Travel Tips

Get to my tube station, Willesden Green, it's 9.30 and I'm running late for work as usual, everyone coming out, what's going on? Ask a girl what's going on, Power Surge, whole network down... But that's never happend before.

Ring work, say I'll be late, 10 minute walk down to Cricklewood Broadway, debate Thameslink with bus, ring Andrew near Luton, looks up web, BBC says an accident on tube and/or Power Surge. Catch 16 into town. Stuck in traffic. Feels weird. Ring dad in Manchester to look on tv. Dad rings me back, now I'm in Kilburn, says tube might be a bomb. Dad rings again, now I'm in Maida Vale, says there is a report of a bus exploding in Russel Sq. That's right next to work, I had lunch there last week, nah...

Bus stops in Maida Vale, all told to get off. Dammit. Typical London, we get the Olympics and the next day it all goes downhill.... Decide to walk to work from Maida Vale. Walk down Edgware Road, people everywhere, now this is getting weird.

Get to Edware Road station and it's all cordoned off, police everywhere, this isn't a Power Surge. No getting panicky. Manage to get through side streets to Euston Road, still more than normal people on streets, sirens growing, more and more ambulances, not police, but ambulances, all going east to Kings Cross.

Mobile down, can't get through to anyone, please don't let this be the day we thought we'd have... Ambulances everywhere, traffic not moving, ok, this is well freaky.

MAke it to work, everyone pleased to see me. I hear what has happened. Not really a surprise though.

Spend the day at work listening to the sirens, the ambulances arriving at University College Hospital. A bus blew up three streets from work, where I ate lunch only a few days ago.

Strange feeling, the sights we're seeing and reading about on the web are utterly mundane. Metropolitan Line I catch each day. Aldagate East, a place in the City kind of out of the way so why would I go there? Pictures on the screen of places I see all the time. Mundane. Normal. But not today.

Afternoon, what to do, how to get home? Leave early, long walk back. Walking back along Euston Road, empty of traffic but streets full of people. Everyone quiet, kind of like a tube strike only without the traffic. Half way home, stop off in the pub, sod it, watch tv, it slowly dawns how bad it was, but how bad it could have been. We knew it would happen eventually. No way to stop it, what do you do - place metal detectors at tube stations? We've dealt with worse, we'll deal with this.

Leave the pub and it's raining, raining terribly. Buses running again, take the first one that goes near to home, walk the last bit in the rain. Meet Andrew. Get in, get home, open post. And then it hits home, I cry. I sob. For myself, for my city, my home, country, for whom or what do I grieve?

Damned proud to be a part of this city today. Stoic. Yup. Taking it in our stride. For sure. Angry, very. Hurt. Yes. Business as usual tomorrow? Well, if the tube is running!

All day today I've been sending emails, texts, receiving and sending 'please let me know you are ok' messages. In many ways I was not directly affected today. I would not normally be in any of those places at that time in the morning. Russel Square may be near work, but I wasn't there. My worst problem today was walking to work in the wrong kind of shoes.

But this is my home. It's the fact that these are places that for me, and another 10 million people living in greater London, these are just squares, just stations, places we change trains in. And now this has happened to make these places that bit less mundane. Places of terror.

So tomorrow. I've two choices. Take th bus or stay at home. The bus will take so long to get into town, even though it's only 4 miles, last time I drove it, it took 2 and a half hours on a weekday. Stay at home. I feel like I'm letting someone down if I do that. If the tube is working, I'm going in. I'll have to do it every day in the future, just like I done it every day the last 8 years.

Each day more people die of poverty than today died in the bombs. But this was people killing people for the hell of it and that's what I can't understand. One thing I hope though is that this brings Londoners together and doesn't divide us. This is a great, multicultural city. People of all ethnicities were injured today. The people who did this were nobodies and I hope that people don't start stereoptyping and scapegoating.