I mentioned everything happening on Friday, it was also Jon's birthday -- earlier in the week I'd asked him if he had any plans for the night, I mentioned Canada Day to him and he was enthusiastic about wanting to come along.
Friday morning started without event. I'd arranged the first interview for mid-morning, so I could get a later train, and as seems to be a common theme was already half asleep when I felt the buzz of a text message in my pocket. Calvin was warning me that Piccadilly tube was closed and that parts of the surrounding area were closed off. I think I replied with thanks, but I didn't need to use the Piccadilly line for anything -- although I hoped it was nothing serious. I didn't wait for the reply, and just went back to sleep. Even when my phone buzzed with the reply, I didn't look at it. This now feels very familiar.
I jerked awake when I heard someone on the train discussing the station closure; there had been a car bomb found in Piccadilly. I immediately checked what Calvin's message said, and although his was perhaps phrased more along the lines of a bomb scare than an actual bomb having been found, it was the same story. I browsed to the BBC News website on my phone to have a look at the breaking news, and sure enough there it was; described as "a potentially viable explosive device".
I didn't even know Jon would be awake yet when I got a worried message from him about the bomb. I tried to reassure him, if a bomb had been found then if anything surely we would be safer than normal, since everywhere would be on high alert. He wasn't convinced.
My first interview went reasonably well; although I don't think I got the job -- for various reasons I won't go into. I thought I was going to be late at first, I hadn't been able to travel to the tube station I needed because of problems with the line and was easily disorientated -- even though I had left more than enough time, I was starting to panic but luckily I made it with time to spare. I was made to complete a written test, which felt very similar to the old NCTJ journalism exams I once took, and then interviewed for what must have been over an hour.
The afternoon passed without much event. I spent some time in Trafalgar Square watching the Canadian teams playing street hockey as part of the celebrations, and was trying to gently convince Jon by text message that London was perfectly safe and everything was normal. Just before he finally did leave the house, reluctantly, the second bomb was found. Now there had been two carbombs found, filled with petrol and nails -- and Jon was asking, "What if there's more?", and we were still having the same discussion about how safe it was, over and over.
The night before, I had been stressing about my second interview on Friday. I'd been told by my strict recruitment consultant that she didn't want me showing up "looking like a square", and that I had to look "cool" and be confident. This had the opposite effect for me, although by the time of the interview on Friday afternoon I knew I was looking fine and was genuinely of the opinion that the agency would be lucky to have me. The interview was incredibly short, but I think it went very well.
It was almost two hours later before Jon finally turned up, with Nick in tow -- since he didn't have to be in work until much later that night -- and who was reporting that several more bombs had been found, according to his police contacts. At that point in time, it was unclear whether they reporting "suspect devices" or suspicious packages or actual bombs. In hindsight, at least two of his reports were all about the same one -- the second bomb, reported later in the day.
It wasn't very helpful, Jon was clearly agitated and worried he was going to get blown up -- and on his birthday, too -- and Nick was reporting a second bomb being found five minutes away from where we were in Trafalgar Square. But life goes on. We enjoyed some Canadian beer -- that Jon and I called "Meesehead" all night (as opposed to Moosehead), after he'd wondered earlier in the week if Meese was plural for Moose. The Canada Day celebrations were better organised than last year, and we enjoyed watching the bands and each had been given little Canadian flags on sticks.
Since we had time to waste before Sam Roberts Band were due to play, the four of us trooped off to a pizza restaurant Calvin recommended and celebrated Jon's birthday. By now, Jon had relaxed far more and admitted that how things seemed on the news at home and how they were in the city were two different things. After dinner, Nick went to work and for the three of us left there was more watching of Canadian music, and more drinking of Meesehead until the Canadian national anthem around 10pm.
In the crowd of people -- while looking for Jon and Calvin, on my way back from the bar -- I bumped into a mutual friend, Phil. He was surprised to see me there, and asked what I was doing -- I told him, naturally, I was there celebrating Canada Day. And what's more, I was with Calvin. He said he was there with a group of people, but he didn't have any Canadians -- they were all South African and Australian. Together we found my friends, and although I brought bad news -- the bar was closed -- I'd found Phil instead. We went our separate ways from Phil after the national anthem, and the three of us remaining set off to find a bar in Covent Garden to spend the rest of the night.
We finished the evening and wearily made our way home about midnight, although Jon was still getting phonecalls throughout the evening from his parents to check he was okay and that he hadn't been killed or maimed yet. We found out the next day that the bomb found in Park Lane that Jon had seen on the news before coming out must have been the same one Nick was talking about when he said something had been found five minutes away -- since the car had originally been left and towed from the Trafalgar Square area. After an attempted carbomb attack in Glasgow yesterday, Britain is now at its highest level of "alert". My philosophy remains the same -- we're no less safe today than we were last week, so you just have to get on with things and do what you can.
A rare picture for me, smiling -- waving my Maple Leaf flag.
No comments:
Post a Comment