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Am I mad?

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rising and revolving

15:01 / 08.07.05

I've got a trip to London planned for about three weeks form now. Which, in some sense, should worry me : but it doesn't. Part of this is the "lightning never strikes twice" thesis, part of it is the fact that security will, undoubtedly, be tightened.

There's elements too of doing the math, and figuring that the number of people injured was pretty low compared to the population of the UK, so it's not the same as walking into an actual warzone. Along with the fact that this sort of thing is always a risk when I travel to anywhere like NYC, or London, or Bali ...

Mostly though, it's that the 'lithers are okay. Makes me feel safe, as (having never been to the UK, or Europe for that matter) London is entirely fictional to me - only connected to reality through the (sometimes tenous) link of the 'lith.

Should I be much more worried than I am, though?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

15:04 / 08.07.05

Go for it. Show the fucking bastards. I've been planning a trip back to London soon and I'm looking forward to it more now than before.

Smoothly

15:05 / 08.07.05

Yeah. If you don't come, Sylph, then the terrorists have won and freedom might as well take an early bath.

sleazenation

15:06 / 08.07.05

Go for it, you'll be fine and have a great time.

Gypsy Lantern

15:14 / 08.07.05

Fuck them. Come to London. I'll buy you a pint.

Tryphena Absent

15:18 / 08.07.05

As long as you look left and right when you cross the road you should be fine. There's far more chance you'll get hit by a double decker bus.

Spaniel

15:28 / 08.07.05

You'll have a great time. Don't worry.

Dances with Gophers

16:09 / 08.07.05

I'm off into London to walk around gaping at the tall building like the true yokel I am.

haus of fraser

16:11 / 08.07.05

It feels like its all over- I work in central London, and apart from having to walk to and from work the world carries on as normal. Aside from the lack of transport and police sirens everything i have seen was on TV or a newspaper- the incidents themselves were pretty contained and dealt with pretty quickly.

London is as safe as it ever was - some would say safer as the attack has now happened.

Come on over drink our warm beer, meet some lithers and have some fun. In three weeks i'd imagine evrything will be pretty much back to normal.

as someone said yesterday...

LONDON IS HARD AS FUCK!

Cat Chant

16:14 / 08.07.05

I'm avoiding trying to travel through London on journeys I'm taking over the next couple of weeks - (eg getting direct train from Leeds to Bristol rather than changing and trying to get from Kings X to Paddington) - am I just being a big wuss? It's about the hassle of a stricken Tube service, rather than about a fear of being blown up, though.

Ganesh

16:18 / 08.07.05

Come. The Underground'll be safe now, so long as you don't stand on the left of the escalator.

haus of fraser

16:36 / 08.07.05

Come. The Underground'll be safe now, so long as you don't stand on the left of the escalator.

best advice to a visitor ....

Dances with Gophers

16:54 / 08.07.05

The other good bit of advice to visitors (I'm an exiled Eastend Gopher BTW) is not to stand around in groups in the exit of an escalator.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:38 / 08.07.05

Yeah, come to London. Put it this way, I've not felt the urge to leave. (Well, not until the fucking Olympics, but that's a way off yet).

And yeah. London is indeed hard as fuck. And cool with it. It's like a psycho mate. A psycho, admittedly, but first and foremost your mate.

After all yesterday's unpleasantness, it was beautiful to wake up this morning, look out of the window, and see London still there waiting for me.

paranoidwriter waves hello

18:45 / 08.07.05

Your love of the city reminds me of Jack Hawksmoor from Stormwatch. But you're right, London is a bitch, but she's our bitch. Hear her bark and beware her bite!

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:15 / 08.07.05

But don't worry about visiting. London loves visitors. To her, you're like a new bit of ass and it's only when you've actually moved here that she starts to treat you like all the others.

Bill Posters

13:28 / 09.07.05

Come to London, it'll be a blast.

sorry.

