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2 minute silence

10:08 / 14.07.05

Did anyone else just observe two minutes silence for those who died last week in the bombs?

10:11 / 14.07.05

Yeah. Bit weird, really. Reverential silences always make me want to say something, but that one didn't.

10:17 / 14.07.05

Yeah, it brings out my latent Tourette's too.
I went outside, even though I didn't think I was going to. I find that kinda of thing pretty awkward TBH, but it was just stunning to be able to hear a pin drop in the middle of the city in the middle of the day.

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10:26 / 14.07.05

Shit. I actually meant to, but I've only just seen the time.

10:27 / 14.07.05

I wanted to say something. I wanted to tell Idiotwoman in front of me to shut her irreverent nattering cakehole. Why bother going outside if you're just going to provide a two minute running commentary?

10:36 / 14.07.05

It's astonishing to think that people en masse can be noble, gracious or big-hearted.

10:37 / 14.07.05

Wow. I'm surprised you or someone else didn't make a non-verbal objection, Psych. Where I was (Southbank), no one said a fucking word, and I'm sure would have been rounded on if they did.

10:43 / 14.07.05

I observed it, rather fittingly, from a bus in the middle of the road in Holborn. Yes there was one or two non-English speakers who seemed to be unaware of what was going on, but that is probably to be expected. It was quite eerie looking at all the office workers and passers by all stopped on the street - it was like London had been replaced by a still photograph of itself. And then life continued.

10:48 / 14.07.05

what was the going outside thing? not having a TV I miss a lot...

11:15 / 14.07.05

I was just about to poke her (hard - finger fully extended and joint locked for maximum unyielditude) when it ended. She was muttering (ooh, what a lot of people, which office have they come from, isn't it awful etc.) for the first minute and, I think, praying (which is sort of permissible, though I myself would have gone with the silent variety) for the second. I was going to say something afterwards but I thought it inappropriate to invoke any contemplation of 'next time' at that point.

12:25 / 14.07.05

what was the going outside thing?

I think it was an effort to emulate the street demonstrations in Madrid. I think it was one of the red tops which called for it. To be honest, it originally had a flavour of competitive grieving to me. In my office at least, there was a slight whiff of ‘If you can’t be bothered to go outside for this, then you have no respect for the dead’. It felt like a kind of oneupmanship that almost made me want to wear a black armband, and tell people who didn’t follow suit that they hate freedom. I would have done it too, had it been bigger, cleverer or particularly funny.
As it was, I found it more moving than I expected.

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12:36 / 14.07.05

I had to tell a guy with a power-tool to be a bit more aware of what a g'wan. He fired up exactly as it all began, though I think he wasn't aware of the time. He wasn't at all offended, and looked a bit sheepish once he cottoned on. I was in a park by work.

The three delightful topless morons sharing a spliff on the park bench didn't seem to give a fuck however. Still, I figure a brash and unthinking disregard for basic respect and recognition of your inseperable pathos with the rest of the species is a fundamental attribute of adolescence, so in its own way, it was a piquant adjunct to the solemnity all around. Yin. and, of course, for it to make any sense whatsoever, Yang.

I really cried at the memorial in Kings X yesterday though, which somehow surprised me...I didn't expect to, but reading through the messages of love and hope and remarkable demonstrations of basic wisdom brought a full on lump and subsequent tears.

Particularly liked a hand drawn picture saying 'COEXIST', with the 'C' changed to an Islamic crescent moon, the X a Hebrew star and the T a Christian cross, and 'One Love' at the bottom. Simple, but nice without being naff.

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12:40 / 14.07.05

Oh, and there is a really beautiful poem, on a blue picture background, right at the entrance to the memorial...it's really really excellent. There's a website at the bottom, which I've forgotten, but I'll check it on the way home and post it...Beautiful.

13:48 / 14.07.05

I think it was one of the red tops which called for it.

I heard about it yesterday, in a chain email forwarded to everyone from on high in my company. Clearly forwarding chain emails to everyone is a bad thing to start with, and doing it on an official basis sucks balls.

The email claimed that it originated with the Red Cross but I see no evidence of that at all on the Red Cross website.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:57 / 14.07.05

Ken Livingstone, I thought...

Ex

14:45 / 14.07.05

I was on Regent Street, standing on the pavement. I hadn't known about the pavement-standing before the workshop leader suggested it. It was as though we were watching an invisible parade: 'The city cast/Her people out upon her...'
It struck me that a lot of people had their arms crossed, as though they were feeling closed off or protective or self-huggling. A dog barked, obligingly, in the distance, to emphasise how quiet it was.
I've stood through a lot of silences, usually war-related, and in the company of extremely elderly veterans. This felt different - it was still raw, whereas the others seem like marks of respect for something that would otherwise be ignored. Also, when younger I used to try to personalise the historical during silences ('Every name on that memorial was a man, some my age [because I'm clearly all important and shit and this is the only way I can understand history]'). Today I found myself working the other way, wondering what will follow from this, and who will be disadvantaged.

paranoidwriter waves hello

05:58 / 15.07.05

I'm gutted I missed this; I was fast asleep after nearly 48 hours of continual consciousness. At first I thought this was fitting seeing as I was asleep when the actual bombings took place, but this excuse didn't offer much comfort for long. Also, inappropriately, the first thing I thought when I saw the TV footage of London still and tranquil was "I hope they couldn't hear me snoring". Shame on me.

Ken Livingston's speech was (IMHO) beautifully written, balanced, and well thought out. He gets a lot of flack does our Red-Ken, but his heart has always been in the right place, it's obvious how much London means to him. Indeed, I really can't think of anybody who'd be a better London Mayor. Nice one comrade.

07:24 / 15.07.05

I was outside, at Piccadilly Circus. It was pretty amazing seeing everything suddenly stop and then come to life. It was hard for this chatty cathy to be quiet for two minutes, though. Like Ganesh long silences make me want to say something.

Two dampers on the experience,however, where the Polish couple next to me, who talked and laughed through the entire silence. I am assuming that, since I was right in front of my work's school for Begginer and Elementary English students, they didn't understand, but you really think you'd twig something was up. How do you tell people to shut up during a 2-minute silence? So I used part of my 2-minute remembrance to glare at them, but then I felt guilty, so I went back to being silently annoyed.

THe other annoying thing was, following the silence in Piccadilly Circus there was a security alert almost immediately. This wasn't so bad as I was on the wrong side of work but on the right side of Lush so I used my time cordoned off wisely...