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[not marked for deletion] I'm doing a week of temp work right now, at Old Street / Barbican area. On my way out of the train at Old Street tube around 9ish this morning, the power failed. It appears now that several explosions have shut the tube network down, all stations evacuated and walking wounded
seen.
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co..../low/uk/4659093.stm
(low graphics version) [hippo, Jul 07 2005]
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia...ransport_explosions
[angel, Jul 07 2005]
I'd forgotten how bad it used to be.
http://www.nivets.c.../chron/mainland.htm
I just feel sick as it starts again. [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 07 2005]
(???) My walk home
http://www.flickr.c...indale/sets/555385/
[Ian Tindale, Jul 07 2005]
In 2003, around 10 people killed on road each day in UK
http://news.bbc.co....1/hi/uk/3835747.stm
London's bombers almost managed to quadruple this amount, in London alone, just for one day. Hardly worth the bother, was it? Especially taking into account the saving of potential road casualties that might have otherwise happened on that day, by effectively clearing the city and roads, making it just that bit safer for pedestrians and traffic. [Ian Tindale, Jul 07 2005]
The Gerhkin on MultiMap
http://www.multimap...=217&multimap.y=124
[zen_tom, Jul 08 2005]
And on Google Maps
http://maps.google....,0.008827&t=k&hl=en
I think it's the round thing in the middle of the page. [zen_tom, Jul 08 2005]
A Letter To The Terrorists, From London
http://www.lnreview....uk/news/005167.php
[waugsqueke, Jul 08 2005]
(?) The Swiss Re Building ("The Gherkin")
http://images.googl...s=en-us&sa=N&tab=wi
[hippo, Jul 09 2005]
ACCOLC
http://www.workze.com/articles/ACCOLC
Access Overload [oneoffdave, Jul 11 2005]
We're not afraid
http://www.werenotafraid.com/
Post-bombing thoughts [hippo, Jul 12 2005]
Latest BBC news item on the police investigation.
http://news.bbc.co....1/hi/uk/4676577.stm
You can keep your international terrorism. There's no terrorist like a home-grown terrorist. [DrBob, Jul 12 2005]
[link]
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nothing much on the internet but people here listening to the radio are talking about 5 bombs. |
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take care all and glad to know that Ian is o.k. |
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God be with you. (3:03 AM PDT/ 11AM London) We're just getting BBC America details now. London-Bakers, please do your best to check in regularly and continue to let us know that you are well and safe if the situation escalates. |
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Right now (11am London) the mobile phone networks are overloaded, so best thing is to stay off the cellphones for a while here. |
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I can only wonder and fail to understand. So soon after the celebration for 2012, as well. |
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Ling, - well, there'll always be a few malcontents around the world, trying to spoil the fun. However, they forget - we're not easily dissuaded. |
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CNN are concentrating on a bus that exploded in Tavistock Square. |
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SUMMARY: Explosion has taken out power grid inside Underground system. 2 confirmed dead, 90 injured, at Aldgate Station |
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1055 A doctor tells Reuters there are at least 90 casualties at Aldgate station |
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1053 Home Secretary Charles Clarke makes a statement outside Downing Street about "dreadful incidents" causing "terrible injuries". He says Prime Minister Tony Blair has been informed and advises the public in London not to make unneccessary journeys |
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1049 Police say there are serious casualties, but no deaths are confirmed, Associated Press reports |
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1025 The BBC's Andrew Marr, with the prime minister in Gleneagles, says Number 10 is "still unsure" whether the explosions are a terrorist attack |
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1023 confirmed explosion on a bus in Tavistock Place |
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1021 Scotland Yard reports "multiple explosions" in London, the Press Association reports |
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1014 An eyewitness tells PA that a bus has been ripped apart in an explosion in central London |
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1009 Witness Christina Lawrence, who was on a train leaving Kings Cross, tells BBC News 24: "There was a loud bang in the tunnel and the train just stopped and all of a sudden it was filled with black, gassy smoke and we couldn't breathe" |
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1002 Scotland Yard says it is dealing with a "major incident" |
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0940 British Transport Police say power surge incidents have occurred on the Underground at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Old Street and Russell Square stations |
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0933London Underground reports "another incident at Edgware Road" station, PA reports |
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0933 Passengers are told that all London Underground services are being suspended because of a power fault across the network, PA reports |
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0924 British Transport Police say the incident was possibly caused by a collision between two trains, a power cut or a power cable exploding. Police report "walking wounded" |
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0915 Press Association reports emergency services called to London's Liverpool Street Station after reports of an explosion |
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0849 An incident on the Metropolitan Line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate is reported to British Transport Police |
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The Underground have just stopped using the 'power surge' explanation. Replaced it with effectively nothing, however. What's interesting is the calm concerted widespread effort to not speculate. That certainly is impressive. |
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TV news is reporting 20+ fatalities.
