I arrived yesterday afternoon. The airport and the Gatwick Express were a little quieter than normal; otherwise it seemed to be business as usual in London. Londoners have said "Up yours" to the terrorists and are just getting on with it.
The emergency services were very well prepared for these attacks because they had been through them over and over again in simulations. When I saw the first pictures on the internet on Thursday, I remember thinking that they looked exactly like the news reports of those exercises. One difference was that the emergency services actually worked faster and more efficiently on Thursday than they had in any of the simulations.
A couple of other interesting facts I have learned:
The bus blew up right outside the British Medical Association offices where some doctors were having a meeting so there were 20 GPs on the scene within seconds.
There was a meeting of air ambulance personnel at the Royal London Hospital that morning, just 400 metres from Aldgate East station so staffed helicopters were right there.
Pleasure boats were ferrying commuters home along the Thames, and overland trains kept running so that Paige did not have to walk home from Canary Wharf, as I had feared she would have to do.
Jono could not go into work yesterday morning because of a suspicious package in a sandwich shop next to his office (and Liverpool Street Station). It turned out to be nothing but Jono took the opportunity to hang out with Kitsch and then go to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen for lunch. Monkey, you should have been here.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Max
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1 comment:
This may sound sick but if you look at the cup half full not half empty with this situation perhaps the londoners have a good excuse to take time off and enjoy their summer rather than pushing through the tube like sardines.
Trying to be positive.
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