London Bombings
Things take a turn for the serious.
I was on the train to Guildford when the bombings started, so didn’t really know anything about it until people started slacking off and reading websites at work.
It was a hugely surreal feeling to know that this was happening, but not really being able to do anything. After checking that friends and relatives were safe and well in London, everyone just kind of had to settle down and try to get on with work. We had the TVs in the office tuned to the BBC news, and would gather around whenever anything new came on, but other than that, things just sort of carried on. The people who live in Guildford stated offering spare rooms and couches to anyone who couldn’t get home, but it turned out fairly quickly that most of the transport links were working pretty much normally.
I think the oddest part is that, while everyone I’ve spoken to is shocked that it happened, no one is surprised. Everyone expected something like this sooner or later.
One notable fact is how much more detailed the news coverage was from other countries, particularly from Italy and Denmark (we have native speakers of both in the office.) The British coverage was much more reserved, presumably trying to keep people from getting even more worked up.
Back in London tonight, things seem to be getting back to normal incredibly quickly. All of the mainline train stations are open, and most of the city centre buses are running. The tube is still closed, but could be reopened again as early as tomorrow morning. Various events have been cancelled (like the Queen gig at Hyde Park) but the WW2 commemoration in St James’ Park is going ahead.
I won’t bother linking to many analysis pages, since you’re all probably inundated with them already, but there has been some activity in other places too. In Edinburgh, Princes’ Street was closed while two suspicious packages were detonated on a bus. Has there been any larger scale disruption in the city?