Police have confirmed 2 dead. |
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There apparently was a power surge recorded, across the grid. It may have been the EMP associated with a normal explosion, or it may have been the power line being cut by an explosion. There were six explosions experienced, or so it seems. |
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No claims of responsibility on any Islamist websites, as yet. |
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CNN advises at least 20 deaths. Maybe? Maybe not. Scotland Yard confirm 2 deaths. |
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Notable: During G8 and just after the announcement of the Olympic venue. |
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Those three buses seem to have reduced to one bus now. Which can only be good news. |
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I must admit, I'm still quite fired up about the Olympics - that was terrific news, and the smile on my face is still there underneath. |
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Suggestion on Sky news that parts of the cellular network may have been turned off to prevent remote detonation - a odd sort of sick plus for the terrorists, because it engenders more panic when people can't contact loved ones. |
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Interesting - Vodaphone say that the overloaded mobile networks are caused by their giving priority to the emergency services. I didn't know they were able to do that. |
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Rail station explosions reported at Edgware Road, Russell Square, King's Cross, Moorgate, Liverpool Street and Bank. Not clear whether they are actual explosions, or simply reports. |
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Blimey! I changed at Bank and went through Moorgate only minutes away from the time in question, this morning. |
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UnaBubba, - maybe they were loud reports. |
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Staff in the London offices of my employer (around Victoria) have been told to stay indoors, close window blinds, and move away from the windows. The word "duh" springs to mind.
Good to see that (most of) our resident Londoners appear to be OK. |
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[hippo] The telcos are able to do the same for the fixed phone network too, though so far I seem to be able to get through to friends in the centre of London. |
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Good Lord, this is awful news. |
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Ian, I was very pleased to hear about the Olympics going to London too. I can't imagine this event is related to that. More likely I would suspect it's meant to get the attention of the G8 attendees. |
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A few weeks ago I was in England for the first time, and made sure to travel on the London Underground. Best wishes to all in that great city. |
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I'm in BT centre near Bank. We have all been advised to stay in the building and not travel until further notice. I'm doing a conference today - most of the delegates are arriving from France by Eurostar! So I guess it'll be a quiet day here. |
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waugsqueke, - 12 midday now, am in an office, just off another street halfway up Old Street. There's not a lot of activity going on outside right now. Seems as though the fuss is over, and thoughts are turning to how people are going to get home. |
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I'm in Centrepoint tower in London. We heard the blast at Russel square!! The Police have set up roadblocks around the streets here.... |
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...and I'm in Westminster, just off the Victoria side of Parliament Square. Lots of police cars zooming around. |
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thank God you all are safe, you Londoners were the first in my thought this a.m. as we watched the awful news. |
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I've just heard that various offices of my employer have been getting bomb warnings all week. Our site in Darwen (Lancashire) was evacuated three times, and the Glasgow office is on "high alert" for tomorrow. It may be significant that we have call centres in London dealing with (among other things) congestion charging. |
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I think the authorities knew something was going to happen. They were already closing stations on the Bank branch of the Northern line at 8:15, half an hour before the 1st blast. When I got on the tube they were all going via Charing+. |
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I congratulate the emergency services for executing exactly what had been practiced and planned for, in such a successful manner, given the circumstances. |
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Shit, there is something wrong with the world. |
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I know. I just looked out the window before I go out to lunch - it's raining now. |
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Glad to hear you're OK folks. Don't relax yet awhile though. I can't help thinking G8 and only 7 explosions so far. Hope I'm wrong. |
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[IT] //there is something wrong with the world//
// it's raining now// No, that's normal for July.
