After the bombing - letter from Brussels

This week started with a little bit of excitement – or so we thought – with our neighbour ringing the doorbell to apologise for the noisy, vicious territorial fight the night before - gangs of local cats and foxes churning up our garden.…

But today, Tuesday, our lives were turned upside-down.

Brussels became a war-zone.

The awfulness of the news took a while to sink in. As the day went on and we faced a continual bombardment of news on the local radio – anxious friends and relatives ringing or desperately trying to ring us for news – to see if we were alright – seeing scenes of disaster on internet – images of chaos at the airport and wounded people on the underground – it was difficult to picture the drama going on under our noses….

Here in our peaceful Brussels suburb, it was business as usual. Apart from the closure of the local supermarket, absence of public transport and having to buy yesterday's bread, our daily routine was not interrupted.

No, we did not see tanks rolling down the street

- men in jungle greens, balaclavas and machine guns

- bodies (or body parts) strewed around the streets

- smoke spewing into the sky from bombed buildings

- sirens, ambulances, barbed wire, barriers…

Dear family and friends in New Zealand, do not get carried away by this trend for spectacular news. Indeed, the official message from the state is that we downplay these acts of terrorism and do not let them poison our lives as this would be playing into the hands of the enemy.

Innocent lives have been lost and it is a terrible time for the friends and families of the victims, but the show must go on ...

Flying Kiwi

Tuesday 22nd March, 2016

Brussels