My brush with Bobby and Terry the Fish

Today I went for my usual run, but when I got to MI6 and reached the spot I always tag before turning around and running home, there was an armed police man standing there. Because he was just around a corner, I didn't see him until I was two feet away from him. He looked at me with a mixture of suspicion and alarm. I touched my usual spot (a side security entrance) and said 'hi'. He responded with a confused 'hi', and I was on my way.

Tomorrow will be mothers' day here. As it happens, my mother is coming to England tonight, and she doesn't realise it's going to be mothers' day. In keeping with English tradition, I'm going to cook her lunch tomorrow. So after my run I went to the grocer and butcher to get a nice shoulder of lamb and some vegetables to roast. When I stopped in at the florist shop, a person in the back of the shop shouted to the person at the counter, 'Terry the Fish called. He's coming by and he wants a dozen carnations.' I was bemused by this East End gangster name. In all my time in England, I've never heard of an actual person with a name like that, other than in films such as Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The other florist turned around and said, 'Terry the Fish? Who's he? Oh - you mean Terry Fish. Not Terry the Fish.' Needless to say, I was disappointed.

Short circuit

I've got some time on my hands and, failing a better topic, I've decided to show you my running route, which takes me past some of London's best-known landmarks and is really quite beautiful.

My run is roughly the same whether I start at home or at work. I head for the north bank of the Thames in the City. From home, I would get to the north bank over Millenium Bridge (first photo), and head west.

Slightly to the west of Millenium Bridge is where I work (at Blackfriar's Bridge). I continue to run past this towards Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge.

Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge

I then continue west past Cleopatra's needle towards Embankment. Cleopatra's needle, shown here on site in Egypt before the Victorians transported it to London, is just visible in the next photo (on the far bank of the river, near the middle right hand side of the photo).

This is the Hungerford railway bridge at Embankment (the white spidery-weblike things support the Queen's Jubilee footbridges).

Continuing west, I come to the Houses of Parliament, cross Westminster Bridge and continue west along the south bank past Lambeth Palace.

Lambeth Palace

Past Lambeth Palace and Lambeth Bridge is the Secret Intelligence Services building (MI6). This is the goal of every run. When I get to MI6, I touch it, and turn around. I would be surprised if I'm not now under surveillance.

I run home along the south bank, past the London Eye and various other attractions, all of which I'm too lazy to picture here.

Explanation accompanied by a picture

So I haven't had a lot of time on my hands. The month of February was not a very nice month. The less said about that, the better. I stopped using the other blog location because Google in its infinite wisdom decided that I was no longer me, and so I could no longer log in. Google has generously allowed me to be 'saminengland2', which is probably the next thing to being 'saminengland'.

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The picture above is from the end of the street that leads into my square. You can run from Brad, but you can't hide.