I knew that if I went out on Friday I'd only end up putting my fist through something with an Olympic logo, so it was a night in with the plastic merlot, reading of Flashman and Slaine and their defences of Britain; this felt entirely appropriate at the time, but is even more so in hindsight.
Running a bit late on Thursday morning, I come to the station to hear that not only is it closed, but so's the whole network. My immediate thought: Why couldn't this have happened 24 hours ago, *before* the IOC vote?* At this stage, there's still talk of power surges (well, I suppose a bomb blast is technically a power surge), so I decide to drop off some library books and head for the buses. En route, ringing the parents to confirm that I am intact, I bump into
I watch TV, glad that there was nothing decent on this week anyway. The situation's never too dire for me to find fluffs like "at least 35 people have been died" amusing, or to wonder how anyone can say they're "shocked" by something this inevitable. An American voluntary worker whose parents were in the Twin Towers was near the site of one blast; I want to know this man's name and whereabouts so that I can be sure our paths never cross. London Underground's Tim O'Toole *is* Vic's American Eagle from Catterick. Someone describes the bus as "one of London's most enduring landmarks" and I think, that was no Routemaster. The footage begins to repeat itself and I leave it on, but need something else to do; I decide that it is fitting to iron, and to drink quite stupendous amounts of tea. Later, it is equally fitting to go to the pub, and generally to act in whatever manner would seem most likely to be abhorrent to fundamentalist scum. This is our city, you d1ckheads - you barely even scratch it, and we're meant to be terrified?
What follows was written on Wednesday afternoon, but I think it's even more appropriate now:
But I've written quite enough of late about how I'll never be anything I hate. So now I'll smile, mention some things that I like, how I'd have a happy life if I did the things I like. There's plenty on my interests list, of course, but among the other things that are ACE are deciduous trees, chartreuse, snapdragons, the Albion, Albion, finches, Saint Etienne, eyes, 'It Doesn't Mean That I Don't Love You If I Forget To Call You Back', Crouch End, Drew Barrymore, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, kissing, F Scott Fitzgerald, 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)', girls in male formal clothes, Le Grand Meaulnes, Christ Church Spitalfields, Johnny Depp, 'Virginia Plain', getting your hair just right, The Ark, mid-size dogs, tea, boys with fringes, shield bugs, Angelina Jolie, Dodgeball and outlandish rock formations.
*I know it's talk like this which saw
July 8 2005, 10:38:36 UTC 6 years ago
I agree, although yesterday, you did say you were scared.
July 8 2005, 10:45:07 UTC 6 years ago
I suppose I was at first, because who knew what kind of attack it was, how many more blasts there'd be, or what kind of weapons? But once it became apparent that it was just a few conventional explosives, and that everyone I knew seemed to be OK, it gradually dawned on me what a thoroughly lame effort it had been.
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:38:42 UTC 6 years ago
(Mind you, I'm sure there are some who will invent evidence that the whole thing was part of some global Zionist conspiracy (in which case...) and that Mossad and the CIA planted the bombs...)
July 8 2005, 10:41:53 UTC 6 years ago
Well, maybe they *tried* and *failed* to cause more damage, you dimwit! Who says every bomber is competent?
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:41:54 UTC 6 years ago
I don't share this view. Sure it's finally happened, it's now over, and I and those I know escaped unharmed. But I fear it will be the first of several incidents, not an isolated case. As with the World Trade Centre, they'll try again. And it will be bigger and deadlier next time.
July 8 2005, 10:46:52 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:43:40 UTC 6 years ago
And re yesterday - it was on a much smaller scale than 11th Sept, and that's a relief, but it wasn't small enough as there are lots of people who were alive and ok on wednesday who are dead or injured today, and even if only one person was hurt, that would be too much, wouldn't it?
