EPT
April 29th, afternoon - In the IRC I happen to find out about Queen's night, which I'd totally forgotten. I'd made no plans for the night (the night before Queensday - everybody gets in town and gets hammered). I was gonna have dinner at my friend Popo and maybe watch a movie later.
April 29th, evening - We receive a call from my mate PJ. He's a med student in Antwerp but he's coming back to town for Queensday. His siter is in town, having a blast an dhe tells us to get there and have some beers
April 29th, night - The townsquare is packed with people. Great atmosphere and partying everywhere. We head to a pub to get some beers. At the bar I meet up with some guys from Denmark and France. They're friendly people and they join us and we have a blast. The Frenchie gets us beers and the Danish bloke is ranting in Danish. We have a great time and decide to meet up again the day after during the festivities to continue partying.
April 30th - Morning - I'm supposed to head to Zeeland tonight for a family holiday. My brother has a gig at 4 and I'm helping out there, after which we'll take the train to Middelburg (Zeeland). I'm packing my bags, and get ready to close up the house and head to my bro's band's practise room to get to the gig.
April 30th - Afternoon - I close up and head to the neighbours to tell them I'm leaving. They were out in the garden earlier but the streets are quiet. The door is open and as I ring I get invited in, the whole family is watching tv. A car had driven through the crowd at 60 mph and into the war memorial. We stare at the tv for some minutes.
When I arrive at the practise room the band's already watching TV. People are phoning, but not a lot getting through. Popo calls me. "Gig's off, isn't it?" " I guess so." The band calls the venue, there's not a lot known at the moment. The estimates are 14 wounded, 1 killed. Popo calls again. PJ had been witness to the whole thing and helped reanimate a victim. He's pretty shook up now and went home. The band and I head into town to find out about the gig, but it's cancelled. My bro and I take the train to Zeeland.
April 30th - Evening - In a 3,5 hour journey we miss the official press conference at 15:45, but rumours float around in the train: 20 wounded, 2 killed. Arriving in the evening at our destination we speed to the TV. The casualties now total 4.
April 30th - Night - The 10 o clock news shows a recap of the day. The deathtoll by now is 5. The show pictures that were taken shortly after the tragedy. One ofthem shows my friend PJ and 2 other people crouched around someone lying on the ground. There's a giant smear of blood on the ground. This disturbes me and I try calling PJ. He doens't answer but I think I should try again.
May 1st - Morning - I get up and head to the nearest Inet cafe. I find out the guy who did it died. Fucker. I write this blog and try to find out about my mates on msn.
I feel like going home. I love being in Zeeland and the whole family goes every year, but I know so many people in Apeldoorn. Friends, their families, my students and you know, other people. I worry about PJ and, although I know most of my acquintences are ok, about what might come as a surprise when reading the Apeldoorn papers on Monday. I might write a Pt 2, but I kinda feel better now I wrote about it, I guess.
