Pride and Prejudice

I was sitting out in the road when I heard the news about the Olympics. I wasn't the only one in the road, there were many people there indulging in a little Bia Hoi- draft beer served in cracked glasses to people on small plastic stools on the road- not the official definition. A French guy asked us where we were from and when we told him he said that we must be pretty pleased about the Olympics. At first we couldn't believe it and as the news sank in grins spread wider across our faces. Wow, London, The Olympic City for 2012- unbelievable! We celebrated for a while, at several different bars. I had told my sister that if we got the Games then I would be in London in 2012 and I stand by that.

Arriving back in the hotel a little worse for wear, I switched the TV to CNN and watched the Olympic annoucement over and over before drifting off to sleep. I was up early again the next day (we had got up early the day before in order to go and visit Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum. Up at 5.30am no less. He looked very sleepy and a lot like Emporer Ming of Flash Gordon fame) as me and Vicky were off to Cuc Phuong National Park to visit the Endangered Primate Centre. I watched a bit more CNN before turning the telly off and meeting Vicky.

We were both a little shaky but were pleased to be getting out for the day. There are around 20 different types of Monkey in Vietnam and around half of them are endangered. The Centre rescues them from hunters or from the food or medicine markets. It was well set out and maintained and we were pleased to be there in this season as many babies had been born in the previous two weeks. It was a lot of fun to watch them monkeying around the cages and know that one day they would live back in the wild. As we watched down a butterfly infested road we heard the gibbons 'singing' to us. It was a precious time.

Into the National Park and it was quite a drive through the rainforest to reach the start of the trail. We had some lunch and then it started to rain. Thunder shortly joined in the background noise along with cicadas and frogs. We decided to go for it anyway and set off on a 7km round trip to see a 1,000 year old tree. Man, did we ever sweat???? It was so hot that we were pleased when we reached the Palace Cave simply for a bit of relief from the heat. The rain had stopped but the humidity hung in the air and periodically steamed up Vicky's glasses. As a contact lens wearer I would have been a bit more smug had I not been huffing and puffing so much.

We were feeling very pleased with ourselves as we went back to meet the driver as our lives have been sadly lacking in exercise recently- I blame the heat and being confined to a small boat for three days around Halong Bay but I feel that laziness may play a part too. Three hours later and we were back in Hanoi and into the hotel where Clare was waiting.

I went up to my room and flicked on the fan and the TV. As I was about to go into the bathroom when I heard

'the blasts, during rush hour this morning....'

Back in the room I stared at the screen, the horror rising as I saw the back of an ambulance that said 'London' on it. Not able to wait for any more news I ran downstairs to Clare and Vicky's room to see if they had any more news. No CNN in their room so we watched a German channel tell us that 'six bomb blasts have hit the City of London, four in Underground Stations and two on buses'.

One thought

'Fuck. My sister works in an Underground Station'

Rushing back up to my room where CNN was still running we got there in time for the names of the stations to scroll across the screen. The longest three seconds in my life. Her station wasn't mentioned.... deep breathes and down to the hotel lobby to check email.

Thankfully, Penny had already sent a mail to me and my brother telling me that she was OK. After reading it I could clear my head enough to realise what had happened. The terrorists had finally made their way to London. Fuck.

Fuck

Fuck.

Sorry, I don't usually swear on this blog but I have never felt so far away from my sister before. She is younger than me and I feel very responsible for her. Now that I knew she was safe I just had to track down a couple more people. The three of us took turns on the internet sending out emails and trying to find more news.

We stayed glued to CNN until it seemed that nothing else would happen- other than the fatality and casualty figures mounting. We decided to go out for dinner and I introduced the girls to Korean cuisine. The food was great but the attacks had left a bad taste in all of our mouths and soon after the last mouthful had gone in we went back to the hotel to find out more.

While the figures had risen the number of attacks was now counted at 4- three on trains and one on a bus. Some previously unknown Al-Qaeda (?) group had claimed responsibility. Tony Blair was flying down from the G8 Summit in Scotland. I got an email from my sister saying that they didn't really know what to do and she would be spending the night in the office. In actual fact, she walked nearly two hours to get back to Fenchurch Street where the mainline trains were running and took her home.

Today I still can't believe it. As I am sure that many of you can't. What a week for London, the high of the Olympics being dashed into oblivion as countless people lay injured on railway tracks. I won't say anymore because you don't need me to tell you how to feel.

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As an aside, I just want to mention that I can't get into blogspot or hotmail from this computer. In the next internet cafe I can get into blogspot and lostseouls but not hotmail. The computer in the hotel will let me into hotmail but not lost seouls and is only typing Vietnamese right now. Therefore, I haven't seen if there are any new comments on the post below this one and don't know when I will be able to see if there are comments on this post. Now I will go to another internet cafe where I can send emails.

Communism- don't you just love it?