What a week it's been

I live in Birmingham and Monday saw the start of extreme vandalism and violence in the City Centre, which seemed to be copycat behaviour following the rioting in London over the preceding weekend.  News reports explained how the gangs responsible for the violence used social media and Blackberry messaging to arrange where and when they would strike, but Twitter was the place to watch for those who wanted to know what was happening.  The pictures and comments were shocking.  The TV coverage was concentrating on the devastating fire in Croydon, but reports of violence seemed to be coming from major cities all over the UK.  Shop-fronts were smashed in and looted, cars were set alight.  It was hard to take in.

Tuesday saw the fallout from the previous night and the rumours of further trouble causing businesses to close early.  I was supposed to work a 12pm to 8pm shift, but everyone in the building was sent home by 4.30pm. That evening saw the tragic death of three men on the outskirts of the City when all the police had been dragged into the Centre.

Wednesday, there was still tension.  Work packed up at 6pm instead of the usual 8pm.  Walking through the City Centre to get the train was an eerie experience.  The majority of shops were boarded up in anticipation of further disturbance throughout the forthcoming night.  Police were out in force, but it seemed that the worst was over.

Enough's being reported in the news about it, and I'm sure every civilised person feels the same way about the degenerates responsible, but I just wanted to document my experience of the last few days.  My employers ensured that its employees were able to get home to safety away from it all.

Thursday - my Twitter account was hacked.  Very annoying.  A spam message went out to lots of my followers, which was very embarrassing.  I looked at the messages and saw that the exact same message can gone out to a load of people, but I hadn't sent it.  I  strived to warn people with a couple of tweets explaining, after receiving replies from confused/inconvenienced recipients and I tried to message as many as I could to advise them to ignore the previous message that appeared to have been sent by me.  What a hassle!  I've changed my password since, to something obscure, so I hope that's the end of it.  Why me?  Surely there are more exciting people's accounts to hack.

It hasn't been the best week for writing.  Too many distractions.  I've found reading difficult as well.  I read two pages of my book today, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, before I realised that not a word had sunk in.  Thank Goodness it's Friday tomorrow...