Good luck with the journey home. Stay safe. |
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I can walk home in about two hours. I suspect that the journey by public transport may take longer... |
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My heart and prayers are with you all. Stay safe, and alert. And if you have not checked in, please do. |
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can I give you a lift at all wag? |
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Ian, I put a + vote up there to say thank you for keeping us all informed in this way, and to ask you to not mark-for-deletion this experience. The Halfbakery amazes me once again. Best of luck to all. |
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It was put to remarkably similar use on the 11th September, 2001. |
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And also to UnaBubba, many thanks. I didn't know of the Halfbakery on 11th September, 2001, but I wish I had. I'd just been divorced, and had to sit alone and watch my old neighborhood go up in smoke. Now London is attacked while the memories of my visit make the distant scenes feel very close. To get this news in this way is a comfort, indeed. |
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Took a walk around from here to Holborn to Hatton Garden to back here, for lunchbreak. Lots of people about, in the rain, and later in the sun. Lots of people milling around at businesses doorways, staring out at the rest of the populace, and everywhere the expressions on faces are strong and positive. Actual reported explosions seem to have reduced from earlier numbers. Three on the Underground network and one on a bus. |
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Google news says an Al Qaeda group claims responsibility. My thoughts are with you all in London. My anger is rekindled as it was slowly fading from 4 years ago. |
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From europhobia.blogspot.com:
"Someone here at work has just been phoned by a guy he knows in Canary Wharf (I know, it's a bit removed - but I trust him). He says marines have shot a man there who they think to have been a suicide bomber." |
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That Canary Wharf suicide bomber story is all over the internet with nothing more to back it up than "My mate said that..." |
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As if they'd not had their fill on the playground years ago, new world bullies with guns and explosives forgot the meaning of life sometime back. Desensitized ignorant hopeless demons reeked havok once again. |
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I'd say I'd kill them if I had the chance, but that's a bit hypocritical. Maybe, just, tar and feather them and their families, stick them in one of the inane HB contraptions mused over so far, and hope for lessons learned. Or just kill the whole lot of them, I really don't know. |
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My thought are with you. As I said last time, sometimes the news is way too close. |
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[nearly 4pm] Rail services out of London are starting back up (with the exception of Kings Cross). Traction current to the Underground is intact and could theoretically (apparently) now run a full service again, but it's not going to until investigations have got out of the way. The Docklands Light Rail is back up with a few stations not calling at. Bus is the way home for many people. Other than those immediately affected, it's proved that the contingency plans have been highly effective, and that the transport system itself has proved highly resilient, barely losing the mid-section of a working day. Apparently, being mid-week, the hospitals were well within capacity too. Life's great. |
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I'm very impressed to hear how well London has borne up under the attack. It's nice to hear the infrastructural damage was shunted around so handily. Big points for sturdy Brit engineering. |
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I have to say that there's a lot less wrong with the world than what is right: the outrage and indignation far overpowers the fanatics' need to strike at unsuspecting targets to "make a point." By and large, the world's peoples seek to maintain a peaceful coexistence with each other; a few malcontents are determined to pout and stamp their feet and call it "freedom fighting" and "striking for freedom" or some such rhetoric. |
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I feel for London and the rest of GB - God save you! - and curse the zealots for their crass, amoral infidel methods. |
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I have a cousin there with her baby, though I think she lives not in London proper. One way or another, things like this touch everyone. |
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I'm going home - luckily I've got my running kit with me... |
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Many many thanks [po] - my train line home (London Bridge - E. Dulwich) is open again and buses are apparently running south of the river so I should be ok. |
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I think we've escaped lightly after NY and Madrid. News reports of tens of dead rather than hundreds. My deepest sympathies to the families and to all those injured, but this morning I feared much worse. |
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Al Qaeda, eh? It could be true. I'll wait for more info--although they did a poor job of communicating after 9/11. |
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And here I am in a Muslim country. I just wandered outside, and was invited to sit with Fasrule and Yunan as they smoked. We talked about cars, America and London. The news was saddening for all. The calls to prayer drifted through the sunset as beautifully as ever. The bad people seemed very far away. |
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There are many things wrong in the world. There are also many good people trying to make things right. I work with some of them here, and many of them are Muslim. |
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I've also worked with some bad-crazy people, and all of them were religious. Damn Al Qaeda and the horse they rode in on! |
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Thanks for that, baconbrain. It's good to
see that, despite the madness which has
infected the few, human empathy is
still
mostly intact. |
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Emergency Services news conference half an hour or so ago reports four devices were exploded (not seven as reported earlier by the media). Three on trains and one on a bus. There were 33 people killed on the trains but the bus casualties are unconfirmed as yet. |
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Nothing unites like religion. It's the solid, underpinning faith of the faithful, and the terrifying, overriding fire appropriated by the dangerous to twist the impressionable. |
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//...bus casualties are unconfirmed as yet//
Which gives rise to the most horrifying thoughts. |
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//Nothing unites like religion//
Can't say I've noticed much of that in Glasgow. |
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Opiates, what can you do. |
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Who's got that view that shows recent bakers? It could be used to help make sure everyone's checked in. No 'bakers hurt would be a lucky thing, I'm afraid. |
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the top of the bus was blown right off. anyone on the top deck must have been very badly injured. |
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[david_scothern] I wish there would be more people exposed to that statement than will probably be.
