One day after London celebrated the winning of the Olympics, the anticipated terrorist attack. On the cards since 9/11. All the hallmarks of an Al-Queda attack. No surprises. The only question was when was this going to happen.
I watch the news. The emergency services have been ready for this, and the response falls into place seamlessly. Londoners are calm, stoic. We’re hardened to terrorism. Older Londoners remember the blitz. Then all those years of IRA bombings. You don’t let them win. You don’t live your life in fear, which is what they want. They. They. The faceless ones. The cowards. The morally bankrupt.
I cry at footage of the first victims arriving at hospital. A man with his head heavily bandaged, his clothes shredded by the blast. (Which blast? So many blasts!) Paramedics trying to resuscitate another. Ordinary folks just going about their daily business. On another day it could have been me. Could have been you.
I call my sister to find out that her family is safe.
She's not at home and it's nearly midnight before she picks up the phone.
They're all fine. None of them was anywhere near central London. My brother-in-law Michael would have been on the tube to work, but today he's at home with 'flu.
My niece was due to travel into London by tube on a school-trip the day after.
My other London family in Islington are also okay. But my little niece Saphiah was stranded for hours at her school in the city centre, and her father (Abu's brother) had to walk miles from Islington to fetch her.
The bus Saphiah takes every morning has the same number as the one that got blown up in Tavistock Place ...
I can breathe a sigh of relief for now.
And I'd like to thank all the friends who e-mailed me or phoned me up to ask.
6 comments:
Thank God your family members are safe, as are mine.
Thank God they are fine. and you are back blogging.
Thanks, all of you.
Xmocha - so you've emerged .... ;-)
so glad you are back. as i read you, susan and paul every day with my morning coffee it was a trifle disconcerting to have to read 'happy 70th birthday, penguin' for a few days at a stretch. next time feel free to come over and use my computer any time.
the london bombings. i echo what the paris mayor said: 'we are all londoners now'. and you are right whoever did it, despite whatever rhetoric they may choose to spin, are cowards and mass murderers to kill ordinary and innocent people who have no quarrel with them.
Hi Saras, Was quite surprised when you phoned me yesterday to know where my blog entries had got to. It's nice to be missed!
phew. been following your blog, and have been worried. but my streamyx was down, my phone went bonkers, could not call. i think that retreat will be good for all of us.
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