Melting soldier

After meeting friends at Tate Britain, to see Another London, a collection of photographs by non Brits, I walked along the Embankment, through Parliament Square and Whitehall to the West End.

I was aware of many more tourists since the Olympics finished, milling around six deep sometimes, along the major tourist spots. Many of them wanting to be photographed with the guardmen, with varying degrees of subtlety.

The thing I noticed most here was that they paid no attention to the poor bloke on the horse who has half an animal stuck on his head. I looked at their faces, they were all bright red, sweating and breathing heavily. It's 30 degree's out here today.

Eventually the gates were opened and I went inside Horseguards itself where I saw this chap. I looked at him sadly and said "you can't talk, can you?" (tiniest shake of the head), then I asked if I could take his picture (blink).

5 minutes later, the guard was changed and I hope they all got away for a cooling shower and 5 litres of water.

Ceremonial or not, it's some feat of endurance!