Perhaps you should do something to become famous so they can put that one in all of the children's textbooks. |
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I feared that this would bring back the horrific event of 9-11, to those who were in the city. I guess it is a reminder, we need to always be prepared for an attack. (Emotionally, I mean). |
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I echo the gratitude, baconbrain, for commenting on that perspective. |
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I hope that the day never comes, that jutta must make room for a "attack: terrorist" category. |
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Peace to you all. We all must do our parts to reign in the local radical zealots. It's insane to kill in any God's name. |
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Still no news on casualties from the Bus at Tavistock Square as of 18:35 BST. Ain't going to town tomorrow. |
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[sophocles] "reign" in or rein in ? |
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gnome, 2 confirmed dead on the bus. I fear that number will grow |
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I've posted a link to some shots I took
today, mostly on my way home. I must
say, my SE K700i phone was immensely
useful today from the very beginning. I
was listening to mp3s in the tube, and
as we stepped off the train and the
power failed, many of us switched our
phone backlights on, to help illuminate
the way (not that it did, but it helped
mark lots of "I'm here's"). Then once at
work, I used
the radio in it to listen to 94.9 BBC
London most of the day. Then I
shot some photos, panoramas, and the
odd movie (not very good ones - I'd
have put them and the stills up to
multiply, but multiply seems to have
fallen over most of today - never there
when it counts). |
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Thoughts and hopes for those affected. |
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There will always be an England; there will always be a London; there will always be the British people. As they said about the Blitz, all the Nazis in the world couldn't overcome the determination of a single British tea-lady. |
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Wotcha [baka]! How's about a nice cuppa Rosie? |
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Haven't checked in for long time, but I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with you Londoners and those who have friends and loved ones there. |
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I'm heartened that everyone HB-related appears to be safe and I sympathize with all Londoners in this disaster. |
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Try not to let the bastards get the better of you. |
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it's just struck me as ironic (and I hope that the cowardly bastards that have wrecked carnage on London streets are reading this) that just last weekend, thousands of ordinary londoners and u.k. residents etc. gathered in Hyde Park to celebrate Africa and demand relief for Africans who are dying from poverty and AIDS and malaria etc. and then *we* are bombed and killed and maimed and bloodied as we go about our day-to-day activities just a few days later... |
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this has absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing to do with Islam or religion. all the muslims that I know are disgusted and sick to their stomachs of this fucking awful state of affairs. |
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London - the city made of rubber. |
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I'm off to listen to Culture's "Two Sevens
Clash" on CD, and put the mp4 on my
phone. |
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I don't think they'll be reading it po. I think they're dead. |
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suicide bombers? o.k. and their mentors? bastards! |
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not sure if it was down to suicide bombers. I hope that is the case because I feel so sorry for those losers too. |
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It's easier with suicide bombers, somehow you don't have to deal with the guilt of wishing another human dead. |
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Been following it on the news all day. Glad to know all you londoners are safe - I've been phoning and emailing people in the city all day. Haven't lived in London for three years now - I was taken unawares by the strength of emotion as I watched the whole thing unfold. |
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If they were hoping for another 9/11, they're going to be sadly mistaken - London's lived with bombing before, long before al-Quaeda were invented.
