It continued being exciting throughout the day as the two helicopters continued to hover. Being that I was in work mode, I thought "how long can a helicopter stay up just hovering without refuelling" and ...wait for it..."what is the marginal and full economic cost of having two of them do that?"
And that was how exciting it got, which, for an accountant, is very exciting.
Midway through the afternoon, I noticed a van being treated suspiciously. It had been parked there a long time, it was a grey van, like a white van, but grey, with two or three rolls of plastic on the roof, longer than the van. The passenger window was wound down, and a police car had drawn up alongside. Two officious looking chaps from a nearby government department stood and watched as a uniformed officer probed around the front passenger seat wearing blue rubber gloves. I was rather disappointed they didn't produce a mirror-on-a-stick. That's how we used to fight terrorism in the old days, with mirrors on sticks.
Clearly, in the current climate, with a high security, high profile trial of ipod-and-vodka bombers happening just yards away, one can't be too careful, and, indeed another police car arrived and parked randomly, in a "we're attending an important incident, don't expect us to parallel park" sort of way. A crowd gathered, as tends to happen round suspect packages, vans &c. I gazed earnestly on, thinking, "David Cameron has served his purpose, I no longer need him as my muse" when, 'pon my word, Frank Field walked past. It must be gratifying when you are an obscure former minister of state for welfare reform to encounter a political junkie in the street gazing at a possibly-soon-to explode plumbers' van.
So that's the story of the ex-Minister, the Blue Rubber Gloves and me.
I returned to my post, and announced the exciting developments to my colleagues. I glanced out of the window and saw the van being driven off. "The person driving it's got white shirt sleeves, that'll be the police...". M'colleagues all gave me a strange look.
Comments