Ok, it was bound to happen. Lost in London.
Allow me to start at the beginning. Morning walk to the rail (no car pick up today) Rail to Wimbledon, Wimbledon to Waterloo Underground, Waterloo to (no kidding) Elephant & Castle.
Out on the street. Let me explain, there are no street signs. London is old, sometimes, they have up high on buildings the name of the street, from back in the horse and carrage days, but not always. Ask little old mum sitting on a bench, she points me in a direction, sort of that way.
Dodge cabs, double-decker busses, scooters, coopers, bikes, and lots of running people to make it over to where she said I should be. Something wrong here, find another little old mum walking her dog. The first little old mum had it wrong, you need to go sort of that other way. Great, I'm already late. Find two uniform officers walking the beat....very good....very bad, they do not speak English. Not American English, not British English, they speak sort of East Indies English. Their best help, go that way, you will see it. How nice.
After a walk the distance of near the entire British Empire, I find Amelia Street. This is good. I was told to find the blue gate. I found a red gate. (see 2 photos down) Ring bell and nice lady answers, tells me I am at wrong door, go around to the front. Go to front, and speak to the nice lady in person...who turns out to be a man. Tell him who I am here to see. He does not know that man. Finally get in contact with my host, and he wants me to meet him at the blue gate ??
Best directions of the day...."go behind the Pub at the corner, the blue gate is there". Sure enough, don't know how I missed that one !

You can't tell it from the photo, but Walworth Police Station in the heart of Homicide and Serious Crimes. This is where the big brains work, and I mean that. These are very serious and talented people here. I have been looking for the answer to "how do they do that" and I found it here. Top forensic folks. Floors and floors of assorted labs. Photo labs, video labs, chemical processing labs, fingerprint labs, hair, fiber, glass, footwear, DNA, firearms. Got to speak with persons from all the areas, and view their work. It would take me pages to explain this day and cover all I did and learned here. I could spend a month in this one place, and still not learn everything I wanted to know about it.
We did share information. I actually introduced something they did not know about on fingerprinting cartridge casings, and they showed me some lighting and photography techniques I, did not know about. It was a great day for all of us. We ended up staying late, and going over case scene photos and discussing Crime Scene tricks and secrets. It was great !!

I found the mountain top....and met, ...them.



Public entrance, Walworth Police Station, Amelia Street, London

Back door to the Police lot. Very old area of London, and very different meld of cultures. English language mixed with a number of other languages and shouting. I was told that during the day it was fine....night, was a different story. At lunch, had to explain to the person behind the counter how to build a ham sandwich. Well, I assume it was ham. I'm learning that sometimes it better not to ask and just go with it.

Clock has finally caught up with me, and now at a regular sleep schedule. May not sound like much to you reading this, however wide awake at 3 AM does put a damper on your afternoon.

All is well, and am doing fine.