England Day 4 - Sitting tight
Woke up at a somewhat normal hour (8ish), stumbled into the bathroom just as mom was saying, “I wonder what all those sirens are? Funny, I’ve been hearing them all morning…”
There were explosions; on the Tube as well as one on a public bus. Timed to occur during morning rush hour and the start of the G8 summit in Edinburgh, what was initially blamed on a power surge was soon linked to terrorists. How horrible to have this happen, especially after the joyous celebrating over the fact that London won the bid to host the Olympics in 2012 just the night before. Terrible tales on the news from those who experienced it first hand. With many of the roads and all of the Underground network shut down, people found themselves stranded in what is a very vast city. I know that in our hotel some of the staff was being put up overnight by the establishment. One of the girls at the café counter told us that one of their friends had actually walked to work…from outside London! Another guest told us that they walked all the way to the Hard Rock Café, just to find that it was closed when they arrived (have to question this though, as wouldn’t you call ahead before trekking off for miles?).
With nothing much to do but sit tight and watch things unfold, we tucked in at the hotel and stayed glued to the news channels all day. As my cold had progressed to something full-blown by then, I snuggled into bed and napped. We sent emails off to everyone letting them know we were all right (while counting our lucky stars that we hadn’t gotten an early start that day…one of the stations hit was our very own Edgware Road), and splurged for Internet access in the rooms to check up on things. The people on the hamster message board - which I had only just posted my very first message to the night before - were incredibly sweet, and inquired after us to make sure we were all right. By nightfall some buses were up again and running, trying to help out as much of the city as possible.
As night fell we wondered what we would do the next day, and lit upon the idea of taking a tour out of the city. Felippe at the concierge was extremely wonderful, and while multi-tasked for several people managed to get us seats on a Golden/Frames Rickard tour to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace.
~*~
The flame represents life. All life; every life. We are all born as molecules in the hearts of a billion stars. Molecules that do not understand politics and policies and differences. And for a billion years we, foolish molecules, forget who we are and where we came from. In desperate acts of ego we give ourselves names, fight over lines on maps, and pretend that our light is better than everyone else's. The flame reminds us of a piece of those stars that lives on inside us. The spark that tells us: you should know better. The flame also reminds us that life is precious, as each flame is unique, and when it goes out, it is gone forever. And there will never be another quite like it. So many candles will go out tonight. And I wonder some days, if we can see anything at all.
- Babylon 5