Wednesday, 24 April 2019

The Wednesday Culture Round Up and The Wednesday Poem

Every Wednesday, we publish a poem and a round up of the forthcoming events in the Borough of Barnet. 
Here is this weeks selection
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The Wednesday Poem

 The bacon sandwich and the cup of tea



Just another five minutes, thats all I'll wait.

Nothings moving here, I'm going to be late.

Phone won't work, I what's going on?

The rumours are flying, There's been a bomb.

Up the stairs, To the Euston road.

The 30 bus, That'll lighten the load.

Get off, get off, A Copper shouts.

In a panic, We all get out. 

Down I walk, Past Russell Square.

A guy walks past, Debris in his hair.

Tottenham Court Road, I see a TV

There's been five bombs, They all missed me

There's a cafe, To welcome me

A bacon sandwich, and a cup of tea

It's the 7th July, 2005,

I thank the Lord I'm still alive.

Copyright 2006 Roger Tichborne

On 7th July 2005, four bombs devastated the London underground and a number 30 bus. I was on the number 30 bus behind the one that was blown up. I'd travelled to Town on a Thameslink train, for a meeting at Debenhams in Oxford Street. The bombers had travelled down on the same line from Luton, on an earlier train. I saw victims of the 30 bus staggering around, a policeman had thrown us off the bus shortly before. The tube network was shut, I had planned to get a Victoria line train from Kings Cross to Oxford Street. We were told that there'd been electricity supply problems. I decided to get a bus instead. As I was waiting for the bus, someone said there had been bombs. The mobile phone network was down. I still hadn't a clue what was going on when we were kicked off the bus. It was only when I got to Tottenham Court Road and saw a telly in Dixons window, with subtitles, that I realised what had happened. I decided to collect my thoughts. I went to a cafe, ordered a Bacon Sandwich and a cup of tea and watched the coverage on the telly. I penned the words above (apart from the last two lines, that I added on the anniversary). On reflection, getting a bacon sarnie and a cup of tea is a very British response to a crisis. 

Barnet Cultural Round Up

The carnage in Sri Lanka inspired me to dig it out and revisit it. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims, the friends and families of all those affected and all of those, like me, who saw things we really shouldn't have to see and are struggling right now to make sense of it. 







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