And after yesterday was such a good day, as well... |
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o.k. 4 hours to get home - what the fuck... |
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Glad to see all of our London-based HalfBakers are all accounted for. (Is that accurate?) |
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What confuses me is that I don't understand what "the terrorists" want. Do they simply want to kill and mame people? If so, I don't see how this can ever end. If they want something else, let's have a clear demand or something. At least we would be able to better understand what their goal is. |
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I echo all moomintroll said. Glad all bakers are safe and well tonight, but my heart goes out to all that aren't. |
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On a day when all the world's most powerful people were supping champagne in a hotel in Scotland, loads of innocent people were killed and injured for the crime of just going to work. That doesn't make a political point - that just sucks. |
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all terrorists want people to be afraid; intimidation is as much the goal as is death of the enemy. |
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// it's hardly 9/11 // True, but one person dying is too many. It wouldn't be any consolation to anyone who's lost someone in this that "only" thirty-odd people died, but i do see that there are more people bereaved as a result of 9/11. On the other hand, it is at least not as "successful" as 9/11 in terms of numbers of people hurt. |
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//Try not to let the bastards get the better of you// |
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Shit yeah..playing the Buzzcocks right now ! |
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True, dentworth - what they're aiming for is for you to look over your shoulder every time you step on a bus, to think twice about that guy with a suitcase that gets on the train with you... |
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They want to inject fear and doubt into even your most simple actions. Best thing we can do is just to soldier on as normal |
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I'm afraid i've looked over my shoulder ever since i was a small child and had to get off a train because of a bomb scare. |
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Oops - I mean, maim. Heh. Sorry. |
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[dentworth]://all terrorists want people to be afraid; intimidation is as much the goal as is death of the enemy.// |
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But doesn't that seem incomplete as a plan? Ok, fear them, kill them. What does that accomplish? Why is the general populace "the enemy" anyway? What is the damned cause? |
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I refuse to believe that a religion that is supposed to be about peace can endorse such ludicrous behavior. Can the terrorists really claim to be following a Muslim plan to please their god? Can they really believe that this is what he would want them to do? |
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My only hint as to the big terror plan is that I heard that there is supposedly some quote in the Kuran about invoking terror as being honorable. I can only assume that this was either grossly misinterpreted by some hateful group, or more likely, I think the passage is being used to recruit suicide bombers while the masterminds envision gaining some sort of cartoonish world domination. These are not humble Muslims. It's like nazi-ism, all over again, but with a different religion as an excuse. |
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My opinion is that this whole terrorist movement is childish. If we can't share the world, nobody will have it, in the end. Play nice. |
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//couldn't overcome the determination of a single British tea-lady// |
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I don't think there's a force on Earth that could hope to overcome one of those. They are among the world's most implacably powerful, fearless creatures, in my experience. They dispense their sweet favours with absolute discretion on their part. You may hope for a chocolate biscuit but they make the decision, irrespective of your actions. |
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My thoughts are with the Londonbakers. |
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As for religion -- it is time for rational, compassionate agnostics to stand up against the Jihadists and Crusaders alike. Forget the after-life, it should be paradise right here on earth. |
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Sorry if this smacks of disrespect at this dark hour. Love to you all, dear friends. |
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I've been shut up in a conference all day, but saw the news an hour or so ago thanks to the 'net. If it was home soil terrorism: scum. If it was imported terrorism: scum. If it was a force majeure: it was merciful in that there were so few killed. |
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That said, might I offer my condolence and best wishes for my brothers and sisters in Great Britain, and may god serve the people. |
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[XSarenkaX], this gets us into some very murky territory. The very brief precis is that, yes, there are many bits in the Muslim texts about war and killing infidels, but many revered Muslim scholars have narrowed the scope of permissible violence to more or less the same areas that Christianity, working on "Just War" principle, arrived at. (For comparison, see "dar al Islam," "dar al harb," and the later concepts of "dal al sulh" and "dar al 'ahd.") It's worth remembering that Islam came of age in a very violent, politically-charged environment in which Muslims had to fight for their survival, which led to some rather intemperate language in the Quran and the hadith. |
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It's also true that the vast majority of Muslims are as enthusiastic about killing as Jews and Christians are about emulating the slaughters depicted in Genesis and Exodus -- in other words, not at all. But there are a small number -- and by small, I mean a tiny fringe of the small radical Wahabists of the minority arch-conservative Hanbali fiqh -- who use their religion as justification for slaughter. For them, the secular West is just another jahaliyah (the term for what Muslims believe to be the degraded state of the Arab world before Muhammad), and thus is a suitable target for war. In this interpretation, all citizens of the jahaliyah are targets. |
