July 2005 story

I have delayed writing about my July 2005 stories which I wanted to do so back in August 2005 due to the chockablock schedules trying to finish the last part of correcting my thesis before submitting it at the end of that month for the viva.

So now, during lunch hour at my office, I shall began writing it, to commemorate this month's many big memories, one of the highlights of my life in 2005.

2nd July 2005, it was the World Live Aid Concert, organized by Bob Geldoff. Repeating their success in 1985, this synchronized mega concert was held in big cities across the G8 countries and one of the venues was at Hyde Park, London. I wanted to go to this concert initially but i didn't do it because i was not in a celebrating mood. All my concentration was mainly to do with my thesis writing up and i didnt even have the desire to celebrate my birthday which was on the next day, 3rd July. Earlier on, my french friends planned on having a dinner together in london but on the 1st July evening, my boyfriend called me saying that he wanted to spend that saturday with me so we could celebrate my bday together. And we agreed on inviting Azizah to go have a dinner somewhere. And so, on the 2nd July, i put down my work in the afternoon, started to prepare myself and my mood of course for the special evening. But since i had to do some food shopping and stuff, me, Azizah and her friend who is studying at Surrey, Ziela decided to go out together to hammersmith for that purpose prior to the celebration.

I wasn't aware of Arif (boyfriend) and azizah's plan of putting up a surprise party for me at her place. When Arif reached my place, I was ready to go out. He was in his cheerful mood, wearing bright red t-shirt and a big smile. We spent a few moments together at my place dancing to the music. It was funny because we are not so used to hold each in that manner and so we stopped a few minutes after that. Then we left and headed to azizah's place. Much to my surprise, Azizah and Ziela have been preparing food for the evening and there u go, my 2nd actually surprise bday party after the 1st one I had during my A-level college year in 1995. I was touched by their sincere efforts. Arif went out to the nearest indian takeaway and bought more food for the party. We then had our dinner while watching the Live Aid (live 8) concert on the telly (tv).

6th July 2005, London won the Olympic 2012 bid. There was a huge crowd at Trafalgar Sq where many people including big athletes like Dame Katie Holmes waited patiently for the result. London lost to Paris for the 1976 bid and they faced each other again for 2012 bid. This time London was chosen. I watched the event on the telly in the comfort of my room. FYI, i have been spending more time in my flat (and my room esp) and would only go out to college to meet my supervisor, or doing food shopping or other miscellaneous activities like going to the park to fresh up my mind, that sort of thing during the writing up period.

7th July 2005, the joy felt across london the day before was blanketed with fear, anxiety, shock and grievance as there were bombing attacks occurred in the heart of london. One bus at Tavistock Square and three tubes (passing edgware road, kings cross, and another one between liverpool st and moorgate) exploded resulting in carnage and casualties. The chronology of the bombing event as reported in Wikipedia:

08:50 — Three bombs on the London Underground exploded within fifty seconds of each other :
The first bomb exploded on an eastbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 204, travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. At the time of the explosion, the third carriage of the train was approximately 100 yards (90 m) down the tunnel from Liverpool Street. The parallel track of the Hammersmith and City Line from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East was also damaged.

The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a westbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 216. The train had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was heading for Paddington. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. There were several other trains nearby at the time of the explosion. An eastbound Circle Line train (arriving at platform 3 at Edgware Road from Paddington) was passing next to the train and was damaged, along with a wall that later collapsed. There were two other trains at Edgware Road: an unidentified train on platform 2, and an eastbound Hammersmith and City Line train that had just arrived at platform 1.

The third bomb exploded on a southbound Piccadilly Line deep-level Underground train, number 311, travelling between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square. The bomb exploded about one minute after the train left King's Cross, by which time it had travelled about 500 yards (450 m). The explosion took place at the rear of the first carriage of the train, causing severe damage to the rear of that carriage, as well as the front of the second one. The surrounding tunnel also sustained damage.

09:47 — An explosion occurred in Tavistock Square on a No. 30 double-decker bus operated by Stagecoach London travelling its route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick.

