London - Explosion in tube station. "There are walking wounded"

And be sure to let us know if there's anything you need...

 

meanwhile closer to (my) home

 

Good greif! People are so freakin' sick, it's not funny!! You know, I'll bet the bombers blew themselves up. I almost wish I could see their faces when they got to Heaven, beleiving that they'll be met with 100 virgins or whatever those terroists believe their reward is, and then be told, "Nope, sorry, you're not being rewarded with paradise. I certainly hope you brought some sunscreen, like, SPF 3,000? You didn't. Oh, well, sucks to be you." Then then little trap door opens up and they tumble down to the hot place. Satan meets them, and they start babbling on about "We were promised Paradise for giving our lives for Jihad!" And Satan laughs and points to all the other terrorist-clowns standing behind him up to their armpits in the lake of fire. "Yeah, that's what I told them, too. Didn't ya ever hear that I'm a liar?" John Wilkes Booth hollers something about, "Yeah, but I did get my name in the history books!" and the Timothy McVeigh and Mohammed Atta (guy who led the 9/11 Terrorists and probably piloted the 2nd plane into the WTC) go over and kick his butt. . . and. . and. . . Well, I could go on and on. Those dark, almost cartoonish thoughts run through my head whenever something horrific happens. It's like I can't handle the reality and manufacture something almost comedic to get through it. I sure hope that in sharing it I didn't offend anyone.

 

Mirelly, I used to live near Coventry. Is that were you're located? I've been to Birmingham ... so glad the threat was just that and apparently nothing more ...

I don't believe in hell, Kristal, but sometimes I wish it existed for certain people. I can't believe that if there is a God/Allah/whomever that killing people is what He wants us to do.

Lynet, please sign in if you're home. We're all worried about you.

Has anyone heard from Nicx? Doesn't she live in Britain?

 

Oh, good. Then she's well clear. Thanks, Josh.

 

Just got in folks. Monday 5 PM. We're fine. Can't talk at the moment--husband's calling me for something or other. I'll get back on later.

 

Oh, Hell is relatively cool and dark compared to Heaven. The temperature of Heaven can actually be determined exactly. I'll spare you the long, boring, mathy calculations, and simply inform you that Heaven has been calculated to have a temperatore of exactly 525C. It's also very very bright. The temperature of Hell, on the other hand, cannot be exactly determined, but has an upper limit of 445C, after which the lakes of brimstone that are such a scenic feature would become a gas and not a liquid.

 

You talk like you've been there, JM. I understand that the police who are digging through the wreakage on the Piccadilly tube line know a bit what hell is like. By this morning (London time) they had not gotten all the bodies out yet. And the heat, I understand, is terrible down there.

As it happened, Ed and I decided on a tour bus rather than the subway (our usual mode of transportation around London) on Thursday morning. Soon there were a lot of sirens everywhere and then the tour bus pulled over and told everyone to get off the bus--they were closing down for the day. Something "serious" had happened but they didn't explain what. I thought I heard someone mention a bomb but didn't realize the extent of it. Since we had been abandoned by the bus in Trafalgar Square we took shelter in the National Gallery and spent almost the entire day there, completely oblivious to what was going on in the rest of the world. There were a lot of tourists in the Gallery, looking quietly at the paintings. When we left the Gallery we walked north to the British Museum and found that it had closed early. We spoke to a nervous young woman looking for her friends and learned about the bombs. We decided to walk back to Hyde Park and our hotel. A lot of businesses and stores had closed early and the streets were crowded with people walking silently home. It was eery.

I don't own a laptop, so I didn't contact anyone by email or in this forum. My cell phone is not international so I left it home. We did notify my children and our offices that we were well.

For London this past week has been the best of times (Olympics) and the worst of times and I feel terribly for the people, who were all very nice to us during our visit there. I am grateful, by the way, for the expressions of concern for me and Ed that I've read here.

 

Yeah, me, too.

 

Thank God you're okay, Lynet! As you can see, we were worried.

And as to JMP, well, maybe he's been there. Ever see "Liitle Nicky"?

 

I hadn't but now I will . Sometimes I find JMP's comments rather harsh but he obviously contributes a great deal of stuff.

To anyone new to the forum who's reading this, I suggest a search for posts by J.M.Pescado. Read them for the insight on the game. There's tons of information there, whether you choose to play it his way or not. (I'm not really sure new members will get this far down the thread to read this, but who knows?)

Anyway, I'm so glad to be home, in front of my computer again, reading all the Sim news, seeing friendly faces...um...avatars. Sooo much catching up to do.

By the way, whatever happened on June 30? I scanned the posts. Did I miss something?

 

W00T! Glad to see you back!

 

Thanks

 

I am also very glad to know that you are safe, Lynet. I felt so badly for you that, after all the goodness that London has to offer, you got to share in the dark side of 21st century city life. Holidays, or vacations if you prefer, are so precious and it is a lot more than a shame when one is marred by tragedy, terror and general mayhem. On the other hand I must admit to very slight feeling that amount to a variety of envy. I feel sure that for a couple of days you had the good fortune to witness, at first hand, the greater and better side of humanity. The side that throws all conventions and prejudice out the window to concentrate only upon uniting to form a single opposition to the godless animals of terror to say with one defiant voice: "is that all you got?"

People have said that London (and Londoners) refound their WW2 Blitz-spirit in the wake of last Thursdays attacks. I think that's true but such a collective spirit isn't the exclusive property of the UK's capital. New York showed it after 9/11 ... and I guess that Baghdadis have to grit their teeth to gird up for the day cos it doesn't really matter if the bombs are being dropped by coalition forces or being thrown by lunatic-fringe islamist extremists. The blood is still the same color and its loss has the same effect.

Ah shoot. Now I am depressed. I have been maudlin' here waiting for the Tarantino episodes of CSI to come on and the announcer has just announced that they will now be shown next Tuesday cos they've been deemed 'too sensitive' to show in the current "situation". Nanny state alert. Nanny state alert! :(

Meanwhile our cops are making arrests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4676577.stm

I do hope they're not 'show arrests' but something more serious. The news copy looks reassuringly detailed ... though in a country with serious sub judice laws governing press reportage 'detail' is not necessarily genuine ... nor even a good thing.

Anyway. Lynet. Please tell us all about your visit if you have the time. I for one will be fascinated. I always love to hear how my country's people and attractions are perceived by visitors ....

 

I posted a long-winded but thoroughly inadequate list of where we went and what we did under the London Pictures thread. We had 9 days and it is not enough to absorb everything to see in your ancient land--so much crammed onto such a small island. We loved it--truly. I gotta get them pictures organized .