Non-Offensive Post Title.

Today the UK - particularly London - has collectively gone a bit wobbly. Apparently 10 years ago today some 51 people were killed in co-ordinated Al Qaeda bombings on the London transport network. This represented the worst terror attack on UK soil since the last time the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) got a bit p*ssed.

As a result all news anchors were forced to wear dark suits and speak in sombre tones. There was also a minutes silence and a seemingly endless stream of memorial services throughout the day. Unfortunately the memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral  f*cked it up and did the minutes silence about two minutes too early.

The thing that depressed me most about the day though was listening to BBC Radio 1's "Newbeat" program trying to explain the event to it's youthful audience. About halfway through I suddenly realised that a large section of their audience must have been about 5 years old at the time. For the rest of us though the question we all had to answer was;

"Can you remember what you were doing on that fateful day?"

The sad fact of the matter is that I can't. The bombings occurred on the Thursday between the previous weekend's "Live 8" concerts and the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit which was geared towards getting then US President George W Bush to drop the debt held against some of the World's Least Developed Countries (LDC's). I gather that this was largely a success but if you met me during this period feel free to write to me an tell me what I was doing because it's like my memories of that time were shot through a f*cking strobe light.

In the weeks running up to that I week I do remember sitting in some dodgy squat watching BBC TV footage of the "police" raiding the homes of suspected extremists in preparation for POTUS' visit. I also remember us concluding that those short but wire-ry looking armed men in balaclavas didn't look like any police we'd ever seen before.

On the day of the bombings itself I had planned to travel up to the G8 Summit in Scotland via Kings Cross at around 9AM. However by some miracle I overslept so my first memory was a mate banging on my front door about 11AM. After realising that I'd overslept I opened the door and he hurriedly told me what had been going on. This prompted me to immediately phone my London family to check. However I discovered that my cellphone was disconnected and it remained disconnected until long into that night. With the bombs being detonated by cellphone this was a common experience for all those in London. However at the time I was in Brighton - some 65km (40 miles) away.

I can't remember what I did with the rest of the day but the next day I remember passing one of my neighbours on the street. As a recent young, white male convert to Salafi Islam he of course fitted the exact profile of a suicide bomber. I remember him gesturing to the big backpack he was wearing and saying; "I've got no choice but to take to train to a job interview!!!" We both just fell about laughing.

It was sometime after that I remember my arse hitting the bathroom floor and the tears and the adrenaline shakes taking over.

19:50 on 7/7/15 (UK date).

Edited at around 00:40 on 8/7/15 (UK date) to add;

The above guy actually had to take his clothes and his CV to an employment agency in Worthing. It's a well known local colloquialism that "On the bus to Worthing" means "Death." As a result there's really no upside to a young Muslim with a large backpack using the phrase; "I've got not choice, I've got to take the train to Worthing."

In other memories of that period I got to see "Pink Floyd" playing "Wish You Were Here" live. Thus I win.