I was completely dumbfounded and shocked and worried sick, all mixed into one. I was still in my room that morning when it happened. I was supposed to attend a meeting with my supervisor, one of the most important meetings that was. I got more and more worried....worried for myself, my supervisor, my friends and worried that my family in Malaysia as well as my brother in Dublin, 2 sisters in Brimingham and Bradford and another sister in Irbid, Jordan, were trying to contact me but they couldnt because of the network disruption. I tried to SMS whenever possible....got some calls from my friends, and boyfriend as well. I was such in a really frantic state and dead anxious during those hours. I kept praying to God to protect all these people who mattered to me the most. And i kept praying to God that my supervisor was safe because he normally goes to college using the northbound picadilly line train at that very hour. I needed him at my critical PhD stage! Had he not delayed taking the next train to college, he would be one of the victims near King's Cross Station. London was at a stand-still the whole day. What was actually a big day on Wednesday, 6th july, became one of the worst nightmare the following day. Good thing none of my friends as well as my supervisor were affected. It was summer holiday for the universities and schools across london and the UK and many people (especially students) have left the country, or london itself, for a holiday.

The good news of that eventful day was that my supervisor told me on the phone that he was satisfied with my correction work. Also, my area and my college area were a bit away from the bombing scenes,practically located at a safe distance. I only started to use the bus to college again on the following week. Due to the fact that these bombing were suspected as the (horrible) act of 4 muslim suicide bombers, muslims were on alert everywhere. Nevertheless, that did not make me wanna lose my headscarf just for that reason. As i boarded on the bus 70 to college, i carry a friendly image with a casual smile so that people won't be put off (or annoyed for that matter) by my presence. You just gotta do it esp if you're the only one wearing the headscarf at that moment or else, you'd be scrutinized with suspicious and vicious looks. Fortunately, I succeeded to avoid any unwanted encounter. I even initiated some idle, friendly conversations with the passengers who sat next to me and nearby so that it would ease the tension that was there already across london. As traumatic as it was, I myself took like a week before I could board on a double decker bus. FYI, bus 70 is a single-deck bus.

Things was about to return to normal for me until I went out with 2 of my friends, Azizah and Waheedah to london for some summer sale shopping on the 19th July 2005. I had tried to avoid going to the main oxford street section and did my summer sale shopping elsewhere like between oxford circus and tottenham court road, high street kensington and so on to name a few. Unfortunately for me, i lost my wallet amidst the heavy crowd at United Color of Benetton. This could not be happening to me as I was supposed to go to Bradford on the 21st July to attend my 3rd sister, Nahlah's graduation day there. I wanted to cry on the spot, but i had other better thoughts rather than being one big sissy. I already felt weak on my knees but I must act immediately to resolve more important issues like my bankcards and so on. So I called Natwest to block my Switch/Maestro Card, and some other cards as well and the three of us went to the nearest police station to lodge the report. I lost my old malaysian IC card (the one before mykad), my malaysian driving licence and some other stuff as well as one ten pound note.

On the 21st July, 2005, another bombing scare occurred and this time it happened not so far away from where I lived. Shepherds Bush tube station on Hammersmith and City Line was closed down before any explosion took place. These bombing attempts were also found around midday at Warren Street and Oval stations on London Underground, and on a bus in Bethnal Green. All these has resulted in massive traffic jams (gridlock) esp during after office hour. I was supposed to get on the National Express Coach to Bradford that evening. I got so worried that i might miss the coach at Victoria Coach Station since I had to wait for my important parcel which was supposed to arrive that afternoon. It carried my new bankcard replacement. Once i found out that the parcel force service was forced to be cancelled due to the bombing shenanigans, I proceeded to take bus 7 and then changed at Ladbroke Grove for bus 52 which would bring me to Victoria. I seriously thought that I have missed the 6.30pm coach to Bradford as I arrived 5 mins late. God must be soooooo merciful to me that somehow, there was a major delayance on the road which caused another delay for the coach. They had to change the bus schedule to 7.30pm. And for that reason I finally managed to reach Bradford that night. Alhamdulillah, I still got the opportunity to attend my sister's graduation ceremony the following day (22nd July 2005).

What a month that was.