London explosions...

FYI - I am okay. I was at Edgware Road station (scene of one of the explosions) less than 10 minutes before it happened. I feel very lucky right now. We still have people here at work un-accounted for. Hopefully this is just because the mobile network is totally jammed - or they are safe, but stuck in a tube tunnel.

Not sure how I will get home right as I live a long way out of London. But that is the least of my concerns right now.

UPDATE: 6pm

I made it home. I think I'm very lucky. I left my office in Bayswater about 2:50pm and decided to walk to Marylebone mainline station. I got there about 3:35pm. On the way there were blocked off roads around Edgware Road and lots of police.

My day went something like this.

I arrived at work at 8:50am this morning. The first I knew about the attacks was a call from my Mum at 9:30am. At that point it was 'a power surge'.

Like most people in the office where I work - we then watched it all unfold on Sky News.

Here's where the attacks took place.



I passed through Edgware Road at about 8:40am. I don't normally go through that station, but the Bakerloo line was already closed for some reason.

Here's a close up of my London route.



Normally my journey is mainline into Marylebone, then Bakerloo (brown line) Line to Paddington. Then I changed onto the Circle/District Line to Bayswater where I work. Because the Bakerloo line was closed I walked down to Baker Street and took the Circle Line all the way - passing through Edgware Road.

It took until after midday to get in touch with everyone that works at my office. Luckily no one was hurt. As we all watched TV in the main reception people started to come in with stories about what had happened. Lots of people stuck on the underground. Some very close to the explosions.

I went to lunch with Wayne about 1ish. There were lots of people sat around the Whitelys mall with nothing much to do. Lots of shops had closed. I was glad to see my friend Jaio, who works in the mall, was okay.

Getting back from lunch about 2pm I decided that it might be a good idea to go and see if the mail lines had re-opened. After collecting everything together I left and walked.

It was quiet surreal walking through London. It wasn't very busy - and everyone was simply getting on with their lives. I think we still have a 'Blitz' mentality. Regents Park was still busy and there were lots of tourists with maps trying to work out how to get to places.

When I got to Marylebone they had just started running mainline trains again. They were all going to Denon (whereever that is). I was told to get on that train. The get a train to Beaconsfield (whereever that is). Then get a bus to where I live.

Days like this - you just do what they say.

Just before the train set off they announced the first train to where I live so I jumped off and got on that. Because there were no other trains on the line - it was a very smooth journey.

I got home at 5pm.

I have to say - the rail staff were amazing. Trying to ease a really difficult situation. From the TV pics as well I can tell the emergency service responce has been amazing.

When I got to my destibation there was a film crew and journos. I guess cos this was the first train out of london. I guess. Not sure.

Anyway, I'm home. I'm very glad to be home. I feel kinda numb now.

I'm going to wait and see what the next few days bring. I was going to work from home anyway tomorrow.

London will pick itself up. It's a tough city. It won't stop people using the tube or busses. We lived under the threat of this for so many years with the IRA. It had to happen at some point cos this is the world we live in.

I just hope that is it and there are no further attacks. I'm also glad this didn't happen on Saturday during Live 8.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:39 AM 7 comments