I went on the tube yesterday and I'm not dead yet.

paranoidwriter waves hello

16:04 / 09.07.05

You say that every morning.

paranoidwriter waves hello

16:06 / 09.07.05

Sorry.

Jimbo

20:04 / 09.07.05

Is now not the safest time to go, when it's fresh in yours and everyone elses mind?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:04 / 10.07.05

I'm thinking so. I hope I don't live to regret these words, but I've been trying to reassure an overly-panicky friend not to be freaked out by public transport, because the way I see it this is probably one of the safest places in the world right now.

Benny the Ball

09:06 / 10.07.05

I wouldn't go to Birmingham though. Not because of any bomb threats or anything, just because it's shit.

Tom Coates

09:46 / 10.07.05

So basically (1) it's going to be safer now than it has been for the last six months or so because the police are going to be fucking insanely neurotic (2) even though it's a terrible crime, 70 dead out of 8 million Londoners is roughly a - what - 1 in 800,000 chance of anything happening to you on the one day in a thousand where anything happens (3) more likely to get hit by a car or something.

Basically don't sweat it. My rule of thumb is basically to think how likely it is that something POSITIVE with odds of 800,000 to one would happen to me and how much I'd let that govern my life and then - suitably depressed - I let the negative ones have equal impact. That is to say, none.

renascens

09:46 / 10.07.05

haha @ Benny... Id go to London, it's a great place. Just dont let those tossers in Al Qaeda *Can't spell* win.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:58 / 10.07.05

If a decent, law-abiding citizen doesn't feel they can come to London and get mugged by crackheads, then the terrorists have won!

As Tom says, do the maths. It's fine.

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:54 / 10.07.05

I wouldn't go to Birmingham though. Not because of any bomb threats or anything, just because it's shit.

Careful now.....

Cherielabombe

20:09 / 10.07.05

You'll be fine. You almost get the feeling, walking around London, that the city itself is so much bigger and badder than the attacks that it's all ready moved on. No disrespect to what happened, but you just can't stop London.

You should come. You'll like it.

Tryphena Absent

20:15 / 10.07.05

I've been trying to reassure an overly-panicky friend not to be freaked out by public transport

Has that friend been on public transport since Thursday? I made myself get on the tube on Friday. I actually ran down the escalator, got on the first train and changed at Camden so I couldn't freak on the platform, ran for the correct train when I got to Camden... basically I hurtled myself through the system to remind myself that it was the same one that I'd been using for my entire life. I think the worst thing you can do is disrupt your life because of something this rare. I reckon the longer you leave it, the worse it gets!

Katherine

20:20 / 10.07.05

I went from Loughton to Tooting Broadway via tube, and around South-West and North-East London on national rail over the weekend.

Loads of police on the tube and national rail but everything is fine. Come to London and buy a tacky t-shirt.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:08 / 10.07.05

Nina- umm, no. She doesn't really do public transport at the best of times. (Although that's the least of her issues, really...) She's none too representative. And I think I'll stop there.

rising and revolving

12:47 / 11.07.05

You lot rock. I'm comin - although the one thing that now worries me, having done a lot of post 911 travel through the USA is the security.

I'm not looking forward to spending several more hours with grizzly chappies hands up mah butt.

Well, maybe a little.

It's just astounding to me how differently London has reacted, compared to New York. NYC was defiant, but shocked out of their minds, and staggered by the scope.

London just seems to have shrugged it off and gone back to business.

Katherine

12:55 / 11.07.05

Well my view is that it wasn't that long ago we had similar with the IRA.

Evil Scientist

13:01 / 11.07.05

It's the best way to deal with these twonks. Getting all fired up makes them feel like they've got a reaction out of you. I prefer our way, makes their actions utterly irrelevant.

I'm heading into London at the weekend to shoot muchos pool at the Elbow Room. I blow a raspberry in the direction of the terrorists and call their belief system a silly thing.

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