Sorry I haven’t written anything lately. I now have a nice build-up of things to write, so let me start catching up with a current event. As I’m sure you’re aware, there was some sort of actual attempt to do some harm to people night-clubbing and tourists. First things first, Haymarket/Trafalgar Square are about 2 miles from my office and 4 miles from my flat. All good. Anyway, I’m sitting at work, the day is winding down and my coworker mentions that there’s a cubs game later. From what he’d heard two places in the city were going to be actually televising it. Alas, the better choice to watch the game near the Haymarket site. He and his wife are big Cubs fans and this was against the Brewers who are ahead on them in the standings. So, instead of just listening to the game, they wanted to watch it. With no other plans on a Friday, I decided to tag along.

Alas, our first choice (the one NOT on Haymarket) wasn’t really conducive to baseball watching. It was more of a cafeteria style place where, after an hour, we might feel awkward. So we decided to at least check out the other place. Well, we got near Piccadilly Circus and the place is teaming with people out and enjoying themselves. I don’t know for certain, but if something like this had happened in the US, I feel like people would be hiding in their houses. In London, people acknowledged it and then moved on. Easy enough.

Finally, we try cutting over to Haymarket and it’s totally cordoned off. Granted, it’s cordoned off by a single cop and the Polices catering services vehicle, but it’s closed off. We cut around hoping that the lower part of the street isn’t closed and lo and behold, there’s our bar, about 200 feet into the closed part of the street. Doh!

For those of you curious what a failed terrorist attack looks like here ya go:

A few reporters and some police tape (there were two cops to the right as well).

Anyway, after a large fiasco of trying to find food, we left the area entirely and went to Brick Lane for some Indian and beigels (i swear, I’ve seen it spelled that way!). Before some people start freaking out that I actually went smack into the center of this shit, in my defense, we made a very conscious effort not to do this, but we wanted to watch an American baseball game and drink MGD. In the end, not only did we not watch the game, but the Cubs won a thrilling come from behind victory. Doh!

If you want my theory, I’m putting my money on a right-wing hate crime kind of motive. In 1999, guy named David Copeland set off a number of nail bombs, one at a gay bar short distance away from where the first car was found. And, today (June 30) is the London Pride parade. Just a thought, though right-wing nutjobs and religious fanatics aren’t exactly that far apart in what they hate.
Coming up, more entertaining things like visitors from out of town and a comedy burlesque show. (Ooops! I was wrong! Hence I’m no pundit! 🙂 )

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 4:01 am and is filed under Life Abroad, London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.