London Bombings: The Dust Settles

Well the dust is settling now and there is a clearer picture of what happened this morning; three explosions on the tube and one on a bus. I hear that we (Londoners) are being praised for behaving so stoically in the face of events and not panicking, and that doesn’t surprise me. Most of us have grown up in the shadow of IRA atrocities – some more horrific than today.

I have been less impressed by the media though; constantly rehashing the same shots, wringing every bit of emotion out of you, speculating relentlessly; all just to fill air time because, after the initial events there is barely a trickle of real news emerging each hour.

The expressions of support have been touching though. Friends from around the world have been messaging me and we have received a number of messages from gay choruses around the world – particularly the New York Chorus, who feel a certain empathy, even though we haven’t suffered anywhere near on their scale.

We got evacuated from work a little after 4:30 this afternoon as we had received a bomb threat, so everyone who was left in the office went home early. Waterloo Station was a lot less busy than I had expected, although the train home was pretty tightly packed. I suspect a lot of people had longer and more troublesome journeys home tonight than me.

We’ll be at work tomorrow as normal though. Fuck the terrorists. Fuck ‘em all. They don’t change the way I live my life.