here London goes again

A number of Tube stations have been evacuated and lines closed after three blasts in what Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair says is a "serious incident".

and

Alerts around London

Oh blooby hell

They're closing the Lobby again. On the site, it looks like it's being closed down on July 31.

No reasons for this shut down.

yet.

take care,
Will

Diary from Russell Square passenger

SUNDAY 10 JULY 1542 BST
"I poured myself an enormous whisky after the police had gone on Saturday evening, taking the sealed forensic bags with my sooty stinking suit and blouse that I was wearing on Thursday morning.

I hugged John, my partner, and we stood in the garden, listening to the bees in the lavender bushes. My mouth felt numb.

We looked at each other and we talked of those who were missing and the people who had been standing behind me who took the full force of the blow.

I thought again of the terrible screams I had heard."

...

SUNDAY 10 JULY 0350 BST
"From being there about seven to 10 yards from the blast, I can say that there were people behind me who may not have got out alive.

About 10 behind me walked to safety.

I can also say that when I was at University College Hospital there was one woman at least that I saw with total amnesia who had no idea of her name, address, anything, so please therefore do not give up hope, if you are searching.

There is a small hope. "

Cork Calling...

I didn't know that Where's me Culture set up an internet radio station.

until now.

In other news, Hal have finished their legal dispute with the people who did the Gillian Anderson single, and are playing in The Savoy Theatre on September 23.

take care,
Will

burn baby burn

Forgot to post the burn bit of yesterday's post...

the sun is shining
the weather is

here. Sunshine and heat. It's been bright and shiny since Sunday. I think this means our week of summer has arrived.
And of course I got burned the first day.
While wearing a sleeveless t-shirt.
While driving...

Yup, I've got one bright red shoulder and one pale one.

Sunshine does not suit me...

take care,
Will

Skim and burn

"Why are you removing all the grass?" she asked.

Ruth, the 7 year old daughter of my neighbour had rolled up on her bike, bored in the sunshine to see the strange sight of me apparently vandalising my own garden.

The front garden of all the houses here are split in two by the driveways. I was busy removing skimming off the soil, with the grass and weeds from one half of the front.

"I'm taking the grass off because I'm going to replace it with bark", I replied?

"Why?"

"Because the weeds can't come through the bark." Not strictly true, if the seeds are in the soil and have sprouted a but, they can push their way through. What I'm hoping for is a layer of mulch being in place to prevent most of this years weeds to take hold. It's also going to compost itself down so that in two or three years time I can mix it with the builders clay (if you've ever seen the garden left by builders you know what I'm talking about) in two or three years time. Hopefully I'll have planted a few more things in there by now.

"Won't that be boring?"
"No, I'm going to put in some plants to poke through".

"Can I help?"

Now then, a seven year old doesn't have much heft when it comes to digging, skimming or carrying buckets of clay around. I said as much to her (actually she tried to do some digging with the spade, and gave up) and suggested she came back when I was doing the planting.

Actually, she wasn't much use at the planting, but she was good with the watering of the plants and the spreading of the bark.

"Can I see inside your house?"
"No"
"Why?"

How do you explain to a seven year old about the dangers of going in to strange people's houses when you are a relative stranger to them? More to the point, how do you explain it in such a way that there won't be a mob showing up that night with flaming torches and pitchforks.

"The place is a mess. We haven't unpacked everything and there are boxes of stuff everywhere."
"OK" and with that she was happy, if a little muddy.
Clay and water mix too well.

take care,
Will

Calling London

E got back to me... turns out she was in West London when all this broke out.

Wikipedia is keeping a running news story on it, as is the BBC. As I write the confirmed death toll stands at 33, and due to rise.

Emergency Lines:
Irish residents - 1800 242548
Irish in Britain: 0207 2012508/ 0207 2012501
British emergency hotline - 0870 1566 344

The Guardian News Blog is also being kept up to date, and they are printing up eye-witness accounts also. The London Underground blog is also very active.

I will point out that I no longer have access to a TV so I'm relying on these services to keep me up to date.

take care,
Will

Calling London

BBC News at-a-glance

Quotable Quotes

"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function, and there cannot be a free press. The right of civil disobedience is based on personal conscience; it is fundamental to our system and it is honoured throughout our history." -- New York Times' journalist Judith Miller, sentenced today to four months' jail for refusing to reveal a source in an investigation related to the revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent.

Eastenders is going to get a bigger village

London was won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic bid. The favourite, Paris, came second with Madrid, New York and Moscow trailing behind. The final vote was 54-50.

Well this means that its going to be cheap to send over our sportsmen and women.

Something I find interesting in the details of the bid is a "compact, non-wasteful Games, with several temporary venues to be relocated elsewhere in the UK. There would be no white elephants." OK, their national athletics stadium, aquatic centre and velodrome are probably going to be built, and stay there, but what's left that can be moved?

Of interest also is... "use of famous landmarks and sporting venues - for example, tennis at Wimbledon". I didn't know grass tennis was on the Olympics schedule.

take care,
Will

I've made my bed

I've a bed!

I sounds silly, but since moving in to the house I've been sleeping on a blow up air matress (Lidl's finest!).

My back feels good... however this is the first time I've ever had to make my bed. When it arrived, it arrived in bits. Thankfully it's only a divan, but a proper bedstead arrived too.

I feel some DIY being done this weekend...

take care,
Will

The moon in your third house and a rocket in your fourth

Looks like all the work spent on the 80's "Star Wars" project might have paid off.

For those of you too young to remember, or simply had their mind blanked by Jar-Jar Binks, the "Star Wars" project was a nuclear missile defense project where a system of armed satellites and ground based defenses would shoot incoming missiles out of the sky.

Needless to say not much happened with it. However the technology to shoot a fast moving small object out of the sky with another moving small object might have paid off with NASA's Deep Impact project. Of course this object is moving at 23,000 miles per hour. The impact made a flash in the sky (just in time for July 4, eh).

Of course, where there is an impact, there is a lawsuit. Marina Bai, a Russian astrologer is suing NASA and seeking $300m (£170m) in damages, for crashing Deep Impact's "impactor" probe into the Tempel 1 comet, claiming it has distorted her horoscope.

Personally, I'd be more worried by Dr Fun's take of the situation.

take care,
Will

Dancing for the deaf

I'm just back from the wedding of the Accountess and the Gremlin on Friday. As it happens, they picked their nicknames back in college years ago. And a whole gang from back then arrived too.

It's strange seeing how people move on in 10 years. The above paring have managed to stay together for 10 years, at least 5 countries and multiple house moves.
Her Royal Highness, a fearless far flyer who ends up collecting stories as she goes, is slowly turning in to a housewife (I still see her taking over her husbands company mind you).
The Kindly Chemist is now a high flyer in government circles.
Debs ended up giving up being in forensics to manage a supermarket.
Blanche, well he's teaching people now. A prospect that was fairly freighting at the time.
Martha and Penny... no real change there come to think of it.

While not exactly part of the gang, the Fair Maiden just passed her masters (a 1.1!) and since she knew half of the bridal party (somehow myself and the Librarian ended up being groomsmen) she joined in for the afters.

She's found a quasi-soul mate in Debs (30 minutes after meeting and they were finishing each others sentences), and took to the dance floor (dragging me).

Which is where dancing for the deaf came up.
She dances in the literal sense... hand movements to the lyrics. The Divinyls "I Touch Myself" should be off limits when she's around.

I don't think any of us are where we expected to be 10 years ago.
Expect me.
I didn't know what I wanted to be back then.
I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

take care,
Will