I am a Bruneian living and working in London. I would be what you would loosely term "a Londoner" as I work and live centrally within the Zone 1 area.

My daily commuting for the last 3 years now has been through the underground or "tube" as they call it. More recently, I have been commuting through the upper half of the Circle line, which stops by Edgware Road, (Euston Square) King's Cross, Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The first blast occurred at around 8.51am between Liverpool Street and Aldgate.

Those of us that were in the office by then were naturally unaware of the events that were unfolding around us as we went on our usual work. When a colleague came into work late, she informed us that that there were incidences at two of the stations and was forced to take multiple routes to get to work.

No one thought twice about it... it is common in London to have trouble with the underground. However, soon we realised something was amiss when we started to receive some news of explosions underground.

No one had a full understanding of what was happening until we received an announcement over the intercom. It informed us that London was on Alert as incidents had been reported in the underground and for us to remain calm until further notice. By this time it was about 10am. Most of us immediately logged on to the Internet for the latest BBC news.

It's almost 11am... we are all aware of the tragedy that has occurred virtually at our "doorstep". The Internet links by this time started crashing due to the high volume of surfers. No one could use their mobile phones; the mobile servers were just overloaded...

I tried calling Brunei through the landline, and I could not get through. I am sure people were just as scared as I was... however they showed little signs of nervousness as they acted very calmly... this has always been the British way.

We were advised to continue with our daily tasks until further notice. I tried getting on with it... sending a couple of emails, call a colleague to arrange some documentations... but I could not concentrate fully.

London still operated on July 7, 2005. Although it did not operate like an ordinary day... businesses did not completely shut down (I, myself left the office after 5pm). By about 2 or 3pm we had been advised to leave work... but in a calm and "trickle" manner to avoid congestion on the little available transport facilities. I live across the city... unlike those that live outside the city; there was transport available then to take people across inner London. Most train stations were open and could take people out of London, but internally, it was a different story.

There was an option to take the Thames ferry (which was operating free to the public at this time), however, we got news from someone's wife in the US saying that news reports showed pictures of people literally hanging off the piers trying to get on to the already crowded ferry.

Most of the people that needed to get across inner London... had to walk.

My journey took about 3 hours. I walked for more than half the journey when the buses were put back into operation... Thank goodness for that as by now, my legs were already giving away and it had started to rain.

On my journey home, it seemed almost an unreal experience... the once crowded roads full of vehicles and people were now almost abandoned of any vehicles except for emergency services and the police.

My thoughts immediately went to the recent movie "War of the World" and I almost felt that I was in one of the scenes... Everyone was headed in one or the opposite direction - all had the determined look of reaching their destination. Everyone in an eerier way was so calm and collected...

This calmness was exemplary and infectious that I felt calm myself as I was focused on the task of getting home.

Most pubs and shops along the way were closed except for one or two. Those that were open, had patrons in it... I was both shocked and relieved at the sight. The first emotion I felt was almost disgust as I thought to myself "how could people still enjoy themselves at this time", and then the second emotion that followed contradicted it as I felt happy that they were strong enough to go on with their daily lives.

Today, the day after the event. Some of my colleagues are back at work. The shops are open and people are walking about, and doing their own business. Life continues.

The blast did not affect London in a major way... perhaps because these people are so resilient... or may be because the Government was so organised and efficient that most people did not feel any reason for panic... or maybe... we are so used to seeing death, pain and injustice so often in our daily lives whether on TV, radio, magazine... that we have already accepted this way of life... I hope it is not the latter... because if it were... then we would be living in a world where life does not have any purpose.

- P.L

Borneo Bulletin Sunday article of our Crown Prince's speech on the need to maintain a green Brunei, brought us great relief as what is left of our natural habitat would have some hope of survival after all.

At the rate we regularly witness trees being cut down here everyday, most of us hgave serious questions as to where this concrete jungle, was leading us to.

It would be also encouraging if laws are drawn up calling the people to maintain as much greenery as possible in their compound.

Especially the tall trees which provide us with the much needed shade from the scorching sunlight, should be preserved.

As a habit we see most homeowners laying concrete on the compound removing all traces of grass and other greenery.

If they have any plants they would be grown in concrete pots - rather than in the ground surrounded by wet soil and grass. The much needed green is often treated like an intruder and removed.

It's time we educate our public on the importance of trees and in short a much-needed green environment.

Brunei has a natural warm climate and does not need us to add to the heat by chopping down our greenery.

Some countries even have laws and regulations to new home owners that they have to maintain a number of trees that were in the land before they build or occupy a home.

Here we see before building one's home, the land being totally cleared of all traces of greenery.

We seem to have forgotten how we got our hallmark 'Green Jewel' title bestowed on our country by envious foreigners in the region who have to plan out a strategy to cool their environment.

- GreenBug, Gadong

At this time of the year, the national flag is flown at all homes and offices across the nation.

By flying the flag, we express our solidarity, patriotism and joy with the forthcoming 59th birthday of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Negara Brunei Darussalam.

However as a resident of Mumong in the Belait District, I note with sadness that there are still many buildings rented-out to foreigners that do not hoist the flag.

- Awang Patriot

We refer to the letter titled "Technical team to blame for e-Speed woes" that appeared in the Weekend edition's opinion page by 'Frustrated User' on July 9, 2005.

We would like to inform our valued customers that our analysis of the monthly complaint statistics of e-Speed2 shows that there are no faults pending unattended for more than two months. However we acknowledge that there might be a few cases that are recurring and for this reason we are investigating the matter from the root of the problem.

In this regard we would like the writer to help us so that we can help you. Please come and see us at out e-Speed2 office at JTB Headquarters in Berakas or contact me personally.

To show our genuine concern to the writer's grievances and to prove that we are also not infallible, we will reimburse his/her subscription fees for the months that have been paid if the writer's statement is proven to be authentic and that the faults like on our part.

And we have no objection should he/she wish to move from e-Speed2 to e-Speed1.

We would like to assure our valued customers that we are constantly doing our best to improve our technical support services so that our customers can enjoy uninterrupted Internet services.

- Adri HM Arshad
- Corporate Communications, JTB
- Tel: 2384888
- Email:jtbpr@brunet.bn

Call for laws against open burning

Is there someone or a government department that we can contact to report those who burn in the open and wreck the environment for the rest of us.

I live in the Kebangsaan Lama area and this past few days have been terrible.

It's difficult to sleep at nights as the whole area is filled with smoke.

We have to close all the windows and even switch off the air-con as the smoke still enters into the bedrooms via the air-con.

We have children and they have started to cough as a result. I know the relevant authorities have advised against open burning but unless a law is enforced, no one will be bothered.

Some have a bad habit in this country of burning instead of disposing of rubbish. Even construction firms burn openly when they clear land to develop housing areas.

Do we take steps now to stop open burning or do we wait till the whole country is in a haze?

- Anti-Burning