=(

Hup informed me about the London blasts. Hope CW has reached his friends.. Logged on first thing I got back to email people. But an email from SL was already in my inbox, relieved to hear from him.. And the rest are online..

I was telling Kel I feel rather sad, one cos I feel close to the place, and two for all the terrorism thing; I don't understand why people can be so sick to do this! He gave what I thought was a very good analogy: there are students who can fail a subject though they are taught the same thing as their classmates; something just doesn't connect at some point, or perhaps something connects wrongly.

I recall the World Cup summer of 2002, when KP and I were in Greece. We were in the islands when we understood roughly from Greek TV that there was some bombing incident near a port, and there were pictures of police manning road blocks and checks. For the last night in Athens, we decided to stay in a hostel instead of a B&B. We arrived at about midnight from Delphi and took a cab to the hostel, but the driver could not get near due to some eerily familiar barricades. The police were turning us away but the hostel owner came to fetch us so we got through after a bag search. We were then told that a bomb went off in the main Athens port; only the bomber was slightly hurt. The police learnt from him that the area was next so they tightened security.

Though we were that close to a suspect area, I didn't feel quite as disturbed as now. Was a little scared but also felt excited. Now that I think about it, I feel bad for feeling so back then.. This time, thousands of miles away, but it feels much closer to my heart. I used to walk around on my own on London streets so freely, guarding only my bag on busy streets and against dodgy men, never thinking one day I may turn to see a bus ripped in half. Or worse. It really doesn't hit until it hits hur?

The serenity of Iffley Road doesn't seem too real suddenly.