El Porro
07-07-2005, 13:16
LIVE: LONDON - 13:00 GMT
I assume you've heard about the chaos London has seen this morning. It's 1pm now, so I guess for you guys in the US it's around 7am.
Basically I'm very lucky. To set the scene, as some of you may know, I'm very dissatisfied with my current job, which is really far away and pays sporadically and badly. So, this week I've been roaming the job recruitment websites for better work. The result of my website blitzing (maybe an inappropriate term at this point..) is that I had an interview this morning with a charity call centre in central (fixed wage - £7 an hour). Of course, I couldn't make it, central is totally paralysed now. The thing is, it wasn't 'til 11, so I could get up an hour later than usual.
As I was leaving the house I heard on the radio the first announcement that the tube was completely down, due to a supposed power surge (as the first reports suggested). I thought: 'Christ, here we go again, transport fuckups'.. So I made to get the bus in. The Old Kent Road was full of emergency vehicles, literally packed with them all speeding into central, so it occurred to me that there must be more behind it, some sort of massive problem. The 453 buses all terminated at Elephant and Castle, which was odd, so I asked a driver what was going on, and told me there were no buses to central anymore. I thought: 'oh well, a day off', and phoned the charity to reschedule an interview. The secretary just said to not bother today and they'd get back to me. I thought it a bit odd, so I went to my college library to get the full story. That's where I saw it on TV, and it turns out there have been five explosions at tube stops and one explosion on a bus near Tavistock Place. Just saw Tony on TV announcing that it seems to be an Al-Quieda thing (not his exact words..), and got a call from my Dad checking if I was ok.
So, if I'd have gone to work as normal I would've been passing through Kings Cross or thereabouts at the time! So, in effect, I'm really lucky to have had this particular morning off for the interview!
I can still hear sirens on the main road outside, it's a crazy kind of atmosphere here, people left right and centre (myself included) are getting deluges of texts and calls from friends and family - the phone networks must have just gone back online..
A wierd day for it as well, we just got the Olympic bid yesterday, the G8 was scheduled to start in earnest today.. Bad, drizzly cold windy weather (I hate Britain for this, come on, it's supposed to be July, in May it was scorching..), adding to the tense nervous nature of things.
So, that's what's happening here in the capital.
This is Chris reporting from the relative safety of Southeast London (where a bomb might improve the area, frankly. Maybe bump off some crack pushers..).
I assume you've heard about the chaos London has seen this morning. It's 1pm now, so I guess for you guys in the US it's around 7am.
Basically I'm very lucky. To set the scene, as some of you may know, I'm very dissatisfied with my current job, which is really far away and pays sporadically and badly. So, this week I've been roaming the job recruitment websites for better work. The result of my website blitzing (maybe an inappropriate term at this point..) is that I had an interview this morning with a charity call centre in central (fixed wage - £7 an hour). Of course, I couldn't make it, central is totally paralysed now. The thing is, it wasn't 'til 11, so I could get up an hour later than usual.
As I was leaving the house I heard on the radio the first announcement that the tube was completely down, due to a supposed power surge (as the first reports suggested). I thought: 'Christ, here we go again, transport fuckups'.. So I made to get the bus in. The Old Kent Road was full of emergency vehicles, literally packed with them all speeding into central, so it occurred to me that there must be more behind it, some sort of massive problem. The 453 buses all terminated at Elephant and Castle, which was odd, so I asked a driver what was going on, and told me there were no buses to central anymore. I thought: 'oh well, a day off', and phoned the charity to reschedule an interview. The secretary just said to not bother today and they'd get back to me. I thought it a bit odd, so I went to my college library to get the full story. That's where I saw it on TV, and it turns out there have been five explosions at tube stops and one explosion on a bus near Tavistock Place. Just saw Tony on TV announcing that it seems to be an Al-Quieda thing (not his exact words..), and got a call from my Dad checking if I was ok.
So, if I'd have gone to work as normal I would've been passing through Kings Cross or thereabouts at the time! So, in effect, I'm really lucky to have had this particular morning off for the interview!
I can still hear sirens on the main road outside, it's a crazy kind of atmosphere here, people left right and centre (myself included) are getting deluges of texts and calls from friends and family - the phone networks must have just gone back online..
A wierd day for it as well, we just got the Olympic bid yesterday, the G8 was scheduled to start in earnest today.. Bad, drizzly cold windy weather (I hate Britain for this, come on, it's supposed to be July, in May it was scorching..), adding to the tense nervous nature of things.
So, that's what's happening here in the capital.
This is Chris reporting from the relative safety of Southeast London (where a bomb might improve the area, frankly. Maybe bump off some crack pushers..).