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I tend to the interpretation that al-Qaeda-style terrorism is the result of socioeconomic and political pressures acting through a religious medium. Thus we should look first not to the religious justification, but to the political intent and impetus behind the acts. For these terrorists, the intent is to create a superstate or set of states that espouses their particular ideology; the impetus comes from a combination of post-colonial politics, endemic corruption, dissatisfaction with what they see as a Western hegemon, lack of economic opportunities, failure to acculturate amongst emigrants to Europe (aided, in places like France and the Netherlands, by the host population's resistance to assimilation by immigrants), and other similar issues. There isn't a simple relationship here -- (poverty+religion != terrorism) for all cases -- but I believe that this holds more or less true. (Britain has been much more welcoming than European nations of their Muslim immigrants; if this turns out to be homegrown terrorism, I fear both what it means about what's happening in those communities, and what will happen to those communities.) |
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As a positive example, Mali in West Africa is poor, Muslim and corrupt, but democratic; its population is relatively warm towards France and very warm towards America, mostly due to Peace Corps volunteers. Lovely country. Mali is, to my mind, one of the most important battlefields in the war on terror, even though we should never need to send a single soldier there. |
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My condolences to those who lost lives
or loved ones. I wish everyone safety. |
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But I thought that the terrorists were choosing to fight in Iraq. |
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Fishing this one. As a concept, it's already well-baked. Enter the keyword "terrorism" in Google and you'll see that this idea is not at all new. |
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//Mali . . Peace Corps volunteers// My sis was one of them--she is amazing. |
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//Soldier on// Another way in which London leads the world. |
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The last group of assholes that bombed London and killed so many people ended up on the ash heap of history with their leader dead in a bunker and their cause destroyed forever. I've got a feeling this will end much the same way eventually. The thoughts and prayers of us Americats are with you. |
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Round up all the terrorist leaders and put them on the field between the B&I Lions and the NZ All Blacks. It should all be over in five bloody minutes. |
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I'd pay to watch that, and buy the DVD afterward. |
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Hey! What asshole boned this?
Thanks Ian and everyone else. |
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Yep, thanks Ian, and thanks too to [baka] for the most reasoned analysis I've read in a long time. |
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I agree [zen] concise and clearly stated. thanks [baka] and welcome to the halfbakery, usually we have more fun than this bad news posting. |
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Hi all. I'd actually more or less forgotten about the 1/2B until last night when I remembered how good it had been on 9/11. Anyway, I'm safe and sound too. I cycle to and from work at Tottenham Court Road which is just round the corner from where the bus bomb went off. Yesterday was such a contrast to the day before when I was in Trafalgar Square celebrating the Olympics decision. |
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hi stu. some kind of demo planned for tonight I believe. |
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Glad you checked in, stu. Could po be refering to a demonstration about the Olympics? |
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I can't help but to question the inevitability of terror. Good and evil, yada yada, I just want to stay far away. It's hard enough keeping peace in my own mind. |
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I heard something on the radio this morning about a public meeting to illustrate Londoners unity in Trafalgar Square, after the bombings but I haven't heard it again. |
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I have not had time to go through the entire thread, but has skinflaps been accounted for, or is he wandering the world again? Potedstu, I thought, was a Londoner, as well. Lewisgirl? (I'm thinking of the first halfcon and those who attended.) |
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Ian the photos are great, but that "Gerhkin" thing. That has got to be the worlds ugliest object. EWWWWWwww! |
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[lewisgirl] checked in elsewhere, and [skinflaps] chimed in above. |
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[bliss] are you being mean about our lovely big gherkin? |
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// .. world's ugliest object .. // The Swiss Tower? |
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Nature defines its structure as one of a few architectural designs rivaling in periodicity the silica skeletal lattice of the deep sea sponges. |
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In a sea of rectangular concrete towers, it rises, curved and glassy, into the breeze. |
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We love the gherkin, here in London. Most Londoners have very positive feelings about the Swiss Re building. It's actually smaller than it manages to look, and it manages to protrude visibly from almost everywhere in London. I took some shots from immediately underneath it, looking up, just as it was nearing completion. I'll dig them out if I can find 'em among my ocean of photos all called DCsomenumberorother. |
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Cool building. A fact file shows all the enviofriendly features, which is great. But, I quite like the name "30 St Mary Axe" better. |
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I used to work at St Helen's Place (round the corner from Mary's Axe) and used to navigate using a combination of the sun and the rising Gerhkin, lovely building - I'd love to see what it's like from inside. |
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Sometimes, you get to see people cleaning the glass too. |
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no 2 son rang me in tears a few hours ago to enquire whether I was still alive - all very weird, why he waited so long? |
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Well, did you phone him first to tell hm otherwise?
