Salisbury in Shock

The last few days have been quite surreal. The febrile 24 hour rolling news machine has been focused on our lovely sleepy little home city of Salisbury. The generic news frenzy is something that we all take for granted these days as part of everyday life. A terrorist attack in Hamburg, a sex scandal in LA, indiscriminate bombing in Syria, famine in Africa, natural disaster in Asia, warming ice caps in Antarctica - the look and feel, and dare I say hype, of the media presentation is much the same. I fear that we all become a little blind to the true awfulness of each crisis.

However, the past few days of media coverage have centred on our familiar home patch. The restaurant where Kim and I occasionally have pasta; the pub where we sometimes go for drinks; the park bench that we walk right past most weekends, right outside the shop where Kates used to work on Saturdays; the hospital where Kim works. All now familiar sights to the gorping world. 

I drove through Salisbury this morning on my way to work. The familiar lovely sights on a crisp sunny morning, but also lots of police and news crews. It suddenly all became very real to me. Two people have been poisoned with a deadly nerve agent right on our doorstep. A Russian double agent has been living peacefully in our midst for years. The major incident plan at the hospital becomes an horrific reality. 

My goodness, it’s a lot to comprehend....