Thursday, July 07, 2005
We Will Not Yield
I was off today to look after Laura and my plan was to take care of her early on, get all my chores round the house done and then settle down to do some writing.
We nipped to the doctor's for a half nine appointment then stopped in the supermarket to buy some sausages and rolls for breakfast. Just as I settled down to watch an episode of Frasier there was a newsflash and I immediately thought the anarchists had gone a step too far.
At first they said it was a power surge causing a series of explosions on the London Tube. My immediate thought was it sounded a bit iffy. This was the week the SIS was expecting something to happen and my initial reaction was an Al-Qaeda bomb. It soon became pretty clear that it was indeed a co-ordinated terrorist attack on the public transport network (Tube and bus) in Central London and of course, all fingers pointed in the direction my gut told me.
Four blasts occurred that spanned from Edgware Road Station between Hyde and Regent's Park and right out to Liverpool Street. Memories of the IRA came flooding back, but since those days Londoners have become vigilant in the face of terror, which was heightened even more after 9/11.
Why then did no-one spot several unattended packages on the transport network? The obvious answer would be suicide bombers have finally broken through the intelligence and defence networks. What a week to do it in; perfect for them, sickening for the bulk of humanity.
My first reaction was shock. The incident was covered by blanket media reports and the last time I have saw anything like it was the days I watched the Twin Towers destroyed. I don't think the magnitude sunk in at first as the images filtered through because most of the devastation was underground.
Later at night as I lay in bed watching the discussion programmes and news bulletins I watched a man describe how he was trapped with hundreds of others inside a carriage underground. When he came to describe the moment they were freed to walk back up the tunnel towards the exit he broke down as he recalled being "made to walk past it all; the wrecked carriage and the bodies on the tracks."
I'm not too big a man to admit that at that moment, I felt tears well in my eyes. His pain was real and in front of me and I can only imagine the day he has had. My heart goes out to him and everyone else involved.
The panics didn't stop in London either. In my hometown there were two controlled explosions; one on The Mound where a suspicious package was found and cordoned off, the other on a number 12 bus (the bus I get to and from work!!). In Glasgow a package was also disposed of by the bomb squad. What is becoming of this world?
Having had the television on all day watching the story unfold, I suppose it was inevitable anger would eventually come. And finally it did. I wanted to post this anger last night but thought better of it, hence why today's post is later than normal.
What I will say is, these people are not human and have no respect for life. Just like the Irish "freedom fighters", these people will also be dealt with. We are an island race and we will defend ourselves bitterly to the end.
We do not buckle under the threat of bombs or terror.
We will not move to the side or realign our way of life for the sake of a few extremists.
We will not be bullied.
We will fight back.
This is Great Britain and we will prevail.
For whether we are English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, we are all British and as of today, we are all Londoners.
Back to writing.
My KIC contract has never arrived in California. An e-mail from my editor confirmed this and so I will have to send out another one. It was supposed to have been for the renewal of 6 months after it expired on June 15th! I'll post a new one out asap.
I received my set of questions from Devon Ellington of the 13 Travelling Journals Project and boy were they good. Made me think; get lost in answers; question myself. I like that and it was a lot of fun writing them.
There is a question on the web interview I am doing that is bothering me. I have answered all the questions; most of totally off-the-wall and crackpot, but the final question is one I have to ask myself! But I still can't think what to ask!
Whisky Snatching keeps evolving inside my head after I have re-written it. I can't seem to pin it down but the story is improving each time. This seems to be the longest time it has taken me to write a short story, so hopefully it will be worth it. It's an interesting development and involves a new character into the fold.
I fell asleep to the sound of sirens reverberating around the city streets; a sound I am becoming more and more used to, but less and less sure how happy I am to here it.
We nipped to the doctor's for a half nine appointment then stopped in the supermarket to buy some sausages and rolls for breakfast. Just as I settled down to watch an episode of Frasier there was a newsflash and I immediately thought the anarchists had gone a step too far.
At first they said it was a power surge causing a series of explosions on the London Tube. My immediate thought was it sounded a bit iffy. This was the week the SIS was expecting something to happen and my initial reaction was an Al-Qaeda bomb. It soon became pretty clear that it was indeed a co-ordinated terrorist attack on the public transport network (Tube and bus) in Central London and of course, all fingers pointed in the direction my gut told me.
Four blasts occurred that spanned from Edgware Road Station between Hyde and Regent's Park and right out to Liverpool Street. Memories of the IRA came flooding back, but since those days Londoners have become vigilant in the face of terror, which was heightened even more after 9/11.
Why then did no-one spot several unattended packages on the transport network? The obvious answer would be suicide bombers have finally broken through the intelligence and defence networks. What a week to do it in; perfect for them, sickening for the bulk of humanity.
My first reaction was shock. The incident was covered by blanket media reports and the last time I have saw anything like it was the days I watched the Twin Towers destroyed. I don't think the magnitude sunk in at first as the images filtered through because most of the devastation was underground.
Later at night as I lay in bed watching the discussion programmes and news bulletins I watched a man describe how he was trapped with hundreds of others inside a carriage underground. When he came to describe the moment they were freed to walk back up the tunnel towards the exit he broke down as he recalled being "made to walk past it all; the wrecked carriage and the bodies on the tracks."
I'm not too big a man to admit that at that moment, I felt tears well in my eyes. His pain was real and in front of me and I can only imagine the day he has had. My heart goes out to him and everyone else involved.
The panics didn't stop in London either. In my hometown there were two controlled explosions; one on The Mound where a suspicious package was found and cordoned off, the other on a number 12 bus (the bus I get to and from work!!). In Glasgow a package was also disposed of by the bomb squad. What is becoming of this world?
Having had the television on all day watching the story unfold, I suppose it was inevitable anger would eventually come. And finally it did. I wanted to post this anger last night but thought better of it, hence why today's post is later than normal.
What I will say is, these people are not human and have no respect for life. Just like the Irish "freedom fighters", these people will also be dealt with. We are an island race and we will defend ourselves bitterly to the end.
We do not buckle under the threat of bombs or terror.
We will not move to the side or realign our way of life for the sake of a few extremists.
We will not be bullied.
We will fight back.
This is Great Britain and we will prevail.
For whether we are English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, we are all British and as of today, we are all Londoners.
Back to writing.
My KIC contract has never arrived in California. An e-mail from my editor confirmed this and so I will have to send out another one. It was supposed to have been for the renewal of 6 months after it expired on June 15th! I'll post a new one out asap.
I received my set of questions from Devon Ellington of the 13 Travelling Journals Project and boy were they good. Made me think; get lost in answers; question myself. I like that and it was a lot of fun writing them.
There is a question on the web interview I am doing that is bothering me. I have answered all the questions; most of totally off-the-wall and crackpot, but the final question is one I have to ask myself! But I still can't think what to ask!
Whisky Snatching keeps evolving inside my head after I have re-written it. I can't seem to pin it down but the story is improving each time. This seems to be the longest time it has taken me to write a short story, so hopefully it will be worth it. It's an interesting development and involves a new character into the fold.
I fell asleep to the sound of sirens reverberating around the city streets; a sound I am becoming more and more used to, but less and less sure how happy I am to here it.
Colin 3:50 pm