July 8 2005, 10:59:42 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:44:55 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:48:41 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:47:07 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 11:00:26 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
Anonymous
6 years ago
6 years ago
Anonymous
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 10:48:08 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 11:00:46 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 11:04:11 UTC 6 years ago
Ha! I thought this too! Jodie needs to be informed! He'll be getting all us Londoners to protect ourselves on the tube via the deft use of our Toooperware.
xx
July 8 2005, 11:13:39 UTC 6 years ago
B-Movie, by the way?
E.
x
July 8 2005, 11:28:10 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 11:18:24 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 11:21:40 UTC 6 years ago
Hurrah for snapdragons and the finger-pinchy snap-snap thing you can do with them. I still get such a kick out of showing this to people who've never seen it before. SNAP! SNAP!
July 8 2005, 11:22:53 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 8 2005, 12:48:29 UTC 6 years ago
July 8 2005, 12:53:01 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
Deleted comment
July 11 2005, 13:57:31 UTC 6 years ago
Here from the BBC website like all the others
Actually, you're the first such to say hello, so congratulations on your speed and/or sociability.Deleted comment
6 years ago
Anonymous
July 11 2005, 16:15:43 UTC 6 years ago
1) There is nowhere in the world where you can feel safe. Terror can happen anywhere, no matter how cocky the politicians´ talk may be. All this crap about "we will bring these attackers to justice." makes me sick. Just shut it already. You´ll get them, but make innocent people suffer in the process (look at Guantanamo), and once you do catch those responsible, what happens when a few more of their brain-washed friends hatch the next plot?
2) Let´s face it, the war is not confined to Iraq or Afganistan or some piddly little third world country where Europeans and Americans alike seem to think lives are expendable. War is being waged on our home soil, and while it may not be as constant or as hard hitting as in the middle east, it´s here, and it´s not going away.
3) We are much, much, much less safe than we were 6 years ago. Bush with all of his proud bravado and cowboy ways has unleased all of this on us with the help of boot-licking Tony Blair and José María Aznar. Shame on all of them for being such greedy little twats that they couldn´t see beyond mid-east oil to realize the threat to which they were exposing their own people.
And to end this all, for as bold as you may want to be, don´t ever laugh off what happened in London. Even if only one person had died, it would have been too much. None of us should have to pay for the greed and inhumane decisions of the people who run this world, especially those of us who have fought them every step of the way.
Peace,
La Justa
http://lajustapulp.blogspot.com/
July 11 2005, 16:22:04 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 11 2005, 20:05:48 UTC 6 years ago
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/maga
Anonymous
July 12 2005, 15:50:08 UTC 6 years ago
Osama bin Laden is a Jew!
Rumor has it Mr. Osama bin Laden is actually a Jew in disguise! And that Al-Qaeda is out to make Muslims chattel slavery ... ()La Bona
http://divinetalk.blogspot.com/
July 12 2005, 15:52:05 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Osama bin Laden is a Jew!
Ah, I was wondering when the outright nutters would start arriving!July 13 2005, 01:59:46 UTC 6 years ago
i received an email full of quotes about the bombings and there was your weather-device one in the middle of them all. didn't know you'd been linked by the beeb until I followed a link posted on a message board...
the world is getting scarily small if i can't even escape you lot on the other side of the world! ;)
July 13 2005, 08:43:35 UTC 6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
Anonymous
July 13 2005, 13:29:13 UTC 6 years ago
war
quien siembra vientos, recoje tempestades.Un Observador
July 13 2005, 13:33:13 UTC 6 years ago
Re: war
I'm guessing that you have enough English to read the post - in which case it puzzles me why you chose not to respond in the same language.That looks to me a bit like 'Who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind'; assuming it is, then it can take its place alongside all the other 'we were asking for it' garbage. We didn't start this, and to see our earlier retaliations retconned as aggressions - and by liberal Westerners rather than the acknowledged enemy, at that - sickens me.
Anonymous
August 31 2008, 11:42:37 UTC 3 years ago
state industries hot water heaters
Amazine siteThanks, webmaster.