BTW the Gherkin looks wonderful - much better than the Lloyds Building, or NatWest (Tower 42, whatever), though the roof of the Great Court of the British Museum looks fantastic from either the Eye or BT Tower, or indeed from inside the British Museum. |
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Maybe he's on a dialup connection and
only just found out the
news.
Some friends just
called from California to see if I was OK. |
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//Well, did you phone him first to tell hm otherwise?
//yes, I should have... |
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"A Letter to the Terrorists", from London, courtesy of the London News Review (link): |
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"We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub." |
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[waugs] I was wondering about the effectiveness of taking out a full page add in the London paper inviting whoever is responsible to send in a letter to be printed one week later in the same add space explaining just exactly what the fuck it is that they want.
I went through a list of their objectives in my mind & felt that this attack would produce the exact opposite effect of achieving any objective I could think of. |
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Through and through - though the worrying sort - I have drawn strength from the outlook shared by my dear halfbaking Londoners - the song is true, then!
_____ |
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London calling at the top of the dial
And after all this, won't you give me a smile?
London Calling |
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I never felt so much ALIVE ALIVE ALIVE ALIVE |
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There is some sort of sadness, that only calamities, and/or tragic events, have the ability to bring back the bakers of lore, and of heart, so that we can "circle the wagons'. |
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I suppose the alternative is to blow the guts out of Riyadh, or Sanaa, or some other city in a radically inclined Moslem theocracy. |
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Actually, that makes no sense... just compounds the mess. |
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thumbwax, - "'Cos I... I live by the river..." (although strictly speaking, that would apply to the citizens of a large proportion of capital cities worldwide, really). |
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UnaBubba, - the fact is, nobody really knows for certain who did it or why, at this stage. Any finger pointing remains simply speculation. There is the danger of "well he must have been the one that farted this time, he was always known for farting in the past" but until we know the facts, best hold off. There's a tendency for our minds to want to fill in the gaps and form completions, but that's not useful right now as far as the general public is concerned, until forensics and intelligence have completed their ongoing and excellent work (much of it underground). |
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Sorry Ian, to digress...if that friggin building is so handsome, why the nickname? And if anyone tries to tell me that a gherkin is a handomse pickle, I'll give em a papercut, and inject gherkin juice directly into it. |
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Ouch you say? Ouch I say. |
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"what's in a name? that which we call a rose
by any other word would smell as sweet." |
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And now you're saying the thing smells good as well? I hope so! |
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Can't really explain why we all like it so
much, it just endeared itself to us. Most
of us over the past few years who saw
the building grow up, from a small state
to the present proud upstanding
gleaming erection, very much felt more
involved with it than watching yet
another anonymous rectangular slab
appear. As for the gherkin, well, we
found it hard to think of anything else
that it resembles. When you come over
here, you'll see. |
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Really, it does look nice (link to pictures
added). |
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When is it scheduled for launch? |
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Heh. Right after it's sandwich début. |
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I work "ahem, opposite the gherkin"(for now) and I've always wondred where exactly do you put the batteries in that thing... where's the speed control? |
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"'Cos I... I live by the river..." >< capital cities
-Ian Tindale |
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Not just capitals - (turns around) [looking at a river right now] (turns back around) the river I'm near leads to the London Bridge... |
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I don't wanna get smutty, or nothin, but the first thing I thought of when I saw it, wasn't a pickle. It reminds me of one of those personal pleasure things, that was designed in the '60s. I believe it was even called "The Bullet", or something like that. Saw them advertised in the back of Cosmo, and other women's mags. I would search for a link, but I don't want to. (Hey skinny, so glad you are accounted for.) |
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flippin' heck, thumbwax - how did you miss the halfcon in Phoenix? |
&nb |
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