started with lunch at Hamburger Union, a stroll through Covent Garden and down to the Strand.

Most of the roads in this area were closed for the May Day protests (luckily the quiet sort rather than the militant eco-warrior type) and we came across two traffic police guarding some cones closing a road. This sort of duty means a good opportunity to talk to the public and for the public to learn a little of what their work is like. So, while Richard and Joanne sat on their BMW bikes with the lights flashing on and the radio crackling Martin and I talked to them about the Very Important Duty they had drawn today and if they were getting Harley’s to replace the Beamers.

After offering to get rid of their sandwich wrappers we left them and crossed the Strand and headed across the bridge to the South Bank. Here there were more police sitting around in their vans and eating sweets. Richard decided today was get to know the police day and headed off to one of the vans to get a sit in the drivers seat and to try out the various bits of headgear.

The policemen were in good spirits and happy to have something to break up the day and we were soon talking about the radios and what the day held for them while Richard got the more exciting duty of trying the sirens and lights on the van. We were set up to make some comments to the police in the next van down awakening some old jokes and rivalries before we set off to the river and ice cream.

After wandering around the Clink Prison, reading more about the Winchester Geese and the terrors of the boot (used to torture prisoners by crushing a foot in a heated metal book with wood swollen by water and oil) we sat by the river for a pint or two of Guinness before we headed home.